Fix Your Broken Outlook Personal Folders (PST) File
If you use Outlook and you’ve noticed it being excessively slow or just having errors, you should probably scan and repair your Personal Folders file for any problems. It’s sorta like checkdisk for your email.
Repairing Your PST File
To repair your PST file, you’ll have to open the Scanpst.exe utility that’s included by default with Outlook. The only problem is that there’s no shortcut to it, so you’ll have to find it in the Outlook folder.
Open up explorer and then browse down to the following folder for Outlook 2007:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12
Or one of these folders for Outlook 2003 and earlier (thanks to Mike in the comments):
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033
Once you open up the utility, you’ll have to find the location of your PST file by clicking the Browse button. If you don’t know the location, there are instructions for figuring out the location further down in this article.
Click on the Start button to start the scan…
It will take a while to scan the file, and you’ll get a report at the end telling you whether you have errors in the file.
Click on the Repair button, and after a while you’ll finally get the “Repair complete” message.
If you are curious what was actually repaired during the process, you’ll find a text file in the same directory as your PST file with the same name as the PST file.
Most of the information in the file is pretty cryptic… so I’m not sure reading it will help all that much.
Find Your Outlook PST File Locaton
If you just have a single PST file created automatically by Outlook, there’s a standard location under your user profile directory. Open up an explorer window, and then paste in the following into the address bar:
%appdata%\Microsoft\Outlook
You should see your PST file in the list, usually called Outlook.pst at least in the later versions of Outlook. If you’ve created a new personal folders file, it might be in a different location.
Find Location of Outlook PST in Non-Standard Location
Sometimes your PST file will be in a different location, for a number of reasons.. for instance if you created a second PST you would have been prompted to save it somewhere.
If you can actually open Outlook, right-click on your personal folders location, and then choose Properties.
On the properties screen, click the Advanced button.
Now you’ll see the location of the file in the Filename field. As a bonus, you can also compact the folders from here (although you shouldn’t compact it until it’s repaired first)
It’s well worth it to scan your PST file every so often so you don’t lose data. Of course… you should be backing up your files as well.
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On office 2003 and earlier and windows xp and earlier it is actually located here: C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033
MS support link giving the details about scanpst: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287497
Thanks for the clarification… I only have Outlook 2007 installed so I didn’t really think that through. Updated the article!
I found it here: C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033. I have Outlook 2002
@Andy
Microsoft must be playing hide the utility… they just keep moving it! =)
Download this…http://www.howto-outlook.com/products/outlooktools.htm
Compacting your PST when you’ve deleted items (and emptied the Recycle Bin) is another good idea for keeping the overall size down – these files don’t always self-optimize, and recapturing the whitespace within the file left when messages are deleted can do wonders for speed and overall reliability, especially when you consider the general rule with PSTs: the larger the PST, the more likely it is to become corrupt.
@onionose
The OutlookTools utility is great, but for this purpose all it does it help you launch ScanPst by giving you a button. You’d probably be better off creating a shortcut to Scanpst.exe and launching it that way.
I definitely recommend OutlookTools for other reasons, such as clearing search data and MRU lists:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto.....sed-lists/
I have found scanpst not to work now and then..
Microsoft does this very stupidly. Mail messages should be stored as individual files – build an index from those and then you can recreate it any time you mess it up.
Most of the problems with pst’s come from users not emptying their deleted items folder and the pst gets larger and larger and larger.. and eventually breaks.
If outlook is running very slow and nothing seems to resolve the issue then scanpst works like a charm. On a computer at work someone kept complaining about outlook 2k7 being slow. It would take 30+ seconds to click from one email to another. After running scanpst on each of the PST files multiple times (until it no longer gives an error) it pretty much resolved the issue.
I also setup auto archive for this person. She had over 20k emails in her main pst file’s inbox. Just plain scary if you ask me.
Someone needs to come up with a single backup/compactor/check/repair/scheduler utility for Outlook. It needs to be able to have multiple backups, handle multiple PST files, and the option to run completely unattended (ie: shutdown Outlook, do its thing, restart Outlook, all via its own scheduler).
So far Retrospect Backup is the only backup utility I’ve found that’s smart enough to shut down Outlook and actually check to make sure it’s properly and completely shut down before proceding, but it’s gross overkill just for backing up PST files, and doesn’t do the compacting/checking/repairing or start Outlook back up again when it’s done.
Wow, I’ve just checked my email files,(which I’ve never had auto archive on until today), and I had 2.2g in there. I guess that goes from plain scary to horrifying.
RAN
If you want to speed up booting of Outlook 2000 just copy the pst file, delete the original and rename the copy. The main reason for slow bootup is fragmentation of the pst file so simply copying it and renaming the copy speeds everything up.
I am hopeful that your suggestions will work…except i’ve tried all of the above and I have gotten to the point where I can hit “Repair” in the Inbox Repair Tool but then the Inbox Repair Tool no longer wants to respond. It freezes. Is this normal?
I spoke too soon…the instructions are brilliant! The Inbox Repair Tool had repaired the problems except that I did not notice the new dialog box appeared behind my internet explorer page stating that the files were repaired.
Thank you all for your help. It is 1:30am and it has taken me 7 hours to resolve this issue (but 1/2 hour after I read everyone’s comments above).
Now I can go to sleep.
Cheers!
Thanks for the help!! I uninstalled a trial version of MS office 2007 and installed a full version of 2003 on my Vista machine. I kept getting a message of outlook not being able to open my .pst file. I ran this and it worked perfectly! Thanks again!!
What a relief to get excellent advice after all the research I had been doing proved fruitless. Had rescued a .pst file off my father-in-law’s hard drive (Windows errors couldn’t be fixed and would not start the OS) and couldn’t get it to open. After hours of trying other suggestions online (I admit it, I didn’t know what version Outlook he had) I finally found this, and got instant results. Thanks once again for putting this information online for others to use.
After running scanpst.exe, outlook still won’t boot, saying that the personal folders file was not closed properly, and then it all shuts down.
Thanks
I’m getting the “Outlook.pst is not a personal folders file” message when I try to open Outlook. I had a ton of emails (not knowing there was a size limtation), and now I can’t locate my outlook.pst file on my computer. It’s gone! How can I use the scanpst utility if there is no pst file to repair? I’ve gotten the “would you like to archive your older emails” message in Outlook previously, which I’ve clicked “yes” to…so does that mean they’re stored somewhere on my computer? I’m completely confused….any help or direction would be appreciated!
when i tried to use the SCNPST it said it does not recognize the file (while it is pst) and no information can be recovered.
What can i do about it? I really need my email back!
Just want to say thanks!
Great info…my hard drive failed but I’d backed everything up to an external drive the month before. Wnen I restored, Outlook can’t seem to find the file for my old emails. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks you very much for your help in fixing my broken Outlook Personal Folders (PST) files. The procedure, although lengthy (waiting for the computer to do it’s thing), worked like a “champ”.
I am getting an error as ” It is not a personal folder file ” while my file is a .pst file . How to recover the file. I saw above somebody has asked same question but not able to get what he did to get PST open.
Please help me
In continutation to above message I tried scanning the PST with scanPST.exe but it gives me error as “not able to recognize the file”
Thank you! Just what i needed!
Thank you so much, you have made my day!! Why can’t Ms help be so good.
Lovely Job telling everyone. I found you after doing what one is supposed to do – use the Microsoft Help pages. I believe I paid enough for the Microsoft Ultimate Package that I should be able to run Outlook 2007 with the size of files I want, not having to delete my rules, use these hidden tools, check my add-ons for problems, compress my files in their program. You’d think they’d run a maint. program. Surely – I can’t be the only one that experiences problems.
Thanks HOW TO GEEK!
Thank you, thank you for this fabulous how-to! I have spent lots of time reading different help sites, but this is the only one that told me exactly what to do. Thanks again!
Thank you for this info.
If I run scanpst, and I’m getting an error, what can I use to recover my pst file. The file is just over 2gb.
THANK YOU – was waiting for a friend to phone me with porper help – eventually started searching for resolution myself and found this site. GREAT HELP!
Thanks for the info!!
BTW… And in response to Tony Lawrence: Just because “other” e-mail clients do store each e-mail as an individual file (e.g. Thunderbird), it does not necessarily mean that it is THE way to do things right.
Or… does your favorite database system (Oracle perhaps?) store EACH RECORD of a table in an individual file? Or each table of a database? It doesn’t make any sense, does it?
Great help after hours of trying to fix outlook
thanks very much!!!!!!!!!!!
matt
I tried scanning the PST with scanPST.exe but it gives me error as “not able to recognize the file”.
The PST was originally exported from Outlook 2003 and burned to a CD. Coppied the file to the local hard drive before attempting to bring it back into Outlook 2003.
Any ideas?
Thank you.
i’ve tried all of the above and I have gotten to the point where I can hit “Repair” in the Inbox Repair Tool but then the Inbox Repair Tool no longer wants to respond. It freezes and I end up having to end the program … PLEASE HELP … it’s work email and the pst fil is only 1.4G … thanks
I am getting an error as ” It is not a personal folder file ” while my file is a .pst file . How to recover the file. I saw above somebody has asked same question but not able to get what he did to get PST open.
Please help me
I’ve see problems copying the PST in from a cd/dvd where it’s left marked “read only” and both outlook and scanpst fail to open it since they can’t open it in writeable mode.
Thanks so much for explaining this so clearly. I have Outlook 2007 and this has happened to me twice in the last 4 months. I spent hours waiting and getting Dell to talk to who fixed it both times, BUT I did it myself this time and it worked just great! I’m bookmarking your site….
Thank you so much!! it really work like wonder!
Woohoo..
Find Your Outlook PST File Locaton,
They are actually located here on most versions of windows.
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
This did not work…i have 2 folders showing that cannot open…and have no name…any clue on how to try to fix?
I get the message “Errors have been found in the file
c\users\crom\appdata\local\microsoft\outlook\outlook.pst” whenever I try and delete messages from Outlook mailboxes.
I use Vista and Outlook2007.
I ran scan.pst and it comes up with the message “An error has occured which caused the scan to to be stopped. No changes have been made to the scanned file”.
Can you help?
Rob, I’m having the exact same issue. Scanpst is giving me that error and I can’t get past it.
I have the same problem …have run scanpst many times and always
gives me same
“An error has occured which caused the scan to to be stopped. No changes have been made to the scanned file
even did a chkdsk…
what is solution……anybody????
Got outlook to start, but all my mail disapeared
I’m toast…
My computer was running slow and I disabled a couple of processes (I am a novice, know just enough to be dangerous, and do not know what I disabled). I had assumed the processes would restart when I rebooted. The computer crashed. When I rebooted, everything works fine but Outlook. If I try to open Outlook, it says : The data file “Personal Folder” was not closed properly. This file is being checked for prblems. Then the screen turns blue, sayd error … memory is being dumped. When I do a scanpst, just past halfway of the scan the same blue screen appears with the error message and memory being dumped. Any ideas??? I have also tried system restore with no luck.
To those of you who are having the error “Outlook.pst is not a personal folders file” (or similar), we had this problem at work last week and found a solution surrounding our particular scenario.
In our situation we had the PST file stored on a server. The share to the file on the server was created using Outlook through encrypted pathway/drive letter. The problem was that the user was trying to access the file via outlook through a drive letter that was mapped using an UNENCRYPTED pathway/drive letter.
The only solution we had was to copy the file down from the server via the encrypted pathway to a local desktop. Then we recopied it back up to the server via the unencrypted pathway. Voila. It worked.
What does that mean to the common end-user: do you use encyption software on your computer? If you do or did when you made the file then you literally have to backtrack, using the same encryption software you originally used.
If this is not what you did or have, then I’m still at a loss for why you are having the problem.
if you are unable to access your pst file after moving between drives check that the properties are not read only.
It worked! Thanks! I tried using Outlook help–nothing worked until I tried your advice. Your steps were easy to follow too. I’m bookmarking your site!
I found the repair tool but I cannot map it to what I think is my pst file. My outlook will open fine however I cannot access any of my saved folders. At my whits end!
Thanks so much for this! I had no clue about the .pst repair utility. Saved my bacon.
Started last week. Notice received that Outlook couldn’t open folder containing files for send/receive…
I have run scanpst.exe many times and always
gives me same error message:
“An error has occured which caused the scan to to be stopped. No changes have been made to the scanned file
I don’t feel like coughing up $80 for a repair program that performs a task that MS should be providing.
Anyone get past this?
Have you tried restoring a shadow copy? (Under the pst’s file properties tab)
I am having the same issue. Rans Scanpst.exe but received error that hard disk needed checking. Ran ckddsk – volume was clean. Also ran defrag – 3 fragmented files fixed. Tried Scanpst.exe again and same message. What do I do next?
FIXED!
MS has a program PST2GB which allows you to remove part of what in my case was a .pst file that exceeded the 2G limit. Apparently Outlook 2000 self destructs after 2G without warning and corrupts the file. Later versions are more forgiving. Thank you Bill Gates.
Google the above program from MS and run it. Although they said it usually worked by cutting off 11-40mB, I needed to cut off 45mB before the scanpst.exe would complete and then repair. (I first ran it taking off 100mb just to see that it would work and then I started to worked back down.) Keep taking more off until scanpst.exe runs. Play with the numbers and see how low you can get it. In the end you will have a few of the original folders and one described as “lost and found” within which you will see recovered folder(s). In experimenting, when I got it down to the lowest number that would permit scanpst.exe to run and repair, I also ended up with the fewest folders under “lost and found”.
I think it is important to do this procedure on the same computer or at least the same version of Outlook. I got some odd results when trying to take my problem home to work on it.
Be patient, if the program says it is “not responding” just let it be for a while. I learned in this process that not responding can still mean “working on it”.
Once scanpst.exe completed, file/open in Outlook and select outlook data file. Search for the file that was just repaired and open it. It will show up as a new personal folder within the tree of folders that you should have in Outlook. Then “export as file” each folder as “comma separated value for windows” and then “import as file” same file as “comma separated value for windows” making sure to check “map fields” before importing.
Everything worked except the emails addresses are indicated as email#3.
The emails ended up in that “revovered file” under lost and found
I am unsure of site rules about hyperlinking otherwise I would have tried to make it easier.
Good luck
Hi Jim
do you know whether this fix works for Windows Vista?
It seems to apply to W2000 and XP.
thanks
Rob
If you can still get into your folders but the .pst file itself is flaky, I’ve found that you can sometimes work around the problem by following these steps:
1 Create a set of new Personal Folders (File/New/Outlook Data File).
Note: If you have another (secondary) physical hard drive in the machine you are working on (say, E:\ drive for this example), select a folder on this drive as the location for the new data file, e.g. E:\temp\personalfolders.pst. This will save a lot of disk grinding if you have this option available to you. Don’t bother with this step if you can’t be sure this other drive (i.e., E:\) is a physical drive rather than a partition of the main system drive.
2. Work your way through each of the folders found in the ‘broken’ Personal Folders data file. Right-click each folder and select ‘Copy “”‘. Select the new Personal Folders as the destination.
3. Wait. Wait for a long, long time.
4. When all of this is done (yes – you can even do the Calendar if you are running O2k3 or later), close Outlook and move the E:\temp\personalfolders.pst to the normal location for your .PST files, which as mentioned in previous comments depends upon the version of Windows (and/or Office?) you are running. If you don’t have a secondary drive or didn’t create the new Personal Folders data file in a non-default location, ignore this step.
5. Re-open Outlook and change the default mail delivery location to the new Personal Folders file.
6. Close the old (broken) Personal Folders data file.
7. Close and re-open Outlook to ensure it all works as expected – if so, compact the Personal Folders and you should be done.
Hope this helps.
Cam
this info was very helpful; thanks
Thanks so much to all for contributing advice here. A collective life-saver
An additional tips if you are stuck with the pst. scan not working on a corrupted .pst file:
I have gone to the offending .pst file’s properties / advanced & clicked on the compress and register tick-boxes – then apply – it took 10 minutes or so – but finally it has fixed the corrupt file enough that I am anow able to run the pst scan programme.
Thanks Cam. Your instructions were great and fixed the problem.
Outlook now seems to be working normally…I can’t think of why I’d need to run Scanpst?
Thanks for the help.
Rob
I found scanpst and ran it. It gets 99% and then sends an error message saying an error has occured and the repair was halted “OK”. What else can I do. I’ve lost all my personal folders and my address book.
Thanks a lot for your help. So many sites on the net about this problem, but no help at all. You rock, guys!
I got error messages and cannot open my pst. file. Lost all my contacts.
Error says to go to Inbox Repair Tool. I am running Outlook 2000 with Windows XP. Cannot find Inbox Repair Tool. Also, what program opens a pst file? John
Hi, My Outlook 2003 freezes after start-up. I’ve tries Scanpst.exe, it reports No Error. I’ve been using this account for alomst 2 yrs and the PST size is under 400MB. I’m stuck with this for over 1 week and will appreciate your remedy.
Guys… is there any solution to fix pst file….. this is drive me crazy I have been try working on this for a week…and i still don’t know how to fix this…if there is still no solution BILL GATES…. help….
Thanx for the fix!!! Truly helped me recover my e-mail THANK YOU 1000X
Help me. Sleepless nights and going to work very tired…
I recently set up outlook and it donwloaded 20,000 emails, it run slowly and then one day didnt download new messages. The programme informed me to run scan.pst but after 1.5h wait I hit run and everything freazes!!! Please help, this is the 5th time I try and it does not work!!!!
I didn’t know the PST file was bad – Outlook 2003 had no problems with it, but when the IT guys gave me a newer, faster PC with Outlook 2007, it couldn’t open it. I got “out of memory” and “attachment too large” errors, but not a suggestion that it felt the file was bad.
Ran SCANPST and got a PST file that opens: it was 240MB, now it’s 260MB and there’s 435KB in the log file. I suspect that the Outlook 2003 version I was running didn’t use the same PST format that Outlook 2007 insists upon. Good ole Microsoft – if you don’t like the standard, rewrite it and don’t tell anyone!
can you help…I lost personal folders that I created over time to organize email recieved related to specific subjects(investing, attorney etc) tried everthing to recover from my laptop. now I have 2 personal folders group..#1 the default C:\outlook.pst does not contain past emails and #2 C:\document and settings\..\\\outlook.pst does contain past emails but is not the default email file name. I don’t know how to recover the must needed specific folders and now how to change the default email account.
Cam’s tutorial is the BEST way to fix PST Files.
Creating a NEW PST File and copying contents into it is the BEST way to resolve corruption, slow pst loading etc.
I don’t get CAM’s tutorial, how are you supposed to move files from a corrupted .pst file if I can’t open it?
Thanks,
Ben
I think the main problem nobody has a addressed is when you get error message “xxx.pst is not a personal folders file”
the size of my file is 2.5 GB I was on outlook 2003 with windows xp
solid state HD crashed 7/31/09, recovered the .pst now I get this error when trying to re-import into outlook 2003
I backed up my .pst 7/19/09 so I thought I’d only miss 2 weeks of e-mail but when I try to import that .pst I get prompted to run scanpst.exe, I do that, it says repaired but when I try to import the repaired .pst into outlook it doesn’t finish, gives me error message “could not complete operation one or more paramenter invalid” and leaves a Lost and Found folder with remnants of my existing folder structure setup
Have any of you found good info on how to solve this?
Thanks
I have followed all the instructions as far as “fixing” my pst file and went as far as purchasing the Uniblue software to fix the file. Everything has been recovered but I can’t send from outlook 2007. Please advise!
To all who cant open your pst when getting a new computer; be sure to select the proper type of staorage “outlook Personal Folders File” or “outlook 97-2002 Personal files” in other word if you created the file with OL 03 and above, use the “outlook personal folders file” if not then use the other. Also, with OL older than 07 your PST file size limit is 2G(pretty sure) and if you go over that limit you PST will become corrupt and die on you. So if you are getting close, create a new PST and populat that. OL 07 should handle up to 20G of PST.
SAN, reinstall your oulook.
To all who cant open your pst when getting a new computer; be sure to select the proper type of staorage “outlook Personal Folders File” or “outlook 97-2002 Personal files” in other word if you created the file with OL 03 and above, use the “outlook personal folders file” if not then use the other. Also, with OL older than 07 your PST file size limit is 2G(pretty sure) and if you go over that limit you PST will become corrupt and die on you. So if you are getting close, create a new PST and populate that. OL 07 should handle up to 20G of PST.
SAN, reinstall your oulook.
Thanks so much for your help. Been trying to fix this for the last 4 days now. One question you said that there is only one .pst file I have three account comming out in outlook but when i looked there are three .pst files and only one needed repair. is this normal ?
Thank you so much – this worked perfectly! Saved all my emails!
Hi there,
I was downgrading from vista business to winxp pro.
I was using MS Outlook 2003 . Backed up all the PST . then aftere installation of XP and updating the OS tried to restore the Outlook.pst after configuring an account and replacing the Outlook.pst by the backup.
I got an error “outlook.pst is not a personal folders file” . Then i follwed the SCANPST.exe method .
My PST is 2.4 GB but doesnt matter as i am using 2003 .
But even after recovering i was not able to see any mails in the mailbox/inbox .
So i tried using Stellar Outlook recovery and Easy recovery from ontrack …all did well and showed me the folder structures but there were zero mails inside all the folders (inbox/sent/deleted).
I am trying to restore the Outlook.pst but am not getting anywhere …Need some help here .
thanks in advance.
./s
Running Scanpst.exe can take a very long time. Mine took about 4 hours to go through stages 1-8 on a 1.5GB .pst file (on XP), then about 3 hours to repair. The good news is that it worked. Another thing is that the XP version gives no info about what it did on completion. You just click an ‘OK’ box and that’s it.
WOW !!! YOU ARE THE BEST!!!
BIG STRESS RELIEF!!!!
I have been working from 8:30 am to about 1:00 pm trying to fix my email and finally found your website with these wonderful directions. It worked like a charm! Thank you so much!
When I try to run scanpst it tells me that the file is in use by another application. Outlook isn’t open and I’ve rebooted and tried it again without opening outlook. Any suggestions?