Troubleshooting "Unable to Expand Error" in OST file

An OST (Offline Storage Table) file is a type of file that is used in Microsoft Outlook to store the online mail box files on local systems and synchronize it when internet connection resumes. Ost file is especially used in the organizations having very unreliable Internet connectivity. You can work on the OST file in offline mode and gets synchronized with mailbox exchange sever when the internet connection is available.

But still sometimes there may be some problems when the synchronization with the mail box exchange server takes place. Due to this problem, the OST file can be corrupted. In these cases, you have to repair the OST file using the Inbox Repair Tool. But, if the inbox repair tool can not resolve your problem then you should use a third-party OST to PST conversion software to convert OST file to its PST version.

Suppose when you try to synchronize an OST file in Outlook 2003, but the synchronization can not be achieved and the following message is displayed.

"Unable to expand the folder. The set of folders could not be opened. Errors could have been detected in the file abc.ost. Quit all mail-enabled applications, and then use the Inbox Repair Tool."

here, abc.ost is the offline folder (OST) file.

Cause: The basic cause of this error message is that the OST file has not been synchronized properlyand hence gets damaged or corrupted.And now outlook is unable to process this corrupted or damaged version of the OST file.

Resolution: To resolve this problem, you should use the Inbox Repair Tool utility that is in-built with MS outlook. But, before using the Inbox repair repair tool you should have a backup of the OST file so that the further damage can be avoided.

To repair the OST file, the following steps should be performed:

# Click Run on the Start menu.
# Type on the run prompt opened drive:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\LocaleID\scanpst.exe and press Enter.
# To change the options for logging errors during the scanning process, click Options. If you choose Replace log or Append to log, the log file is saved to the same directory in which the OST file is saved.
# Click Start.
# Select Make a backup of scanned file before repairing check box when the file scan is completed.
# Click Repair.

The above mentioned steps should repair the OST file. But, if the problem is not resolved by the inbox repair tool then you should use a third party OST-PST conversion software to convert OST file to its PST version.Such tools do not over right the original file during OST to PST conversion

OST to PST Converter is an OST to PST converter that efficiently convert OST file to its PST version. It is able to recover various Outlook objects like emails, contacts, tasks, etc. In addition, it preserves the formatting in the RTF and HTML messages. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and Server 2000. And is easy to use as having outlook resembling GUI.

How to Access all Data and Mails in an Unusable or Corrupted OST File

When you have an orphaned OST file which contains your data but is either corrupt or unusable due to various reasons, the problem here is how to access the data in it. This corrupted or inaccessible OST file is of no use. Suppose in a situation you have an OST file that gets unusable after user account and mailbox deleted from the previous server.

Moreover, you will see the following alert message when you try to export the data contained in OST file into PST file.

"Attempting to view permissions in Outlook: Some permission could not be displayed. Permission information for this folder could not be accessed."

This is really a drasting problem as all of your important mails and other data are in an unusable file. The major question is that how to open this OST file in MS Outlook.

But you need not to worry, technology has the answer of this question i.e. use an efficient, easy to use and affordable tool that converts all your important data contained in the corrupted OST file into its equivalent PST version which you can access in MS Outlook.

As their is no other way to access your data in corrupted OST file without converting it into PST file. First convert OST file in PST file and save it as a PST file then you can access all your data in MS Outlook

Hence for solving the above mentioned problem you only need to have an OST to PST conversion tool. To evaluate the performance and efficiency of the software you can download the free evaluation version and get familier with the functionality and performance of such conversion tools.