How to resolve synchronization issues while syncing your Exchange mailbox with .ost files in Outlook?

When a Microsoft Exchange mailbox account is configured by a user in MS Outlook, an OST file is automatically created with the extension .ost. This .ost file is popularly known as Offline folder and it allows user to access the exchanged emails even when the network connection with the server is down or unavailable.

At times, when the network connection switches from being unavailable to accessible, the server may not be able to sync all the emails in the .ost file which in turn obstructs important mailing functions like sending and receiving of messages, deletion of mails etc. In other words, synchronization issues may arise that can lead to sudden crash of the Microsoft Outlook application or may also cause it to hang or slowdown to a considerable extent.

Quick Workarounds to resolve synchronization issues with your Exchange mailbox server

Here are some of the quick workarounds to resolve synchronization issues with your exchange mailbox server –

1.Check the synchronization of Offline Folders

First of all, make sure to find out whether the offline folders are correctly synchronized or not. This can be done by following the below steps –

Right click the folder that needs to be verified and go to Properties. In the Properties window, search for the synchronization tab and click it. If you don’t find the synchronization tab, chances are that you might not have set up your profile to use offline folders. Under the “Statistics” of the folder, verify the “Last Synchronized” field that displays the date and check the number of items that the server folder and the offline folder possesses. Note: If the synchronization is working properly, you will figure out that the number of items in both the server folder and the offline folder will be same. If the synchronization is not working properly, it means that you have some problem in profile settings.

2. Use OST Integrity Check Tool

The OST Integrity Check tool is an inbuilt tool that runs only on the .ost files. This functionality can quickly eliminate all synchronization problems by recovering the lost information after scanning the .ost file on your system and comparing mailbox items/folders via the scan log which resides in the “Deleted Items” folder. If you’re having Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 running in your system, you need to use the OST Integrity Check tool – Scanost.exe file to verify whether your .OST file has synchronization problems. If you have Outlook 2010 or other latest MS Outlook version installed in your system, you may not find the OST Integrity Check tool. If a particular folder has synchronization issues, you just need to synchronize that folder again in the Microsoft Outlook application that you’re running. For doing this, simply right click on the folder and go to Properties. And after that, click Clear Offline Items and click ok. Look out for the Send/Receive tab in the Outlook 2010 ribbon and click it. Next, click Update folder option.

3. Reconstruct your .ost File