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Recover Metadata and Attachments from OST Files

Every email carries more than just its content, it includes critical details that give the message context and credibility. Email metadata stores information such as headers, subject lines, sender and recipient details, timestamps, and CC/BCC fields, while attachments preserve the full context of each message. When an OST file becomes inaccessible due to profile issues, corruption, or file-level damage, recovering this data becomes difficult. In such situations, Outlook’s built-in export options are often limited and may miss important metadata or attachments, leading to incomplete and unreliable backups.

To overcome these limitations, EdbMails OST to PST Converter provides a comprehensive solution for recovering mailbox data from orphaned, encrypted, or damaged OST files. The tool ensures that complete metadata and attachments are preserved, along with the original folder structure, formatting, and message integrity, making the exported PST files fully compatible with Outlook.

Exchange mailbox backup using OST

In the guide below, we’ll walk you through the recovery process step by step using EdbMails. From loading your OST file and previewing its contents to applying filters and exporting selected items, this guide helps ensure your data is accurately restored and ready for access or migration without any loss.

Common Uses of Metadata and Attachments in emails

Identifying Sender and Recipient Details: Email metadata stores critical information such as sender address, recipient address, CC, BCC, and routing details. This data is essential for understanding who sent the email and who received it, especially in business communication. EdbMails preserves complete sender and recipient metadata while exporting OST data to PST, ensuring no communication details are lost.
Compliance, Verification, and Legal Requirements: Metadata and attachments are often required for audits, compliance checks, and legal investigations. They help verify email authenticity, timelines, and message ownership. EdbMails retains original headers, timestamps, and attachments, making exported PST files suitable for compliance and legal review.
Maintaining Accurate Email Records: Emails and their attachments act as official records. Metadata such as sent time, received time, and message ID is useful when verifying when a message was exchanged. EdbMails ensures all metadata fields are accurately retained during OST to PST conversion for reliable record keeping.
Advanced Search and Selective Export: Metadata makes it easier to locate emails using filters like sender name, recipient address, subject, date, or attachment name. This is especially useful in large mailboxes. EdbMails supports selective export based on metadata, allowing users to find and export only required emails or folders.
Spam Analysis: Email headers and metadata help distinguish legitimate emails from spam by identifying the source and routing path of a message. EdbMails fully recovers email headers and metadata, enabling accurate analysis and traceability of emails after export.

EdbMails OST to PST converter tool recovers and exports all the metadata information from OST to PST thus maintaining data consistency. You can save background images, attachments (with all extensions), appointments, meeting schedules, from inaccessible OST files and export them to PST. You no longer have to worry about data consistency and integrity with EdbMails.

How to convert OST to PST from any Outlook version?
- Use EdbMails OST to PST Converter to convert OST files to PST quickly and easily, regardless of the Outlook version.
- It supports all major Outlook versions, including Outlook 2021, 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, and 2003, ensuring seamless data transfer while preserving data integrity throughout the conversion process.
- EdbMails retains everything from special characters and metadata to calendar entries, emails, and folder structures, ensuring no data is lost.
- One of the standout features of EdbMails is its ability to convert OST files from older Outlook versions in a single, simple process, without the need for complex PowerShell scripts or technical expertise.
- Plus, you can easily apply filters to selectively export emails and other items, giving you full control over the data you want to recover.
Steps to extract metadata and attachments from OST to PST
Step 1: Download and install EdbMails OST to PST converter tool
- Download and install the EdbMails application on any Windows-based computer.
- Open the EdbMails application
- Enter your email address and password, then click ‘Login’. If you don’t have an account, click ‘Start Your Free Trial’ to continue using the trial version.
  Note: The Free Trial version lets you explore the software features and export up to 30 items from each and every folder. To unlock full functionality, you need to purchase a valid license from the EdbMails website.
  Click here to purchase the license from the EdbMails website.
  After completing the purchase, close and relaunch the EdbMails application, then login using the same email address and password used during the purchase to activate your license.
- Select ‘OST Recovery and Migration’.
- Select ‘OST to PST’.
- You can retain the default job name or click the ‘New Job’ button to change the job name.
- Then click 'Next' to continue.
Step 2: Select the OST file containing your mailbox data
- Click ‘Browse for OST file'.
- Select the offline OST file from your local drive, then click the ‘Next’ button to continue. You can also share the OST file on a network with read and write permissions assigned.
- Click ‘Browse’.
- Choose the destination folder for saving the exported PST files and make sure the drive has sufficient free space to accommodate the data.
- EdbMails scans the offline OST file and recovers mailbox data, even when the file is damaged or corrupted. During the process, the tool analyzes the file structure and contents to extract emails and other mailbox items. The time required depends on the file size and the level of corruption, so wait until the scan completes to ensure full recovery.
- After the recovery process is completed, the OST file data is displayed in the application interface with its full folder and subfolder hierarchy. You can expand any folder or subfolder to view its contents. When you select a folder—such as Emails, Contacts, Notes, Tasks, or Calendar—the application lists all the items within it and displays a detailed preview of the selected content on the right side of the interface. EdbMails OST to PST Converter allows you to open an OST file without Outlook.
Step 3: Preview and select the mailbox
- Select the required mailboxes/folders and click the ‘Next’ button.
  
  EdbMails allows you to apply filters to customize your export process. For example, you can use date filters to export items within a specific date range. To do this, go to the ‘General’ tab on the left side and then click the ‘Settings’ tab at the top right.
  Click here to learn more about setting date filters for OST to PST conversion.
Step 4: Export the rebuilt OST file to PST
- EdbMails OST to PST converter ensures fast and accurate conversion of offline OST files to PST format. Review the selected mailboxes and folders for the export operation, ensure the ‘Action’ is set to ‘Export’, and then click the ‘Start Export’ button to begin the export process.
- The export process has started, and you can track its progress through the status bar. The interface shows the mailbox and folder being exported, the destination PST file location, and the count of items successfully exported. When the export is complete, EdbMails will display a message confirming that the operation has finished.
- Once the export is complete, you can import the PST file into Outlook and access all attachments as usual. Additionally, EdbMails allows you to extract individual mail items and save them in HTML, EML, or MHT formats for flexible viewing and archiving.