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Recover IMAP OST File Including Deleted Emails, Contacts, Calendar

  author
Published By Ashwani Tiwari
Tej Pratap Shukla
Approved By Tej Pratap Shukla
Published On December 18th, 2021
Reading Time 6 Minutes Reading

Summary – Are you finding solutions to recover IMAP OST file? Have you lost your important mailbox items from OST file created using IMAP configuration? This article will help you out to resolve the issue and retrieve deleted email messages and contacts from IMAP OST file in simple steps.

Almost all Microsoft Outlook users know what PST and OST files are. These files are basically the repository of the Outlook which stores all the mailbox data of the users. In Outlook 2010 and its earlier versions, for every new profile which was configured using IMAP configuration created two PST files. One file was used to store the email messages and the other file was used to store contacts, calendar, and other mailbox items. However, in the case of Outlook 2013 and its later versions, the profiles which are created using IMAP configuration, only one OST file is created to store all the mailbox data.

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Basically, the primary functioning of the OST file is to save the entire data in the OST file and then that data is backed up to the server automatically. Moreover, the contacts and calendar in Outlook 2013 and 2016 are stored locally i.e. they are not backed up to the server. Thus, if these items are deleted accidentally or by any possible reasons, then the recovery of these mailbox items becomes a great challenge.

Let us understand a user query to understand the scenario in a better way:

I have one customer who is using Microsoft Outlook 2016 to access an IMAP account. Some other users on another system have deleted some email messages on that IMAP account. Just after those emails got deleted, I have taken a copy of that OST file from which the messages were deleted. Now, can anyone help me to recover IMAP OST file data which has been deleted?

Manual Method to Recover IMAP OST File Data

If you have accidentally deleted the email messages from your OST file then you can recover those items from Deleted Items Folder or Trash Folder. To restore those items, you just have to go to either of the folders and move that required item whether it is email, contact or calendar back to your other folders.

Important Note – If your Microsoft Outlook is showing Trash folder and you have deleted the data from that folder as well then you cannot restore that data. But, if you can see Deleted Items folder and you have deleted data from that folder, then there are chances to recover emails from IMAP OST file deleted data.

Recover Data Which is No Longer in Deleted Items Folder

If you are looking for a mailbox item which is not present in the Deleted Items folder, then it can be found in the Recoverable Items folder. This folder is not available in the left pane of the Microsoft Outlook where all other folders are placed. The users have to implement the following steps to recover IMAP OST file data from the Recoverable Items folder:

  • Open Microsoft Outlook and go to the email folder list. Here, click on the Deleted Items Folder.

Important Note – If you don’t see any such folder but see a Trash folder, then your mailbox account does not allow you to restore items which are no longer in the Deleted Items folder.

  • Now, select the Home tab from the top bar (left-hand corner) and then click on Recover Deleted Items from Server.

Important Note – If you don’t see Recover Deleted Items from Server option, then your account does not support the recovery of deleted items.

  • Here, you will see many files which you have removed from Deleted Items folder. Select the item which you want to recover, click Restore Selected Items and then select the OK button.
  • The restored items will be moved to the Deleted Items folder. You can go to that folder and move those items into some other folder.

Limitations of Manual Method

The manual approach discussed in the above segment is simple and easy to execute but it has many limitations associated with it. First of all, if the user’s account displays a Trash folder instead of Deleted Items folder then the users will not be able to recover emails from IMAP OST file data. So, this method is dependent on the account configuration. Moreover, the “Recover Deleted Items from Server” stores the deleted items for a specific period of time. It means that the users also have the time limitation as well to retrieve their lost data.

Expert Solution to Recover IMAP OST File Deleted Data

After discussing the limitations, the users must be looking for a solution which does not have any limitations in it. So, the best approach which is seen until now is the OST Recovery Tool. Using this software, the users can easily recover IMAP OST file deleted data whether it is permanently deleted or not. After performing recovery, the lost items which are recovered are displayed in Red Colour which makes it, even more, easier for the users to recognize the retrieved files.

Moreover, after the successful recovery, the application converts the file into PST format so that it can be accessed in Microsoft Outlook easily. No matter if your account has Deleted Items folder or not, this utility will bring back all your lost items in just a few minutes. You can try the demo version of the tool totally free of the cost to ensure its working.

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Follow the Simple Steps to Recover IMAP OST file of Outlook

  1. Install and Run the Application on your system. After that click on Add file button.

2. Now browse the OST file from your computer.

3. Now Select the Scan Mode option from Quick Scan and Advanced Scan.

4. Preview the Complete OST file emails, Contacts, Calendar and other mailbox items.

5. Select the mailbox items and choose the PST file option. After that browse the destination location to save the mailbox data items,

Conclusion

No matter what the recent version of Microsoft Outlook has made the email communication easier for the users. But, some features prove to be inconvenienced for some of them as retrieval of deleted data has become difficult for the users. So, they look for a solution using which the users can recover IMAP OST file deleted data with ease. Thus, we have discussed an automated software which will help users in the retrieval of lost data.