There is no doubt that one of the most attractive features of Outlook is its ability to allow users to work in the Cached Exchange mode. Cached Exchange Mode is a feature that determines how the data from the mailbox stored on the Exchange server is collected. By working in the Cached Exchange mode, you can continue to work with the mail delivered to your Microsoft Exchange account even if you are not connected to the server. Outlook simply downloads the data into offline folder files, commonly referred to as OST files, on your local computer and then regularly synchronizes this data with that in the Exchange mailbox. However, you have to keep an eye on the size of the OST files at all times. If you allow these offline folder files to grow endlessly, then at some point, their size may cause damage to the OST files and you may have to use recovery tools to recover ost data.
Many users do not like the idea of storing any Outlook data locally, preferring to constantly connect to the server whenever they need to work on their mails. They therefore disable the Cached Exchange mode and prefer to work online. However, by forcing Outlook to communicate with the Microsoft Exchange server, every time you wish to send, receive or work on your mails in any way, you are causing it to run more slowly than it usually would. This is going to cause you more frustration and even affect your work. A better alternative would be to understand how to control the size of the OST files, what are the manageable limits and how best to recover ost data if the OST files do become corrupted.
Most new versions of Outlook perform well even when the OST files reach fairly large sizes such as 5 GB since computers come with fairly sophisticated hardware nowadays. Once the files reach 5 GB and continue to grow, you might start to notice performance problems with Outlook. If you do not take any action at this stage and allow the mailboxes to grow up to 25 GB or so, Outlook performance takes a sharp dip and you may find that it occasionally stalls while working.
When OST files become this big, it is very difficult to predict how Outlook is going to behave and there is a real fear that the OST file may become damaged, causing you to lose a lot of vital data. While you could use special recovery tools such as Advanced Exchange Recovery from DataNumen to repair the OST files and recover ost data, it is advisable that you take all steps necessary to keep the size of the OST files under control.
Some of the measures that you could take are as follows:
" Delete all unwanted messages and archive older messages
" Use send/receive groups feature to manually synchronize the mailbox on the Exchange server
" Carry out the Compact process so that unwanted mails are gotten rid of and better use is made of the free space.
Many users do not like the idea of storing any Outlook data locally, preferring to constantly connect to the server whenever they need to work on their mails. They therefore disable the Cached Exchange mode and prefer to work online. However, by forcing Outlook to communicate with the Microsoft Exchange server, every time you wish to send, receive or work on your mails in any way, you are causing it to run more slowly than it usually would. This is going to cause you more frustration and even affect your work. A better alternative would be to understand how to control the size of the OST files, what are the manageable limits and how best to recover ost data if the OST files do become corrupted.
Most new versions of Outlook perform well even when the OST files reach fairly large sizes such as 5 GB since computers come with fairly sophisticated hardware nowadays. Once the files reach 5 GB and continue to grow, you might start to notice performance problems with Outlook. If you do not take any action at this stage and allow the mailboxes to grow up to 25 GB or so, Outlook performance takes a sharp dip and you may find that it occasionally stalls while working.
When OST files become this big, it is very difficult to predict how Outlook is going to behave and there is a real fear that the OST file may become damaged, causing you to lose a lot of vital data. While you could use special recovery tools such as Advanced Exchange Recovery from DataNumen to repair the OST files and recover ost data, it is advisable that you take all steps necessary to keep the size of the OST files under control.
Some of the measures that you could take are as follows:
" Delete all unwanted messages and archive older messages
" Use send/receive groups feature to manually synchronize the mailbox on the Exchange server
" Carry out the Compact process so that unwanted mails are gotten rid of and better use is made of the free space.
