Discussion on:

"...outlook.ost could not be accessed"

We have a user who, when he tries to delete or move any emails from his inbox the following message appears:

The file C:\Documents and Settings\username\local settings\application data\Microsoft\outlook\outlook.ost could not be accessed.

I'm not really the "IT guy" as such but things like this tend to come my way as I have a bit of 'enthusiasts' knowledge and our actual IT support is in another country, so any and all suggestions welcome.

I Googled the above message but it returns hardly any exact matches.

Cheers

It's possible that the files have been moved to a different location or something similar.

The user in question will also need either a Power User Account or an Admin Account as without these they will be unable to perform this action.

Depending on how the LAN is setup you could have some problems if there are GP's put in place to prevent this type of thing happening or if the actual local machine isn't actually downloading from the Exchange Server. If the latter is the case you'll have to enable this user to download locally and then they will be able to move the necessary files around if they have the correct rights.

I hope that is of some help to start pointing you in the right direction.

Col

Check for the OST file n the Outlook folder under Programs folder. You can get your ost fiel data back using ost conversion to pst tools

Access OST File quickly Try ( SysTools OST Recovery ) Tool to Convert OST File into PST Format

What happens if you run Outlook in non-cached mode? Does the problem also happen in OWA (Outlook Web Access)?

If you get the same problem in cached or OWA then you will have to check with your Exchange (e-mail) administrator as there could be somethiing wrong with the users mailbox.

If you do not see the problem in OWA or if running Outlook in non-cached mode then try renaming the OST file and then let Outlook recreate it; you might have a corrupt local cache file.

1. Not having the correct user priveliges could be the cause. Ask the administrator to check the user rights for that particular user.
2. Maybe the ost file is hidden. Set the view to "view all files and folders"

It's possible the .ost file could be corrupt, especially if it gets to be very large. You can just deleted the .ost file and Outlook will create a new one with the mail that is cached on the Exchange server.