Fix Cannot Open Outlook 2016 OST File Error Easily

Resolve Cannot Open Outlook 2016 OST File Error

Microsoft Outlook is a full-featured and widely used email client. When this application is used with exchange all the mailbox data is stored on the OST aka offline storage table file format. This file is exactly the replica of the mailbox items stored on the Exchange server. Corruption is a common problem faced by Microsoft Outlook users. These corruption issues cause immense inconvenience to Outlook users. Let us understand with the help problem faced by Outlook users

“Hello everyone! All of a sudden when I try to open Outlook application I got an error message cannot open the OST file Outlook. When I clicked OK the error message closes. I think my OST file has been corrupted. But this OST file contains my most crucial data. Can anyone tell how to access the OST file items in this situation”.

In case if you are also facing the above situation or your OST file is corrupted or damaged then this article is for you. This post will be going to help you to understand the potential reasons which cause corruption in the OST file. Also to resolve this cannot open Outlook 2016 OST file error. We will discuss the manual as well as an automated method to resolve this issue. Before proceeding to the solutions part let us discuss the reasons first,

Know The Reasons Which Causes Corruption in The OST File

OST file corruption is a common problem when unavoidable circumstances can happen. Here are the reasons for this OST file corruption issue.

1. Virus or Malware Intrusion.
2. Abnormal Outlook termination.
3. Sudden power failure issues.
4. Due to large-sized OST files.
5. Abrupt network connection.
6. data storage device failure.
7. Incompatible Outlook plugins.

Manual Method to Resolve Cannot Open Outlook 2016 OST File Error

Also Read: Know How to convert OST to PST manually 

In case if you won't be able to access the OST file, then there are chances of the OST file corruption problem. In that case, the user can try the inbox repair tool Scanpst.exe to repair the OST file data. This utility helps to resolve only minor glitches of this OST files. For Outlook 2010 and the above versions, the user can use Scanpst.exe to repair the Outlook data files. But in case if you are using below 2007 versions then you have to use Scanost.exe ( Integrity checker utility) to resolve corruption issues of the OST file.

1. First Exit the Outlook application and Browse the Scanpst.exe.

2. Now Open Scanpst.exe.
3. Select the browse option and select the OST file and click on the Start button.
4. If the scan finds errors choose the repair option to fix the errors.

Note: This utility can work if a minor level of corruption is present in the OST file. If the user is unable to repair the OST file then the user can choose the automated solution to resolve this issue.

Expert Solution to Resolve Cannot Open Outlook 2016 OST File Error

The user can try the above-discussed method to resolve this issue, but in case if you are still facing any problem then the user can take the help of OST to PST Converter Application. With the help of this utility the user can easily perform the OST to the PST migration process, Also it provides various options to export the OST file data to Outlook PST / EML / MSG / PDF / HTML. Also, this application will help the user to open the corrupted OST file. This is a standalone application that doesn't require Microsoft Outlook Application to perform the conversion process. For complete details, the user can try the demo version of this application.

Conclusion

Sometimes Microsoft Outlook users have to face cannot open Outlook 2016 OST file error issue. Due to this, the user won't be able to access the OST file mailbox items. In this article, we have given several reasons for this error. So to resolve this issue the user can try the Scanpst.exe to repair the OST file data, but this method has major limitations. It will help to resolve only minor level corruption problems. In that case, it better to take the help OST to PST Converter.