How to Fix the Outlook Error: “Something is wrong with your OST file?”

Summary: The Outlook error “Something is wrong with your OST file” prevents users from accessing their email account and sending/receiving emails. In this blog, you will learn the reasons that may lead to the error message in Outlook and the solutions to troubleshoot and fix the error. You’ll also learn about a third-party OST converter software that can help recover data from inaccessible or orphaned OST file.

Microsoft is aware of frequent issues and errors that users encounter while using the email client and thus, provides a utility called Inbox Repair Tool (ScanPST.exe) with all Outlook versions. The utility helps Outlook users to fix inconsistent Outlook data files, such as OST, and resolve common errors. One of the common errors is “Something is wrong with your OST file.” The complete error message reads as follows:

“Something is wrong with one of your Outlook data files and Outlook needs to close. Outlook might be able to fix your file. Click OK to run the Inbox Repair Tool.”

The error message pops up when you try to open Outlook client to access the email account. However, this error prevents you from accessing the mailbox. When you click OK, it opens the built-in Inbox Repair Tool to repair the Outlook data file (OST) file.

You can click Start, followed by the Repair option to repair the Outlook OST file and resolve the error. However, if you see this error message popping up again and again, there could be some other issues with your Outlook client, profile, or OST file that can’t be resolved with the help of the Inbox Repair Tool.

In this article, we have shared the reasons that can lead to this error and the solutions to resolve it without losing a single mail item.

Reasons for Something is Wrong with your OST File Error

The error message may occur due to various underlying issues with the system, Outlook client, or the Outlook data file. Usually, the error occurs due to Outlook OST file corruption or reasons, such as:

Solutions to Resolve Something is Wrong with your OST File Error

Below are a few solutions that you can follow to troubleshoot and fix the error and get back access to all your emails and other mail items.

Find and Remove Faulty Add-Ins

An incompatible or faulty add-in in Outlook can easily cause damage to your Outlook profile or data file (OST), leading to this error. To ensure the error isn’t caused by add-ins, you can start MS Outlook in Safe Mode and then disable all add-ins by following these steps:

If the error was caused by a faulty add-in, it should be resolved now. If it did, enable one add-in at a time and restart Outlook to check which add-in is causing the error. Once found, remove the add-in from Outlook to permanently fix the issue.

Edit Registry Keys

Editing Registry Keys could lead to severe issues in your Windows system. Thus, you must follow the below steps carefully and ensure you make changes to the keys as mentioned in the below steps.

Tip: You can manually browse the location or copy the location from above (change xx.0 with your version) to open the location directly.

NOTE: The registry key for both Outlook data files (OST and PST) is PST. Any changes made to this location affect both OST and PST files. So don’t get confused about why we are deleting registry values from the PST location.

The error “Something is wrong with your OST file” may be fixed after performing these steps. However, if you don’t find the two keys mentioned above, continue following the next solutions.

Repair MS Office Installation

Sometimes, issues with the Microsoft Outlook or Office program also trigger such errors. To ensure this isn’t a result of some issues with the Microsoft Outlook client, try repairing the MS Office by following these steps:

This will fix any issue with the program files of the Outlook client and may help fix the error.

Setup a New Outlook Profile

Setting up your email account under a new Outlook profile can also help fix the error if caused by a corrupt or damaged profile. Follow these steps to create a new profile and configure it.

Caution: Creating a new profile replaces your default OST file with a new OST. Refer to the below method to learn how to locate the OST file and create a backup before setting up a new profile.

Rebuild OST File

If the error can’t be resolved by following any of the solutions mentioned above, you can try recreating or rebuilding a new Outlook data file (OST). For this, you need to delete your current OST file from the default location. It is important to note here that any mail items that are in the current OST file that didn’t sync with the mailbox server will be permanently lost. If you are not sure and want to avoid permanent loss, follow these steps to back up and delete the OST file.

As soon as Outlook starts, it looks for the Outlook data file (OST) at the default location. If the OST file is not found at the location, Outlook creates a new OST file at the same default location and starts synchronizing the mail items from the server.

This may take a while to complete, depending on your network speed and the mailbox size.

Once you see ‘All folders are up to date’ in the Outlook status bar at the bottom, check all mail folders to ensure all mail items are available. If you don’t find your recent mail items, you can use an OST to PST converter tool to convert the backup OST file into PST format.

Then import the converted PST file into your Outlook via the Import Export wizard and restore the missing mail items. You may also directly export the mail items to your Outlook profile or mailbox on live Exchange Server or Office 365 with complete integrity. Besides, you can also use the OST to PST Conversion tool to extract mail items from any inaccessible, orphaned, or encrypted OST file and export them to PST, Office 365, or live Exchange.

Conclusion

You can fix the error “Something is wrong with your OST file” by repairing the Outlook data file (OST) using the Inbox Repair Tool. However, it may not work in most cases where the OST is larger than 2 GB or has severe errors in the tree structure. Besides, the error may trigger again after some time. In such cases, you can follow the solutions discussed in the guide to permanently resolve the error.

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