Trying to move my Office365 Outlook pst file to another drive

I usually move complete My Documents folder. Outlook folder will go with it.

Tutorials | Move Location of Documents Folder in Windows 10

Although, I don't understand why it wont work elsewhere.

GregH said:

I have finished a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro to a new NVMe drive. I installed Office 365 but the Outlook pst file is located in my Documents folder on C:/ . I want to move it to a large HDD In this PC rather.

1. Office 365 creates and uses .OST file to store mail data and it's located under your user profile: drive:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
2. POP has no relevance on whether you use OST or PST
3. While O-365 can use PST files it doesn't create them automatically.
4. PST file can be used by O-365 and can be placed anywhere. You just need to point Outlook to the location.

Item #4 is also from personal experience as I use a master PST file to handle my calendar and contacts as well as archival purposes. On my main desktop I've got the PST file in Documents...


but for my laptop, Outlook uses a PST file located on OneDrive.

If you're using the .OST file along with IMAP your files will be synchronized with your email's ISP server. Otherwise you can copy/backup your OST files from the location I pointed out.

Microsoft Support - Introduction to Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost)

GregH said:

While it seems to work, I get a Send/Receive error. It can’t send/receive in the new location for some reason. Moving the pst back to the C:/ location, it works ok again.

You can't send or receive mail from the account using the .PST file (O-365). Doing so will simply use the default email account using .OST account. In short your .OST account will be used instead of the .PST account.

GregH said:

Thanks Sygnus21,

I had no idea about the OST file in Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook. I am on my work laptop now but will check this location when I get home later. However, I am now more confused...

This was a brand new install of Windows and Office 365 to a brand new SSD. Office 365 definitely created the PST file in an Outlook folder in Users/user/Documents/Outlook/xxx.pst. This file definitely did not exist prior to installing Office 365..

Correction on my part - Outlook 365 (desktop app) may create a PST file if POP3 is used for email setup....

• Create an Outlook Data File (.pst) to save your information (About Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost))

That said, do make sure Outlook is closed before moving PST files. Also make sure the location is correct. If you're still getting send/receive errors you might look at resetting the account.

All that said, I've not used POP3 for any of my email account in at least 15 years so I can't say how a PST file plays in that arena. I only use IMAP and Microsoft Exchange server. Perhaps the "POP3" email account is insisting the .PST location stay in (My) Documents. I don't know.

As a side note, may I suggest using the newer IMAP protocol since it also keeps your email sync'd between your PC devices and the mail server.

• Understanding the difference between POP3 and IMAP

GregH said:

As an aside, my work laptop also uses Win 10 Pro and Office 365. There is no Outlook folder, nor OST file in Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft.

If you don't use the desktop app (or maybe are only using POP3) there wouldn't be one. Since I'm using the Outlook desktop app (and IMAP) on both desktop and laptop, I also have .OST files. The PST file is simply a data file to manage my calendar and contacts.

And the correct location should be C:\Users\admin\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

Regardless, sorry for my confusion here.

Hi folks
@GregH

Start outlook -- then simply open file and point to new pst file.
It will probably appear in the account list as outlook Data file with its selection of inbox etc etc. This file can be located anyware on your system.

Even with IMAP it's quite OK to have a pst file as you can then copy / move emails from any account and any folder to the pst file.



Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi folks
@GregH

Even with IMAP it's quite OK to have a pst file as you can then copy / move emails from any account and any folder to the pst file.

Cheers
jimbo

@jimbo. Are you saying that you can use a PST file with IMAP, and that an OST file is not required? If so, that would may my life a lot easier.

x509 said:

@jimbo. Are you saying that you can use a PST file with IMAP, and that an OST file is not required? If so, that would may my life a lot easier.

Yes you can IMAP with a PST file.

Note: In Outlook 2013 and earlier versions, IMAP accounts also used an Outlook Data File (.pst). In Outlook 2016 and Outlook for Microsoft 365, IMAP accounts use Offline Outlook Data Files (.ost).

And depending on Outlook version, OST may not be available since it wasn't introduced until Outlook 2013.

If you looked at post #3 you'd see I'm using both OST and PST. However; the PST file (for me) is not connected to an email account - (can't receive email there). Its simply a master data file to manage contacts and calendars. The OST files on the other hand are my actual email accounts setup under either IMAP or Microsoft Exchange.

Here's my Outlook Desktop app with 3 IMAP accounts, and one Exchange Account (.edu). The other accounts are via OST files and are setup using the IMAP protocol...


OST File Location ...


"Calendar" PST as the default master data file (default store location for contacts, calendar, tasks) ...


IMAP Settings ...


The "Calendar" is my master PST file for contacts and calendar used to schedule events. In this way I'll can move this PST file anywhere since its once I added to Outlook.

And again, some would do well to understand the difference between IMAP and POP3. Linked in post #5