It is located in the folder of your original Personal Folders (.pst) file. For instructions about how to unhide files and folders, see your operating system documentation. After renaming the file successfully, you can then launch your Outlook program. You’ll find a new .PST file at the default location on your hard drive.

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These Outlook data (PST) files store user’s data, including email messages, calendars, tasks, journals, etc. After you run the Inbox Repair tool, you can start Outlook and recover repaired items. Optionally, you can try to recover additional repaired items from the backup personal folder. To avoid data loss, EdbMails OST to PST converter provides a reliable way to recover mailbox content from damaged or orphaned files. It converts the mailbox not updating on IMAP data into PST format, which can be easily opened in Outlook without needing access to the original account.

Methods to Rebuild an Outlook PST File

With a background in computer science and a passion for writing, I thrive to deliver complex technical content in simple layman terms. He is an expert Tech Explainer, IoT enthusiast, and a passionate nerd with over 7 years of experience in technical writing. He writes about Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft 365, Email Migration, Linux, Windows, Mac, DIY Tech, and Smart Home. Ravi spends most of his weekends working with IoT (DIY Smart Home) devices and playing Overwatch. He is also a solo traveler who loves hiking and exploring new trails.

Manually start the Inbox Repair tool

No validation is explicitly done on body-related properties or on subject-related properties, except the implicit low-level validation that this article discusses earlier. The recipient display properties are changed to be consistent with the recovered recipient table. As soon as this operation is complete, other algorithms are run to collect all the orphaned messages and to put them in an Orphans folder. If you could not open your original Personal Folders (.pst) file before you ran Inbox Repair Tool, the following procedures may not work.

Locating the Outlook Data Files

We will be delving into exploring the powerful methods to fix Outlook PST files in the following paragraph. Follow these steps to repair your Outlook personal folder file (.pst) by using Inbox Repair tool. If you can open the original Outlook Data File, you might be able to recover additional online Outlook email repair utility items. The Inbox Repair tool creates a backup file with the same name as the original, but with a .bak extension, and saves it in the same folder. There may be items in the backup file that you might be able to recover that the Inbox Repair tool couldn't. Problems like system crashes, sudden shutdowns, or profile issues can corrupt the OST file, causing Outlook to display sync errors or lose access to your data.

Automatically start the Inbox Repair tool

• In the Folder Pane, you might see a folder named Recovered Personal Folders that contains your default Outlook folders or a Lost and Found folder.
• You can use the Inbox Repair tool (SCANPST.EXE) to diagnose and repair errors in your Outlook data file.
• These low-level objects have no knowledge of the upper-level structures, such as messages, calendar items, and so on, that are built upon them.
• The Inbox Repair tool or ScanPST.exe is not a convenient way because of multiple restrictions.
• You can also move the PST file to a different folder or drive.
• In a situation like that, you might need to try another solution, like a more powerful third-party tool.
• Outlook Data files (.pst) can be corrupted due to numerous reasons as stated above.

Users can fix Outlook PST files using this utility, but firstly you need to locate the Inbox Repair Tool (ScanPST.exe) in their system. We are going to share a table below with the default location of this utility for different Outlook versions, like Outlook 2010, 2013, or 2019. In addition, it turns into leading Outlook errors, which might Outlook data file cannot be accessed affect overall productivity and efficiency and can increase downtime.

How to Fix Outlook Data File Cannot Be Accessed?

Although the repair process might recreate some of the folders, they may be empty. The Lost and Found folder contains any folders and items recovered by the repair tool that Outlook can't place in their original structure. This post explains how to repair Outlook .pst files using Microsoft’s Inbox Repair tool (SCANPST.EXE), as well as other solutions you can try. It’s saved on your computer, and contains data from your Microsoft Outlook account, like your email messages and other information. Typically, .pst files are used by POP accounts, a type of email account created when you add an email to Outlook from an internet service provider (ISP) like AT&T.