Microsoft Outlook has become the standard email client of organisations around the globe. The popular email client is supported by the Exchange server. The server is not only used to communicate via email by the employees, it is also used to store OST files for offline use. Sometimes, due to errors in synchronization between Outlook and the Exchange server lead to file corruption. Recovering data during sync error has been explained below in detail.
Outlook email client allows users to send emails, create contact lists and calenders for enterprise use. The client runs on the Exchange server which stores the mailboxes and other Outlook data. When in use Outlook needs to synchronize with the Exchange in order to sent or receive emails and keep the mailboxes stored in the server up to date. The Exchange server can also be used to recover OST files, lost owing to unprecedented errors. Outlook also allows users to view their emails and attachment even when they are offline or not connected to the server by the means of an offline file or OST files. Sometimes, even when users are able to open and view offline folders in the OST, they fail to synchronize with the Exchange server, resulting in a synchronization error. Users also might encounter other synchronization error messages that appear in the synchronization log in the Deleted items folder. The synchronization error might occur for a number of reasons but usually it happens because the email messages stored in the OST file are damaged or corrupted, preventing the Exchange from synchronizing the file. In order to recover OST files, users would have to fix the errors that are causing the failed synchronization in the first place. Microsoft offers the OST Integrity Repair Tool, which allows users to solve the synchronization error messages and repair most of the OST files. The OST Integrity Repair Tool (Scanost.exe) allows users to scan the OST files to check them for errors that are preventing the Exchange server from synchronization and fix them. The tool is strictly meant for scanning and repairing only OST files. What the repair tool does is, it scans the mailboxes stored in the OST files and the mailboxes stored on the Exchange. It then locates the differences between the two and then tries to make them work together by correcting the differences. Keep in mind, that the OST Integrity Repair Tool does not change the mailboxes that are running on the Exchanger server. Even more, the tool also keeps a log of the differences it found between the OST files and the mailbox on the Exchange server. The log can be accessed and viewed from the ‘Deleted Items’ folder. The log also contains the details of the errors that were not able to be fixed by the repair tool. Before starting to recover OST files on the Exchange server by running the tool, users would first have to make sure that they connected with Exchange. OST Integrity Repair Tool needs to have the Exchange server online before it starts scanning and comparing the files on the OST and the mailbox stored on the server. After connecting the Exchange server, exit the Outlook application and double-click on the ‘Scanost.exe’ which can be found at ‘drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12’. If the user has set Outlook to prompt for a ‘Profile Name’, then the tool would to do so as well, in the beginning. Select the name of the profile where the OST file is located from the ‘Profile Name’ list. After selecting the desired choices and checking the ‘Repair Error’ box, click on ‘Begin Scan’ to start the process. If the OST Integrity Tool fails to recover the OST file or refrains from resolving the error, then users can also use the DataNumen Exchange Recovery tool to fix the problem.