Outlook classic best way to back up/restore files to avoid sync problems?

Hi everyone! Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere, I tried looking for the answer myself in the posts already created re: outlook but honestly I'm pretty awful about finding stuff that's right underneath my nose (my search skills suck )

I ran into a problem with Outlook Classic (technically I have Office 2021 running on Windows 11 on my computer but I just use Outlook Classic) ... back when I set up Outlook on Win 11 I successfully imported my rather ancient (I think it was back from the Office/Outlook year 2003 version days!) pst file far as being able to view the events on there (honestly that's all I really care about the calendar function, not worried about emails or anything else ) ...

I'm not sure how the two were related.. maybe it was because I imported the pst file from my secondary "D" drive when I first installed Office 2021, maybe it was because I routinely back up the pst file to the D drive.. but when I accidentally disconnected the sata cable for the "D" hard drive while troubleshooting an issue (trying to find out where a humming sound was coming from) inside my computer and then booted Windows up without realizing Windows essentially would now see the D drive as not being there, Outlook threw a fit and started hollering about sync issues, I believe it was upset about not being able to sync the email address that Outlook demands you associate with it during the set up process. All my tasks vanished from Outlook Classic's calendar.

I tried importing the backed up pst file I'd created earlier on the now-reconnected "D" drive then tried importing the same backed up pst file on the other "E" drive that I also back it up to, no luck tasks still not showing in the calendar.

I got lucky in that after uninstalling and reinstalling Office 2021 a few times, Outlook Classic declared that the sync was successful ... under "my calendars" on the left hand side I was able to click the "calendar - personal folders" checkbox which restored all my tasks in the calendar.. that in turn seemed to trigger the "calendar (insert email address associated with outlook" option which I was able to check in it's checkbox .. but over a year's worth of tasks I had dismissed reappeared so had to spend a few hours going through and dismissing those tasks one by one again.

Desperately trying to avoid this happening in the future :) .. I came across this


which mentioned

"Locate Your PST Files: First, you need to find where your PST files are stored. They are typically located in:

C:\Users\<YourUsername>\Documents\Outlook Files\

C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\ "

So I copied both of those folders after existing out of outlook to other drives (the D and E drive again.. as you can probably guess C drive has Windows installed on it but not my files) and I noticed the appdata folder has an " (email address) . ost" file whereupon the "outlook files" folder has a pst file

I'm wondering if anyone thinks just copying and pasting these backed up files to overwrite the existing files in the C drive where they came from would work if I come across this syncing problem in the future and importing my backed up pst file doesn't solve the issue? Also should I routinely back up these C drive files every time I back up the PST file the normal way (the file import/export function in outlook classic)?

(honestly I wish this whole syncing thing wasn't necessary and that outlook didn't demand an email address, I really miss the outlook 2003 days where it was just a simple matter of manually backing up the pst file and copying and pasting it back into the appropriate location in the C drive to solve issues like this).

Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this long wall of text (sorry about that!) and responds I appreciate it :)

Sorry one more bit of info I forgot to mention! I did perform a successful restore of Windows from Macrium Reflect back when Outlook classic was working properly.. and disturbingly enough Outlook classic still continued to complain about sync issues and refused to display my tasks in Calendar. So I'm guessing Outlook Classic must have gotten messed up somehow from the Microsoft server's point of view to the point where Calendar started having issues.

Not sure I follow all the twist and turns, but in general:

The OST file is an Outlook Cache file for the email account data. Unless you have any "This Computer Only" folders under your email account, or you are using a POP email connection, Outlook will recreate the OST file from your email server if it's gone. There are a couple of ways to ensure that you never lose any data from any local "This Computer Only" folders. See Don't risk losing your Contacts and Calendar when using IMAP with Classic Outlook - Robert 365

The PST files can be backed up and restored to their original or a new location. You do not want to Import the data from the PST only re-connect it by doing an Open Outlook Data file. See Open and close Outlook Data Files (.pst) - Microsoft Support

Hornblower409 said:

Not sure I follow all the twist and turns, but in general:

The OST file is an Outlook Cache file for the email account data. Unless you have any "This Computer Only" folders under your email account, or you are using a POP email connection, Outlook will recreate the OST file from your email server if it's gone. There are a couple of ways to ensure that you never lose any data from any local "This Computer Only" folders. See Don't risk losing your Contacts and Calendar when using IMAP with Classic Outlook - Robert 365

The PST files can be backed up and restored to their original or a new location. You do not want to Import the data from the PST only re-connect it by doing an Open Outlook Data file. See Open and close Outlook Data Files (.pst) - Microsoft Support

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Thanks for the Robert365 article very educational! Honestly while I'm tempted to follow the Method 1 steps I'm a bit scared of messing with Outlook Classic now that I finally have it up and working again :) ... this quote from the article was encouraging though!

"If you decide to make backup copies of your IMAP ost-file, note that this only can be used on that computer with that specific mail account in that specific mail profile."

So I'm guessing (hoping?) that copying the pst and ost files and restoring them to the appropriate locations in the C drive later on might solve the problem far as outlook not syncing if it happens again? I plan on using this computer for hopefully a long time :) and don't plan on changing the email address associated with outlook.

AndreIsComputn said:

copying the pst and ost files and restoring them to the appropriate locations in the C drive later on might solve the problem far as outlook not syncing if it happens again?

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Yes. That should make you whole again. After you restore an OST file, the next time you sync, Outlook will update the OST to the latest data from the mail server.

But you probably don't want to restore the PST files unless absolutely necessary since you would loose anything that was added/changed in the folders contained in the PST since you made the backup.

Hornblower409 said:

Yes. That should make you whole again. After you restore an OST file, the next time you sync, Outlook will update the OST to the latest data from the mail server.

But you probably don't want to restore the PST files unless absolutely necessary since you would loose anything that was added/changed in the folders contained in the PST since you made the backup.

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Thank you :) .. and sorry for the late reply! Normally I get an email notification saying someone replied but for some reason I didn't this time...

Just for an FYI, I use this. Latest release was 2023 but there isn't a single thing wrong with it.


Select "Latest Release" right hand side of the Github page.
Install and a menu item will be added to Outlook.

antspants said:

Just for an FYI, I use this. Latest release was 2023 but there isn't a single thing wrong with it.

GitHub - HoffmannTom/outlookbackupaddin: Outlook 2019, 2016 and Outlook 2013 Backup Add-In

Outlook 2019, 2016 and Outlook 2013 Backup Add-In. Contribute to HoffmannTom/outlookbackupaddin development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Select "Latest Release" right hand side of the Github page.
Install and a menu item will be added to Outlook.

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Thank you so much :)

AndreIsComputn said:

Thank you so much :)

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No problem.

Basically it runs after you shutdown Outlook. I set it to start backing up 6 seconds after Outlook closes

I should mention that I have never backed up OST files so I have no info on that. They show as a choice (image) but never tried.
I am more interested in my PST file.