Outlook Ost File Location

[Liisa Komara]

Outlooksaves backup information in a variety of different locations. Depending on what type of account you have, you can back up your emails, your personal address book, your navigation pane settings, your signatures, templates, and more.

If you're using a Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft 365, or Outlook.com account, your email messages are backed up on your email server. In most cases, you won't have a Personal Folders file (.pst) for these types of accounts.

In order to view some of the backup files for Outlook, you'll need to unhide system folders and file name extensions. For information on how to perform that task, see How to unhide folders and file name extensions.

For Microsoft 365 accounts, Exchange accounts, or Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, or Live.com accounts not accessed by POP or IMAP, you won't have a Personal Folders (.pst) file. You may have an Offline Folders (.ost) file, but that file is automatically recreated by Outlook when you add a new email account. You can't move that file from one computer to another.

For Microsoft 365 accounts, Exchange accounts, or Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, or Live.com accounts not accessed by POP or IMAP, the following information can be transferred from one computer to another.

Stationery can be stored in two different locations depending on whether you have the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Outlook installed. You can find the various files that make up your Outlook stationery in one of the following locations:

Your send and receive settings include which accounts are checked at what frequency. You can find your send and receive settings file in one of the following locations. The file will have an .srs extension.

If you have a POP account, all of your information is already stored in a Personal Folders (.pst) file. You can move this file to a new computer and retain your information. Moving a .pst file from one computer to another doesn't transfer your email account settings. If you need to set up Outlook on a new computer, copy your .pst file from the old computer, then set up your email account on your new computer.

You can then open the .pst file from the new computer. The location of your .pst file depends on your version of Outlook, your version of Windows, and how you set up your account or created the .pst file. You can find your .pst file in one of the following locations:

You can view work hours and location for yourself and others in classic Outlook, but you need to set them up with a work or school account using new Outlook or Outlook on the web following the steps below. Not sure of what version you're using? See What version of Outlook do I have?

When you set this up, others will see what days you're working remote and what days you'll be in the office. You also have the option to share your exact work location to others, for example, if your organization has multiple buildings, you can specify exactly which building you'll be in.

When you need to change your recurring work plan on a particular day or a few days that week, for example, you planned to work remote, but decide to go in the office for an in-person meetings, use the Outlook Calendar to make the updates.

Select the circle icon with your profile picture and change the work location. The new location will be applied to your work hours for the remainder of the day and reflected in both Outlook and Teams. You can also express specifically which building location you are working from on a given day.

This new experience replaces the legacy work hours experience, but legacy work hours will continue to be supported. Because the legacy experience supports only a single start time and end time for the entire work week, the legacy work hours will approximate the modern work hours and location.

Until a user sets up modern working hours, changes to legacy working hours will also update the times in their modern working hours. However, once a user sets up (or updates) their modern working hours, future changes to legacy working hours will not propagate and overwrite the modern working hours.

The exception to this rule is working hours time zone. Whenever the legacy working hours time zone changes, it will update the time zone for the modern working hours. This ensures that others can view accurate availability if someone on a legacy client travels across time zones.

Outlook is part of your daily routine. You use it to send email messages, to set up calendar events, and to create tasks and other items. But do you wonder how and where all those items are stored? For Microsoft 365, Exchange, and Outlook.com accounts, all of your information is stored on the server, but an offline copy is also stored on your local computer in an Offline Outlook Data File (.ost).

Note: If your organization has policies in place that archive email messages automatically, your older email messages, calendar events, and tasks might be stored in an archive Outlook Data File (.pst). Even if your account uses an offline Outlook Data File (.ost) for all of its day-to-day information, you may still have an archive.pst file that contains older information.

Once you open the Outlook Data File (.pst), the file will appear in your folder pane. Usually you'll find it at the bottom of the list of folders. The following image is an example. The name of your Outlook Data File (.pst) will likely not be outlook data file. Usually, the name is based on the account the file is associated with. For example, an Outlook Data File for the account Cheryl.P...@yahoo.com will likely be named Cheryl Parsons or Cheryl.P...@yahoo.com.

Personal Storage Table or PST is an Outlook data file that stores mail items, such as emails, contacts, attachments, calendar items, etc. The file is created by Outlook when you sign in or add a POP3 email account, such as Gmail, Hotmail, etc. By default, the PST file is stored at a location that varies based on the Outlook and Windows version. Thus, there's no universal path that you may browse to locate or find the PST file. However, you can change the PST file location or relocate it to a different location on your system.

However, if you don't have access to Outlook and can't find the PST file at the default location, use Stellar PST file recovery software to find the PST file location and export the mail items to a new PST file. The software automatically fetches and lists PST files from the default location. It also provides an option to find PST files stored anywhere on your system.

Symbolic Link or .symlink is a reference to another file or directory, redirecting the application to the new location automatically. You can use it to change the PST file location without breaking anything.

You may also move the PST file without creating a .symlink. However, this will require you to perform additional steps to prevent Outlook errors and issues in sending or receiving new emails. The steps are as follows:

This is an advanced method recommended for pro users. Registry Editor is a powerful tool that you shouldn't use unnecessarily, especially when you don't know how to use it. Any mistake in making changes to the registry key can render your system unusable or lead to data loss.

Your Outlook client will create a PST file for POP3 email accounts at the new location. However, it will keep creating the OST file for IMAP, Exchange, Office 365, or Outlook.com accounts at the default location. If you want to change that as well, create the ForceOSTPath key.

Locating a PST file isn't a complex task. If you know your Windows and Outlook version, you can refer to the table in this article to find the PST file. You may also use Outlook options to find the PST file location.

You can also change the PST file location to a different volume, partition, folder, or network storage by modifying the registry key, creating a symbolic link, or moving the PST and setting up the new path through the Outlook client.

Storing PST to network storage may result in PST corruption, and thus, you should avoid it unless there's no other option. You can maintain a regular backup to prevent data loss due to corruption. You can use an Outlook PST recovery tool to repair damaged or corrupt PST files and export the recovered mail items to a new PST file, live Exchange, or Office 365.

My colleague showed me on her Outlook Calendar on desktop app (not New Outlook) that the Working Hours and Locations icons are now showing in her Calendar and Scheduling Assistant, but I cannot see the icons in my Calendar, though they have been set up in OWA and also show in Teams. We checked all our settings, addins, version number etc. and everything is identical. She has been able to see the icons since January. I've looked at online resources which all reference to New Outlook or OWA but not the Desktop application. Updates are run every 3-4 weeks so everything is up to date.

My Outlook version is slightly different from yours. However, the work hours and location (WHL) icons are not displayed on my Outlook desktop. They are only visible in the New Outlook and web versions, the same as you.

Based on the roadmap details, Microsoft started rolling out WHL enhancements for New Outlook and Web versions in March 2024. I suspect the functionality was removed from the classic app, but I have not seen any supporting documentation.

Well some good news! This morning I returned from holiday and an Office update to find that Working Locations are now showing on my Outlook desktop client in the Scheduling Assistant and in the Calendar. There doesn't seem to be any reference to this as a feature update on the Release Notes though. Anyways, am I being weird for saying how happy I was to see this? I don't think I've been this happy to see a feature change for quite some time! Now, I REALLY don't want to be moving to the new Outlook desktop.

I am glad that you are happy about the WLH feature. I don't believe Classic Outlook users have all the wonderful features that WHL has to offer. After my investigation, I will clarify the following questions. Also, it could be that I don't have the updates in classic yet. Nevertheless, here is what I understand.

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