Efficient Ways of Working With Microsoft Exchange Offline Folder (OST) Files

While Microsoft Exchange Servers offer a wide range of information services, having to stay connected while you are working on your data can create problems. For example, network interruptions are a common cause for loss of connectivity to the mailboxes stored on the server and can lead to corruption of data. Though recovery tools can be used to repair files that have small levels of corruption, if such interruptions happen frequently, the damage to the data may be more serious and could result in loss of data. Of course, you would also be losing precious time every time a connection is interrupted and you have to wait till the connectivity is restored. Instead of working online at all times, risking damage to the exchange data and then having to carry out an exchange recovery, you might want to try working with Outlook Offline Folders or OST files.

Using the Offline Storage Folders or OST files, you can easily work with the contents of the Exchange Server folders even if you are not connected to the server. For example, you would read your mails, compose messages, note down appointments, send out group requests and much more. All these changes would be noted down in the Offline Storage Folders. The next time you are connected to the server actually storing your mailboxes, all the changes will be synchronized, mails that are queued to be sent will be sent and so on. If there is any damage to the OST files due to hardware or software problems, it is easier to carry out an exchange recovery on these files and restore data.

Typically, Outlook stores the offline data in Offline Storage Folders (OST files) located at WindowsLocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook. You should also be aware that similar to personal storage folders (PST files), you could compact OST files to increase the efficiency of Outlook and to save space.

The way the offline storage folders work is as follows. When you first create the OST files using Outlook, they are just a mirror image of the folders and of the exchange data stored on the Microsoft Exchange server. When you decide to work offline, you can work with the contents of the OST file just as you would with online folders. In other words, you would move items placed in your offline Inbox, send messages by placing them in the offline Outbox and so on. On the other hand, your online folder on the Exchange server will continue to receive new messages.

When you connect to the server the next time and synchronize the two folders, the items will be moved in the online folder, messages will actually be sent and new messages will be seen in your folder. Thus all the changes are synchronized in both sets of folders.