Changing Microsoft Outlook OST File Location

Changing the location of a Microsoft Outlook Exchange offline cache data file, those ending with a file extension of “.OST”,  is not as straight forward as changing the file location of an Outlook “.PST” file. However, it is possible and this article will cover how to do so.

 

Change the Location of Outlook OST File

In short, you’ll need to create a new Outlook Profile and, when setting up the profile email account, setting the location of the .ost file to the new desired location.

Begin by closing Outlook and ensure that you’ve created a full system backup to revert to should something go wrong.

Next, copy your existing .ost file to the new location that you want to use. If you want to create a new .ost file instead, you can skip this step.

Open Control Panel, and type mail to search for the Mail settings and open it. If there are two Mail items, choose the one that is labeled with your version of Outlook, such as Outlook 2013 or Outlook 15 for Outlook 2013, or Outlook 2016 or Outlook 16 for Outlook 2016.

Select Show Profiles then select Add. In the Profile Name box, type the name that you want to use for the new email profile, and then select OK.

Select Next after Outlook finds your account information and after Outlook finishes setting up your account, select the Change account settings option, and then select Next.

In the Server Settings section, select More Settings and on the Advanced tab, select Outlook Data File Settings

Select Browse, to locate the .ost file you copied and select Open. If you want to create a new .ost file, browse to the location where you want to save the new .ost file, type the file name that you want to use, and then select Open. Outlook will create the new .ost file.

Select Finish to finish the setup for your email account.

Now you can specify which Outlook Profile you want to open by default by going back to Control Panel, and then Mail.

Select Always use this profile and then select the newly created profile and select OK.

 

Conclusion

I welcome your thoughts, questions or suggestions on my article on how to change the location of the Outlook OST file or Exchange offline cache data file.

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