News We Recently Launched AD Migrator and AD Reporter.

How to Migrate Emails from OST to Zimbra Desktop

  author
Written By Andrew Jackson
Anuraag Singh
Approved By Anuraag Singh
Published On September 13th, 2022
Reading Time 5 Minutes Reading

With upgrading the technology, every day most users may face new challenges. As the main motive is to migrate all emails from one platform to another as well. However, there are multiple mail services available on the Web, one such application is MS Outlook used an offline OST file for receiving or sending each mail for Business purposes.

Also, such OST files can be accessed from anywhere where users try to connect with the server. On the other hand, Zimbra is a desktop-based email client, which offers various instant services such as managing mailbox content, calendar, emailing, messaging, attachments, and much more. In the following section, we are going to discuss the reliable and efficient solution to migrate emails from OST to the Zimbra mail client in more detail.

Additional Information about OST & Zimbra File

1. OST Files

OST files are created by Microsoft Outlook when there is no direct internet connection between Outlook and Exchange Server. When the user works in offline mode, at that time the originated file is known as the OST File. If users have multiple OST files and they want to export those files to any other email client application then they want to opt for the best way and a reliable conversion tool so that users can switch multiple OST files to the new email client.

2. Zimbra Desktop

Zimbra is an Open source email application, which provides online and offline access to multiple accounts in a single place. It can easily handle all the data items of a mailbox such as contacts, emails, notes, calendars, etc.

Need To Export emails from OST To Zimbra

 

There may arise certain situations where users want to switch from Outlook OST to Zimbra mail client as a better option. The most common reasons for data conversion include:

Synchronization Issue

Users can work with Offline Storage data files in offline mode. But, these types of modifications cannot be synchronized to Server in offline mode. So, it is usually preferred to convert OST to Zimbra so the changes can be easily synchronized and reflected with the Exchange server.

OST Corruption

The OST file is widely prone to corruption issues due to virus attacks, server breakdown, abnormal termination, and other software-related issues. So, one cannot easily rely upon the OST files for data storage. It is always advised to move OST to Zimbra via PST format which is more reliable. Apart from migration to Zimbra, you can also choose options to repair the OST file.

Identifying to Import PST File into Zimbra Desktop

To determine OST to Zimbra conversion via PST file format, go through the following steps:

Step-1: First, go to the Control Panel, select the Mail option and choose the Properties.

Step-2: Now, click on the Data Files and you can view the Location.

Note: If the PST files are not available, but the OST files are whenever using the Active Sync, then, follow the below actions:

Step-3: Next, Open MS Outlook and go to the File menu and click the Open & Export then, choose the Import/Export option

Step-4: After that, choose the Export to a file option under the Import and Export Wizard

Step-5: Now, select the Outlook Data File (.pst).

Step-6: Then, click on the Top of the Account name and make sure you have selected the Include subfolders.

Step-7: At Last, choose the desired location where you want to store the PST file. In the ending, it will ask for the password.

Next, select first, if you have to increase the security.

Step-8: Go to the selected path from the previous screenshot, and you will display the .pst file.

Importing PST Data into Zimbra Email Client

Using ZCS Migration Wizard for Exchange or PST files, you have to follow the below steps:

  • Extract the required file and execute the Zimbra Migration without installing any other email application. Now, select the Zimbra Desktop Migration option.
  • Then, choose the Outlook PST file, and click the Next button
  • From the Zimbra desktop, you can choose really granular options such as Folders, extract items only from a specific date, or an even better option is to run incremental migrations, perfect for long migrations from existing providers to Zimbra.
  • The entire process will begin, and you can see the real-time import process. Even you can easily open a Log file to view the complete process in depth.
  • Once the process is completed, you can pop up a message showing that Migration Complete, with an overview of all migrated items and those, that are skipped due to such errors while importing them.
  • Now, you can freely access the Zimbra Desktop, which has all the imported data items like Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Tasks, Folders, etc.
  • Finally, if you want to migrate all items from a local Zimbra Desktop to the Zimbra Collaboration account, so you can use the drag and drop option. Through which you can easily dragging and dropping the data items from the Local mail folders to the account folders.

Wisest Solution to Migrate OST to Zimbra File

To overcome all the drawbacks of the manual process, one can go for the commercial tool i.e. SysTools OST to PST converter in an efficient manner. So, users can easily convert complete data files from OST to Zimbra via PST without any data loss.

Wrapping it Up

Zimbra is a desktop-based mail application that plays a significant role in professional purposes. It contains emailing, messaging, email collaboration, and so on. Along with this, we have discussed a reliable solution that helps to migrate OST emails to the Zimbra mail client. As the manual approach has some drawbacks so, we have suggested the professional tool which is capable to perform the data conversion from Outlook OST to Zimbra desktop.

  author

By Andrew Jackson

I am SQL DBA and SQL Server blogger too. I like to share about SQL Server and the problems related to it as well as their solution and also I do handle database related user queries, server or database maintenance, database management, etc. I love to share my knowledge with SQL Geeks.