Restoring Outlook from backup of OST

[LoztInSpace]

MS Outlook for Office 365 MSO (16.0.12228.20100) 32 bit (monthly subscription)
Windows 10 Pro

By mistake I seem to have permanently deleted an important Outlook Task. It is not in any folders on my desktop Outlook or in Outlook.com
I do perform a nightly backup (Acronis) which includes the contents of C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

After faithfully backing up each night, I now realize for the first time, the ease of temporarily loading an alternate PST, saving an item to file and then restoring to the current Outlook, does not work the same way.

Is my backup of any value?

 

[Vincenzo]

Here's a link to a thread where Diane gave me some info on this. See her reply #6 about testing the backup.

Scheduled backup of imap account

Is there a way to have regular scheduled backup of an imap account emails made to a local drive? Outlook 2016 Thanks

forums.slipstick.com

Make sure you are offline when you do it.
I assume you would have to have create a pst file in a temporary account hold the items that you copy over.
Diane will probably offer more info here soon.

 

[LoztInSpace]

Thanks very much!
The issue with the inaccessibility of the OST files got by me and I'm not sure I understand how MS expected the average user to manage Outlook IMAP backups.
So should I assume that my missing Task is not recoverable?
Also, can you also recommend a 3p solution that can do a nightly Outlook backup?

 

[Vincenzo]

I think it may be recoverable from the backup, but I've not yet tried it so I would be guessing.
I'd suggest wait til Diane is back, I expect she could give you more info.
If you are under a time crunch, I could try to help. but first check out post #6 in the link I gave above.

 

[Lewis-H]

Have you followed these steps while creating a backup file?

1. Open Microsoft Outlook.
2. Click the File menu and select 'Open & Export' and click on Import/Export from the available options.
3. From the Import and Export wizard, click Export to a file and select the file format option – PST from the suggested storage options.

If no, then I am afraid your backup was not successfully generated. You can contact the support team, they might help you with some solutions.

Regards,
Lewis
Tech-Consultant
apps4rent | o365cloudexperts

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Thanks very much!
The issue with the inaccessibility of the OST files got by me and I'm not sure I understand how MS expected the average user to manage Outlook IMAP backups.
So should I assume that my missing Task is not recoverable?
Also, can you also recommend a 3p solution that can do a nightly Outlook backup?

You shouldn't need to backup an imap data file - everything is on the server. You have two options if you want a backup - export to a pst or also export the profile from the registry. If you restore the registry, you can usually open the ost in the restored profile.

Otherwise, if you need content out of it, you will need 3rd party software. I have a list of trusted software here. (ost to pst software is popular with spammers).

Convert an Exchange or IMAP .OST to a .PST

How to convert an ost file to pst file in order to open it in an Outlook profile.

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