Change OST Location Using Group Policy in Outlook 2010/13/16/19

The Offline Outlook Data File (OST file) of Outlook permits users to work in the offline mode (Cached Exchange Mode) when the Exchange Server is down. Outlook automatically creates an OST file at its default location. But you can change the location of the OST file. 

However, here and there it gets important to move the OST file to another location to free the space in the C Drive. Here, will talk about how you can do this in various Outlook versions using Group Policy. So we will discuss how to change OST Location Using Group Policy.

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Steps to Know How to Change OST File location GPO

For Outlook 2010

Change the location of the OST file to a Network Shared folder using a GPO.

Before beginning the technique, you have to download the Group Policy Administrative Template Files from the accompanying location –

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=18968

The tool includes a ‘\Admin’ folder and different ADMX, ADML, and ADM versions of Office 365 Administrative Template files. In the wake of downloading the file, go to the AMDX folder in the C drive in Exchange Server 2012 R2 and copy the downloaded setup file here. Extract the file, and it will install. Presently follow the beneath steps:

1. Copy the office14.admx file from the ADMX organizer. Paste it at the location %systemroot%\PolicyDefinitions\.
2. Copy the outlk14.adml file from AMDX\ADMX\en-US location and paste it at the %systemroot%PolicyDefinitions\en-us.
3. Presently, dispatch gpmc.msc and follow User Configuration>>Policies>>Administrative Templates>>Microsoft Outlook 2010>>Miscellaneous>>PST Settings.
4. Here you will see the Default location for OST files, and the Default location for PST files. You can change these settings and change the default location to a system shared folder.

For Outlook 2013, 2016, and 2019.

1. Load the Outlook 2016 Template at the Group Policy.
2. Go to Group Policy Management Console (GPMC), expand Domains, and afterward Group Policy Objects. Right-click to it.
3. After right-click, the Group Policy Objects, click Edit and it will open the Group Policy Management Editor.
4. Follow User Configuration>>Policies>>Administrative Templates>>Microsoft Outlook 2016>>Miscellaneous>>PST Settings.
5. Pick the choice Default location for OST files and click on the ‘Enabled’ for the policy setting.
6. Input the new location for the OST file
7. Using a similar strategy, you can change the location of the PST file moreover. So these are steps to know How to Change OST Location Using Group Policy

Extra Group Policy Settings

There are numerous Outlook-related settings you can change using Group Policy. Some of them are referenced here:

• Cached Exchange Mode Sync Settings.

It enables the email messages from Outlook to synchronize locally by the date of the message. As a matter of course, Outlook synchronizes messages from the past year as it were. If you need to dispose of this limitation, at that point you can choose the settings and click All from the list.

• Prohibit Download Full Items

It kills the Download Full Items alternative for Outlook.

• Prohibit Download Headers It kills the Download Header alternative in Outlook.

• Prohibit Download Headers the Full Items

It kills the Download Headers at that point Full Items in Outlook.

• Prohibit On Slow Connections Only Download Headers

It kills the On Slow Connections Download Only Headers option in Outlook.

• Download Public Folder Favorites

It will sync the Public Folder Favorites in Cached Exchange Mode.

• Download shared non-mail folders

It will synch the shared non-mail folders in the Cached Exchange Mode.

• Use Cached Exchange Mode

It configures new and existing Outlook profiles to add the Cached Exchange Mode.

Also Read: The user can also read this post to know how to disable the OST file.

Last Words

Group Policy Settings can be used to change different settings of the Outlook application. In any case, changing the location of the OST file to a system or shared location is not a smart thought as it has a corrupt file. In such cases, you have to have a recovery plan for the OST file. It is possible that you can use the scanpst application or go to proficient assistance. Scanpst has a constraint that it isn’t reasonable for highly corrupted files and it is additionally unable to recover the deleted items.

Thus, an expert tool to Convert OST to PST appears to be a suitable alternative. This software is a simple to use tool which can get to a boundless number of OST files and recover them. After recovering the OST files, you can change the location of the OST file in Outlook.