Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Solution Center

Offline Folders (OST)

You cannot add offline folder (.ost) files to Exchange Server profiles in Outlook 2007 and in Outlook 2003
Explains that Outlook does not let users add offline folder (.ost) files to their Outlook profiles when they use an Exchange Server e-mail account.
How to determine the mode that Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2003 is using for offline folder files
Provides steps that you can use to determine the mailbox mode that Outlook is using for offline folder files (.ost).
Personal folder files are unsupported over a LAN or over a WAN link
Explains why personal folder files are unsupported over a LAN or over a WAN link. .PST files are created to store messages locally. To resolve the issue, you can use Exchange Server with .ost file or Terminal Services instead of .PST over a LAN or WAN.
How to compact the personal folders (.pst) files in Outlook
Describes how to compact the personal folders (.pst) files in Outlook to conserve space on your hard disk. You can delete unwanted items from the various .pst folders, and then compact the files to make them smaller.

“The object could not be found” error message or Outlook 2003 stops responding when you open a custom form by using the Favorites folder in Outlook 2003
Describes a problem that occurs when you access a public folder by using the Favorites folder, you receive the "The object could not be found" error message or Outlook 2003 stops responding.

The synchronization status and the online status do not match when you work offline in Outlook 2007 or in Outlook 2003
Describes how the status bar displays the network status as disconnected while the synchronization status displays "Waiting to update <Public_folder>" when you take Office offline. Provides a workaround to this problem.
The scan fails when you scan an Offline Folder file by using the Inbox Repair tool in Outlook 2003
Explains that you cannot scan an Offline Folder file (.ost) with the Inbox Repair tool (Scanpst.exe). To resolve this problem, you can delete and re-create the .ost file and then synchronize it with Exchange Server.
You cannot add a Public Folder to your Public Folder favorites in Outlook
Explains that in Outlook, you cannot add a Public Folder to your Public Folder Favorites when the Public folder Favorites contains several thousand folders.