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Emails from a deleted account or former employee

When a work account is disabled, the server stops serving its mail. If the computer that used the account still has the .ost file, the emails that were synced can be converted to PST.

First: try the server

In Microsoft 365, an administrator can restore a deleted user, with the whole mailbox, for 30 days. If the deletion is recent, ask the administrator to restore or export the mailbox: it is the most complete option.

After that window, or when the server no longer exists, the .ost on the computer is often the only copy left.

What the .ost contains

• The folders and messages that were synced up to the last use, with attachments, calendar and contacts.
• Many installations only keep a recent period, set under Mail to keep offline (for example, the last 12 months). Older messages may not be in the file.
• Shared folders and other people's mailboxes are usually not in the main .ost.

Step by step

1. On the computer that used the account, find the file in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook. If the Windows user was removed too, look in C:\Users\user-name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook.
2. Copy the .ost to another folder or a USB drive and work on the copy. Don't open Outlook in that profile before copying: it may try to sync with the disabled account and change the file.
3. Open the copy in the converter and check that the folders and period you need are there.
4. Convert to PST. If there are several .ost files or old PSTs from the same user, add them all to merge everything into one file, without duplicates.