Outlook PST OneDrive

[johnrobert]

Client put PST on Onedrive, Outlook not working now.
I created a new profile 30 gig pst still on onedrive despite choosing Outlook files in documents folder I guess its because its mirrored with onedrive.
remember reading that it's not a good idea to put PST on onedrive.

 

[Sky-Knight]

PSTs are not compatible with any drive sync, doesn't matter if it's folder redirection...doesn't matter if it's Onedrive.

I'd like to know how he managed to get Onedrive to even deal with it, since the darned thing is all but hard coded to ignore .pst files.

 

[callthatgirl]

Agreed, not a good place for a PST but I've seen it work.

 

[alexsmith2709]

If you keep the same location, would right clicking the PST and choosing "always keep on this device" work?

 

[HCHTech]

If you keep the same location, would right clicking the PST and choosing "always keep on this device" work?

I don't think this would be any better. Even if it was set to "cloud only" previously, it would have been pulled down when Outlook accessed it, so turning on "keep on this device" would just force a full-time sync which is the same thing. At least I think that's how it works -

 

[alexsmith2709]

I don't think this would be any better. Even if it was set to "cloud only" previously, it would have been pulled down when Outlook accessed it, so turning on "keep on this device" would just force a full-time sync which is the same thing. At least I think that's how it works -

Thats true. I was also thinking, but didnt say, about storage sense. If they've set it to remove local copies after 1 day (I have no idea who does this, but its an option!) or something outlook would have to download the PST which would cause issues.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Any "sync" software does not like to work with constantly active database type files. A PST is a type of database file, and when Outlook is open, it's constantly in use. This will likely lead to PST corruption down the road.

What archaic email system is still being used where the client needs a PST?

 

[HCHTech]

Maybe archives. I have a smaller-than-you-would-imagine business customer that has, I'm not kidding, 575GB of email archives...in various PSTs by year going all the way back to 2001. Can't talk them out of keeping all of that, so I just make sure they are backed up and let them go on with their system.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Doesn't matter what it is, PSTs cannot be synced, and you cannot get a copy of them unless outlook is closed.

The only way to "backup" the thing is via a VSS snapshot of the desktop, which means a file or image based backup solution on the desktop. You cannot EVER cloudsync a .PST file.

And once again I point out... Onedrive is all but hard coded to ignore those files. So I have no idea how the OP got it to sync in the first place. It simply throws a sync error about the file that stays there... permanently until you move the pst file to a folder that isn't sync'd in Onedrive.

 

[johnrobert]

Wanted docs on onedrive and pst's were added )when I went to add datafile I chose a local one in his docs outlook folder nothing would add ( I guess because they were already there, I Googled did not see anything)
setup new profile when I added local PST it was added but path was still to onedrive.
I think the easiest solution would be to delete the 2 accounts and replace with IMAP.

 

[fincoder]

Doesn't matter what it is, PSTs cannot be synced, and you cannot get a copy of them unless outlook is closed.

Not true for non-cloud sync at least. I know of one very good sync program that does it: bvckup.
VSS can be used on individual files, doesn't have to be the whole drive. And bvckup only syncs blocks of data that have changed in each file, which works beautifully with large PST files.

There's no technical reason why OneDrive couldn't be enhanced to treat PST files in that way, especially considering OneDrive and Outlook are both Microsoft products. They should be able to do it even more efficiently with knowledge of the PST file structure.
EDIT: Maybe it's more difficult with cloud sync because of no direct access to the previously synced file for comparison purposes.

I assume the reason they don't put effort into it is that PST files are going to be used less and less in the future.

 

[callthatgirl]

Try making a PST in Outlook, store it in Teams synced with OneDrive. It literally disappeared on me lol.