An Outlook profile stores information about your account, where your email data is saved, and more. You can create multiple profiles in Outlook to separate and manage different email accounts. Sometimes, you need to create a new profile if your current profile becomes corrupted, stops syncing properly or facing any other issues. When a new profile is created, Outlook creates a fresh OST file and synchronizes the mailbox items from the mail server. Situations arise where you need to retrieve emails from an old profile. This article explains some methods that can help you to retrieve emails from an old Outlook file.
Methods to Retrieve Emails from Old Outlook Profile
Below are the methods to you can follow to recover or retrieve emails from an old profile.
Method 1. Reconnect the Profile to Original Account on the Server
If the original account on server (Exchange or Microsoft 365) is still active, you can create a new profile using the same credentials. This allows Outlook to reconnect to the original mailbox on server and download the emails and other items in a new OST file. Follow these steps:
- Close Outlook. Open Control Panel and search for Mail.
- Select Show Profiles. Click Add to create a new profile.
- Enter a name for the new profile.
- Add your original Exchange or Microsoft 365 account by using the same credentials.
- Complete the account setup and authentication.
- Select the new profile as the default profile.
- Open Outlook and wait for the mailbox synchronization to complete.
Now, you can access the emails and other items of your old profile.
Method 2. Convert OST File Associated with Old Profile to PST
If your old Outlook profile contains emails that were not synchronized with the mail server or if the OST file becomes inaccessible, you can convert the OST file to PST format by using an OST to PST converter.
If you’ve an OST file of up to 500 MB, then you can convert it for free by using the online OST converter by Stellar. You just need to launch a web browser, go to the online converter page, upload your OST file, and convert it to PST format.
Once the conversion is complete, you can import the PST file into Outlook to access and retrieve your emails and other mailbox items. It also comes with a Premium plan that allows to convert OST file of up to 5 GB.
This online OST to PST converter service provides features such as:
- It converts OST file to PST without installing any software.
- It follows strict data privacy guidelines as the uploaded OST file and converted PST file are deleted from the servers after 24 hours.
- It maintains the original folder hierarchy and structure after conversion.
- It shows real-time progress of the conversion process.
- It provides preview of mailbox folder structure in HTML format after conversion.
If you need more advanced features or want to convert OST file irrespective of file size, then you can use Stellar Converter for OST – a desktop-based software. This OST to PST converter tool is designed to convert inaccessible and orphaned OST files into PST files. It can save the emails and other mailbox items to other formats, such as MSG, EML, HTML, RTF, and PDF.
Conclusion
Retrieving emails from an old Outlook profile is possible by using the right method. If your Exchange or Microsoft 365 account is still active, you can simply create a new Outlook profile by using the same account credentials. This will automatically download and synchronized mailbox items from the server in a new OST file.
However, if the OST file becomes inaccessible, you can use an advanced OST to PST converter to extract the emails from the OST file and save them in PST format, which can then be imported into Outlook. You can use Stellar Online OST Converter for converting up to 500 MB OST file for free or download Stellar Converter for OST for converting the file without any size restrictions.