If you are using MS Outlook email client for such a long
time then you’ve probably known about some error messages and corruptions issues
while accessing Outlook data file.
Sometimes you got the error message “The Outlook data file
didn’t close properly” after this message you have to wait for a few moments as
this error message is a minor issue so that you can get the preview of your emails
by just restating the Outlook application.
But the luck is not that good every time as sometimes PST
file got severely damaged or corrupt that Outlook refuses to open the PST file,
every time you have tried to access it. At such situation, you can try to fix
the damaged file with some free or third-party tools. Considering data
corruption in MS Outlook can be done by various multiple reasons, you may need
to try a couple of different methods in order to fix the corrupted file.
Method 1: Inbox Repair Tool
It is a simple, great and free tool to repair the Outlook
data file. It is an inbuilt utility which comes with Outlook installation. This tool basically tries to repair the PST file and delete anything from the file
that this tool can’t able to recognize.
Location of this tool: C:\Program Files (x86) \Microsoft
Office\root\Office(version)
You can also go to the file location of Outlook application
by simply performing a normal windows search.
- After getting the location of the tool simply run the tool.
- Now click on browse and choose the corrupted PST File.
- After selecting the file, click on start to start the process.
- When the process is done, it will show you the errors that is found by this tool.
- Now choose your backup location and click on repair to repair the file.
- After the repairing process, Open Outlook and check if your
inbox back to normal or not. If not then repeat the process again. Sometimes
you need to run scanpst.exe multiple times in order to fix all errors in PST file
to go away.
- Apart from PST file, this tool also works in OST file which is an Offline exchange server folder that helps Outlook users to work offline.
Method 2: Truncate Oversize PST File
Another reason why the PST file becomes corrupted is due to the
file size limit for Outlook. File size for Outlook data files is 2 Gb and when
the user goes over this limit, Outlook starts working abnormally and the entire
file becomes corrupt. This type of error happens only to the older version of
MS Outlook. The new version of MS Outlook comes with 20-50 Gb of file size limit.
For the purpose to fix the issue, you have to truncate or
trim the PST file in order to decrease the file size below 2 GB. Sadly, you
need to download and use a tool from Microsoft which is “Oversized PST and OST
crop tool” This tool will delete 25-50 MB of your data which can be important.
So, use this tool considering as last option.
In order to get this tool, you need to call Microsoft helpline
Method 3: Use Third-Party PST Repair Tool
If the above methods don’t work or respond to corruption, you can
try a third-party application called PST Recovery Software that is powerful enough to
save every bit of file and recover all of your emails seamlessly without any
hassle.
This software comes with paid as well as the free version. With
the help of paid licensed version there is no limitation to recover as you can
recover multiple folders at the same time and also you can save data from
password protected files also and can able to repair oversized PST file also.