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Error : the set of folders cannot be opened. the file .ost is in use and cannot be accessed
Some of the common reasons for such queries are as follows:
If you are having issues with MS Outlook, or if you are unable to access an Outlook OST file, or if the.ost file cannot be opened, you should try the following solutions. If you want a direct method, you can go with EdbMails OST recovery and converter tool to fix all of the errors and convert the OST file to PST.
The most likely reason for the error is that your OST file is orphaned or damaged (corrupted) as a result of improper synchronization with your online email account. This renders the OST file inaccessible and Outlook throws the error “The file .ost cannot be opened”. Follow some simple methods to resolve the issue.
Steps to perform the task:
If you have Outlook 2010 or later, you will be unable to recover the OST file using ScanOST. In case your offline Outlook Data File (.ost) has local data that is not present on the server, we recommend that you export the data to an Outlook PST file, and then you delete your offline Outlook Data File (.ost). After the data is downloaded from the Exchange server, you can import the Outlook PST file into the new offline Outlook Data File (.ost). During the import, you can exclude any duplicate data from the Outlook PST file.
To export the offline Outlook Data File (.ost) to .pst file follow these steps
If you are using an outdated or an old version of Outlook (such as 2010, 2013), you may encounter such errors. Run an auto repair on Outlook or install the latest version of MS Outlook such as 2016 and 2019 and ensure that you also have the latest updates.
You may get OST file related errors if you’re encountering issues with your Outlook profile. In such cases, remove your Outlook profile and allow Outlook to automatically add and set up a new profile for you.
To remove the Outlook profile, go to File in Outlook > Account Settings > Manage Profiles > Show Profile > Remove the profile.
See how to add a new Outlook profile from the Control panel.
Remember that this method may not completely restore the changes made in your local OST file.
When Outlook fails to open due to virus or malware infection, it makes sense to open it in safe mode and check if you can resolve the OST file opening issue.
Press 'Ctrl +R' on your Windows computer and type 'outlook.exe/safe' to open Outlook in safe mode.
Certain Add-ins may cause conflicts with Outlook and prevent the OST file from opening. The following steps describe how to disable the add-ins.
EdbMails OST to PST converter can safely recover an OST file that is corrupted or fails to open. You can open and view an OST file including emails, contacts, notes, tasks, folders and other data that you want to recover. Download and install the application on your computer to recover and convert your OST files.
Yes!. Although we discussed the manual methods (from 1-6) for recovering the OST and resolving the error, they are not tried and tested for all scenarios. EdbMails is a professional and automated solution for recovering OST from all of the errors listed below, as well as assisting you in migrating your data to Office 365 / Exchange without data loss. You can even recover oversized files and use the various filter options to export only the items you require.
Final Words
When you are accessing Outlook, you may encounter errors such as “The file outlook.ost is in use and cannot be accessed” or “OST file is in use by another application”. The most common cause of such errors is that your OST file is either being used by another application or is most likely corrupted. You can follow the methods described above to recover your data or simply use EdbMails OST converter tool to recover from any Outlook errors.
A simple solution to OST recovery and export
EdbMails is the professional software to recover and convert OST file mailboxes to PST and to migrate it to Office 365 and live Exchange server
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