Fix Outlook 2010 Problem: PST File Repair Tool

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Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 is quite stable but not perfect, if your PST file becomes corrupt then you will need a repair tool to fix it. PST stands for Personal Storage Table(also referred as Personal Folder File) and is used to store all your Inbox, and other information. If it becomes corrupt, then your Inbox will also get corrupted.

If Outlook 2010 is crashing, you could try running in Safe Mode and determine what is causing the problem. If you can’t find a problem, then there is a high chance it could be due to corrupt PST file. So how do we fix it? There are two methods, either use an official tool or a 3rd party tool.

Outlook Inbox Repair Tool (SCANPST.exe)

It is an official repair tool that is included in Office 2010 by default and was included in Office 2007 as well. But what surprised us was that it couldn’t be found inside the Microsoft Office 2010 Tools folder, did Microsoft forget to include the most important tool in this folder? See screenshot below.

Inbox repair tool missing

You will have to navigate all the way to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14 folder and search for SCANPST.EXE file.

scanpst.exe office 2010

Double-click this file to open Microsoft Outlook Inbox Repair Tool. Now hit Browse and locate your PST file. It is located at:

C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\[Name].pst

Outlook Inbox Repair Tool


Once done, hit Start and it will begin checking for errors. When the process is complete, hit the Repair button. Make sure a backup option is checked to remain on the safe side.

Outlook Inbox Repair PST

Stellar Outlook PST Repair Tool

I would always recommend going for the official tool, but if it fails to fix the PST file then you can give Stellar Outlook PST Repair a try. Select ‘Repair PST File’ from the main window, select the PST file(it has a build-in tool that can search for PST file), and choose the output destination.

So why is the output destination needed? It will first scan your corrupt PST file and then recover everything into a new usable PST file.

Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair

Download Outlook PST Repair Tool

Apart from Outlook 2010, both tools will work on Outlook 2007/2003 too.

For more, check out our guides on:

All the above mentioned guides have been guaranteed to be working.

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  • nareshdeevi

    how can i convert 2010 pst to office 2007 format

    • Dinei

      What?

  • erickwati

    Nakodari, thanks so much for this tip. It just saved my day. Thanks so much.

  • TommyBoy

    THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! This had made my day, week year, decade!!!!!

  • Sripathy Raagav

    Hey Nakodari, Thanks a bunch :)

  • http://www.officeforlawyers.com Ben Schorr

    Naresh, no need to convert from Outlook 2010 to Outlook 2007 format – the PSTs are the same format for both.

  • http://www.johndow.de john

    Thank you, very helpful.

  • Hugo

    Thanks – fixed my Inbox problem in a couple of moments, great!

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  • Leo

    Thank you for this info… I have a semi related question… How do I know which pst file my Office 2010 is currently using? The reason I ask this is because when I look into the folder where the pst file resides, there are many pst files there. (Like 7) This is because of former techs that were helping me backup and transfer my outlook from one computer to the next over the course of a few years.

    Is there a way to view this info from outlook 2010?

  • Gary McJim

    Thanks for Outlook 2010 Help. Read article “Fix Outlook 2010 Problem:PST File Repair Tool”. I am using Win 7 64-Bit with Office 2010 32-Bit; default for loading Office 2010 on Win 7 64-Bit is the 32-Bit Version. I was able to Import my backup pst file from Win XP 32-Bit w/o any problems following your article on “Office Outlook 2010 Import And Export”. Used this article to do the export from Win XP. I located the SCANPST file on my system; the file is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\office14\SCANPST and listed as an Application File. This location is probably due to OS is 64-Bit and Office 2010 is 32-Bit. My problem is that the Outlook Data File is not located in C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\[Name].pst as you indicated. After importing my backed up pst file and setting up my first email account I found the Outlook Data File located in My Documents\Outlook Files\Outlook [as Type Outlook Data File]. I cannot fine a Folder on my system for AppData/Local/Microsoft. Any Suggestions? Can I Move the Outlook Data File to a different location and not have it in My Documents folder which seems to be a risky place to have it. Thanks. ps sorry for the long message.

    • Tom N

      I find the file location kind of (actually VERY) scary. If you move it (which you could do with all previous version of Outlook), you get “access” errors, even though the “Test” button works just fine. Hope someone knows of a solution, because there WILL be a lot of accidental (PEBCAK errors) lost .pst files.

  • Debbie

    Outlook 2010 would not open, period – and this fixed it. Had to do some searching to find my .pst file, but finally did locate it. Thanks!!

    • Suzyn

      Unparalleled accuracy, unequivocal clarity, and unnedibale importance!

  • areacode514

    To Gary McJim, thanks for letting me know that with Windows 7 64-bit, the location of the SCANPST exe file is in a different folder. Otherwise I would not have even thought of looking in \Program Files (x86).

  • John

    I have been working to repair outlook pst file last 2 days…….Given above article helps me more to solve the pst related issues

  • Cynthia

    THANK GOODNESS and YOU for the answer to this question regarding the file to correct Outlook . I have no idea what corrupted my outlook but am so grateful for your help.

  • iyad

    thanks a lot
    really it is very useful tools
    i can recover all my emails through it

  • chris swaine

    Fantastic – your very helpful instructions fixed my outlook 2010 which was just hanging on startup. Phew! Many thanks…Chris…

  • hannah

    I do not have the SCANPST.EXE file… what do i do?

  • Vincent Pao

    I’m using Micriosoft Outlook 2010. I can’t click and open excel file from in coming email attached? How to fix it? Thanks for help

  • Erica

    I don’t have the AppData folder. I had ported over data from one computer into another. Is something wrong w/the install?

    • ONSFIX

      Erica, while transferring data from one computer to other computer. You should have enabled the Hidden folders and copied that data too.

      Open My computer > Organize > Folder options > View > Check “show hidden folders” > click OK.

      Now, in MY computer > C:/ Drive > Users > open  ”your user account name ” folder & you will find the APP DATA folder 

  • sarah

    Such tools are also available to convert ost to pst file . Convert OSt to PST tools converts ost file to pst file and recover all ost file components. I recovered my ost file by a tool available at http://www.convert-osttopst.com

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  • Data Recovery

    recover pst file fast and easy :- http://www.pstrecovery.net

  • shrikanth

    Hi,

    I find the above mentioned blog to be very useful in locating scanpst.exe location . But not all time you can retrieve your data and information using this technique. So my advice will be to first take the back up of your data before repairing the PST file.

    Thanks

  • stephen rickard

    Great i fixed the probellm at last. I hope !!! took a while to find the path as it was in hidden files, but got there in the end

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  • Graham

    My Inbox shows 63 unread messages however when i filter on anything except attachments it tell me nothing to view, where have my e-mails without attachments gone?? this is driving me insane. please help

  • James

    Well Done Mate. Perfect instructions. Spent much time looking for a resolution, and thank You.

  • Maulik Bhuptani

    I have used Scanpst.exe many times. it is powerful tool.

    Thank you,

    Maulik Bhuptani
    http://www.macrowroldsoftwares.com

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  • Rahat

    you may use pst repair tool from repair pst file.com .. it will fix all your kind of outlook error. such as common error 0×80040600. and other error too..

  • Mahesh Kumar

    hi ,
    I have recently upgraded MS office 2007 to 2010 which is licensed copy and it was sucessfully, but one strange thing i have noticed is when ever i click on any mail it pops up some junk characters to save as, i have tried multiple combination to fix this issue , please help is some one has any solution for this , not sure if thats is os problem .I am using windows 7 enterprise version .

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RSR63K6DIPU4GD2E3FECY5AHYE Robert

    PST is really getting a big problem for Outlook users.But thanks to software tools provider that still there are so many Outlook Repair tools available in the market so that we can repair our Outlook in case of crash and deletion.

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  • Farkass

    fuck !!!! this is not free !!!!

  • Hwaa_87

    Hello , please can you help me? i have an account in outlook, when i open it, the messages comes to inbox, without saving it, because when i close it and open it again all message gone *_* what i do to save messages in inbox, help please

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  • Dontemail

    Thanks a lot…..it saved my one year of hard work…

  • PO

    all of this didn’t work for me.  Tried the fix tool, didn’t work.  I tried uninstalling office, and reinstalling thinking it would recreate the .pst file, but it didn’t.  I ended up copying a .pst file from another computer in our office and pasting into the location on my computer and all is well.  

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  • 06pm

    Thanks a lot, it just worked fine !

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  • ost

    SysTools OST Recoery tool to help corrupt ost file repair and convert ost to pst

  • Nloveless

    Thank you sooo much!

  • Chris Weiss

    Wow…. outlook loaded 10x faster after repairing the open issues. Thank you!

  • klotom

    This worked great but my SCANPST.exe was located here C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice14

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=674134485 Nancy Tomasheski

    Oh, my goodness – thank you so much!! I’ve been troubleshooting all day. In retrospect, yes, I should have thought of the .pst … but instead I’ll just be grateful that you were here to provide the answer.

  • Marshal Hubs

    SCAN.PST tool repairs the corrupted PST
    file. In case Outlook file get highly corrupted then Inbox Repair
    tool does not work and you need Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair
    software to resolve all corruption issue. This way you can safely
    recover your email data from damaged PST file.

  • DisgruntledOutlookUser

    You forgot to mention the cost involved for actually being able to save the file that the Stellar Phoenix program fixes. Nearly $128

    The scanpst option did find errors and says it repaired them, but my email was not recovered. I attempted to use this file several times and it kept saying there were errors. If it was fixed, why are there still errors?