7/16/2019 Pst Files In OutlookDo you have a file with PST extension? Want to open the PST file on your Windows 10 PC but don’t have Microsoft Office Outlook installed? Want to open the PST file without the Outlook software? In this guide, we will understand what a PST file is and how to open it without installing Office Outlook on Windows 10. ![]()
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A PST file is nothing but Outlook data file and contains emails, contacts, and calendar events in your mailbox. You can export all emails, contacts and calendar events from Outlook.com or Office Outlook program to a PST file to back up your inbox. What if you have a PST file but don’t have Outlook software installed on your PC? Well, luckily, there are a few free tools around to help you open and read PST file without the Outlook software. Pst Files In Outlook Windows 10![]() IMPORTANT: Please make sure that the PST file is not open with any other program before opening it with one of the below mentioned tools. SysInfoTools PST File ViewerSysInfoTools PST File Viewer (free version) is an excellent piece of software designed to open and read PST file contents without Outlook. The software can even open corrupt and large PST files, according to the developer of the software. The best thing about this software is that it can export all data like your emails, calendars, tasks and contacts to an HTML file. A paid version of the software is also present with additional features, but the free version is sufficient for all users. PST ViewerPST Viewer is another free software out there to open and read emails, calendars, contacts and other information from PST files without having to install Office Outlook software. The software can easily open large PST files without any issues. This software supports opening multiple PST files, unlike its competitors. PST Viewer can also be used to open password protected PST files (you need to know the password though). And like SysInfoTools PST File Viewer, this tool can also open and read corrupt PST files without any issues. Free PST ViewerFree PST Viewer from GainTools is yet another software developed to enable PC users to open and view PST files without the need of Office Outlook software. The Free PST Viewer can open only one PST file at a time. The program is extremely easy-to-use and requires no expertise. Besides opening PST files, it can also convert PST to MBOX, MSG, and EML/EMLX for ten times. The current version of the program is compatible with XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10. Note that when you install the Free PST Viewer, it shows that it’s a trial copy. The trail copy works for unlimited number of days. It’s just that you cannot use it convert PST to MBOX or MSG files more than ten times. In addition to these methods, you can convert a PST file to MBOX format and then open it with Mozilla Thunderbird, but the catch is that none of the PST to MBOX converter available for Windows are free. Related Articles
Microsoft Outlook may store your Personal Folder files, or PST files, in one of several different locations, depending on which versions of Outlook and Windows you use. It gets even more complicated if you've ever upgraded Outlook or Windows. Fortunately, there's an easy way to track down PST file locations from within Outlook itself. Locating PST FilesThe quickest way to find your PST file is to go to your Account Settings screen and select the 'Data Files' tab. Outlook displays the location of each data file associated with your mailboxes. To open the folder containing the PST file, select an entry and click 'Open Folder Location.' You can access the account settings in Outlook 2103 by selecting 'Account Settings' from the File menu. In Outlook 2010, select 'Info' and then 'Account Settings' from the File menu. PST vs. OSTGenerally, Outlook 2013 uses a PST file only for POP3 mail accounts, and for creating backups and archives. If your data file has an .ost extension, it means you're using an Exchange or IMAP mail account. Outlook saves mail for these types of accounts in an Outlook Data File, or OST file. OST files are just copies of information on your mail server. If you want to back up your mail to your hard drive or a removable device, first export the mailbox to a PST backup file. References (2)About the AuthorAlan Sembera began writing for local newspapers in Texas and Louisiana. His professional career includes stints as a computer tech, information editor and income tax preparer. Sembera now writes full time about business and technology. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Texas A&M University. Cite this ArticleChoose Citation Style
Sembera, Alan. 'How to Locate a PST File in Outlook.' Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/locate-pst-file-outlook-79698.html. Accessed 30 May 2019.
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Pst-files, when you are using a POP3 account, Outlook can’t live without them. Outlook 2010 and previous also used pst-files for caching IMAP data. Jun 25, 2016 - Film marks 20th anniversary of rapper's seminal debut album. A documentary about the making of Jay-Z's 'Reasonable Doubt' has been. Blige, Barry Michael Cooper, DJ Premier, Jay Z. Behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Jay-Z's 1996 debut album Reasonable Doubt. Mar 5, 2018 - That year, the show profiled a rap album for the first and only time with Jay-Z's 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt, with extensive interviews with. Pst-files can also be used for additional storage, archives and exports, even when you are using an Exchange or Outlook.com/Hotmail account. In other words; Pst-files are pretty important to Outlook and knowing how to properly treat pst-files is one of the more important basic Outlook skills as well. This guide contains these basics but also more advanced and additional background information about the pst-file and how you can handle them. Contents of a pst-fileAs mentioned, when using a POP3 account, Outlook uses a PST-file to store your data in. Within this single file, Outlook stores all your folders and items (emails, contacts, appointments, etc…). The default folders within a pst-file for a POP3 account are;
You can add additional pst-files to separate your data between multiple files. In that case, the default folders are Deleted Items and Search Folders. In addition to your folders and items, it also holds some configuration settings like Views, Custom Forms, AutoArchive settings and Rules and Alerts. The Deleted Items folder is a special folder as it can hold all type of items, not just mail items. When a folder gets deleted, it will show up as a subfolder of the Deleted Items folder. Emptying the Deleted Items folder will permanently delete all the items and subfolders from the Deleted Items folder. Location of the pst-filePst-files are created in the following locations by default;
Note: The Tip!
Moving a pst-fileTo move a pst-file, close Outlook and move the file. When you start Outlook, Outlook will prompt you for the new location. Pst-files of IMAP accounts in Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 are an exception though; Moving them will simply create a new pst-file and will re-cache the entire IMAP account. To move a pst-file or ost-file belonging to these accounts see: Moving the ost-file of an Exchange, Outlook.com or IMAP account. If you move a pst-file which is associated with AutoArchive, you must also change your AutoArchive settings to point to the new location or a new archive file will be created. For more details see; Relocate the archive file. Tip! Backing up or copying a pst-fileBacking up a pst-file is as simple as copying it to another location. However, copying a pst-file can only be done when Outlook is closed. If you close Outlook and you still cannot copy the pst-file, you might have a shutdown issue with Outlook. For complete backup and restore instructions see; Backup and Restore. Opening a pst-fileTo open a pst-file use; File-> Open-> Outlook Data File… If you backed up your pst-file to a CD-ROM, DVD or Blu-Ray disk, you’ll first need to copy the pst-file back onto your hard disk. In addition, verify that the “Read Only” file property isn’t enabled as Outlook needs Read and Write access to the file. Important! Removing an opened pst-fileIf you want to remove a pst-file from Outlook, do not delete the file but disconnect/remove/close it in Outlook first. After removing it from Outlook, close Outlook to release the lock on the pst-file and then you can safely delete it. To quickly close a pst-file in Outlook, right click the root folder and choose “Close <name>” or “Remove <name>”
Another way to remove an opened pst-file from your mail profile is to go to the Data Files list, select the pst-file that you want to disconnect, and click the Remove button. This will only remove the file from Outlook and not delete it from your disk.
Note: Deleting a pst-fileIf you want to delete a pst-file from your disk, make sure you have removed the pst-file from Outlook first. If you do not do this, you’ll end up with errors in Outlook could possibly ending up corrupting your mail profile. Deleting a pst-file is really not the way to start Outlook in a clean “non-configured” state. If you want to start over, recreate your mail profile instead. Archive.pst fileThe archive.pst file is the default name for pst-files created by AutoArchive. Subsequent archive files will be numbered like archive1.pst, archive2.pst, etc… AutoArchive is a feature of Outlook to automatically off-load older messages of your main pst-file or Exchange or Outlook.com mailbox to another pst-file. By doing so, you can keep the pst-file with your most current messages smaller which could lead to an improved performance of Outlook and faster (daily) backups of your main pst-file. Tip! Network support for pst-filesWhile it may sound like a good idea for sharing and centralized backup purposes, you should not connect to a pst-file located on a network share. This configuration is not recommended or supported by Microsoft. Doing so could lead to poor performance of Outlook, data corruption or even data loss. Several features such as Instant Search and AutoArchive could also stop functioning or produce errors when the pst-file is located on a network drive. To still have the benefit of a centralized backup system, you can use the free Personal Folders Backup Add-in by Microsoft. This allows you set reminders to make a backup when you close Outlook (as often as once a day) and initiate a backup for all your pst-files to a network share with a single click. Note: ![]() Fixing a broken pst-file with scanpst.exeWhen a pst-file gets corrupted you can use scanpst.exe to search for and fix errors. Tool Tips! Popular data recovery tools for Outlook are;
Use their trial versions first to determine if they can recover more data from your pst-file than scanpst.exe. ANSI and Unicode formatted pst-filesPst File In Outlook 2010 LocationWith Outlook 2003, the format of the pst-file changed from ANSI to Unicode. The main reason for this was to allow for international character support and to extend the maximum size of the pst-files beyond the 2GB limit of the ANSI formatted pst-files.
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Maximum size of a pst-filePst-file which are in ANSI format can become up to 2GB. If the file grows any larger, it could become corrupted and you won’t be able to open it in Outlook anymore. In that case, you’ll have to use the PST2GB crop tool to reduce its size before you can open it again. The new Unicode formatted pst-files have a configured maximum size of 20GB in Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007. In Outlook 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and Office 365 this limit has been set to 50GB. You can increase the maximum size of a Unicode formatted pst-file by modifying a Registry value. For details see; Increase maximum size pst-files. Reducing the size of a pst-fileAs the pst-file is a database file, it will not directly shrink in size after you have deleted something from it and emptied the Deleted Items folder. This is to optimize performance as shrinking and expanding files is a relatively slow process. The space that is left by these permanently deleted items is known as “white space”. Outlook will automatically start compacting the pst-file when there is more than 20% of “white space” in the pst-file and the computer is left idle with Outlook running. During this compacting process, the free space within the pst-file is returned to the disk and the file will become smaller. Tips!
System Restore and pst-filesBecause of the original location of the pst-file (the local profile folder of the user) it is a common misconception that using System Restore will allow you to recover a deleted or corrupted pst-file. This is however not the case; a pst-file isn’t a system file but a data file. This means the opposite is also true; running a System Restore will not delete any of your received messages from after the restore date. However, when going for a System Restore, it is always recommended to have a proper backup of your Outlook data as well as any other data that you hold dear. Difference between ost-files and pst-filesIf you are using an IMAP, Exchange or Outlook.com account, you might have noticed that there are also ost-files. Ost-files are cached copies of IMAP, Exchange or Hotmail mailboxes to improve performance and also allow you to access them off-line. Unlike pst-files, ost-files are tied to the mail account configuration and cannot be opened individually. Restoring access to an ost-file can be done via System Restore if you only just deleted the account but still have the ost-file. Doing a System Restore will restore your mail profile configuration and thus also the account which belonged to the ost-file. If all you have is an ost-file and the System Restore method didn’t work or it has been too long since you deleted the mail account, then there are several data recovery tools available to convert an ost-file into a pst-file such as Stellar Converter for OST. For additional recovery tools see; Data recovery tools. When you add an email account to Outlook, a local copy of your information is stored on your computer. This feature allows you to access your previously downloaded or synchronized email messages, calendar information, contacts, and tasks without an internet connection. Certain types of accounts, such as POP accounts, store their information in Outlook Data Files (.pst files). Outlook 365 accounts, Exchange accounts, IMAP accounts, and Outlook.com accounts store their information in Offline Outlook Data Files (.ost files). Outlook Data File (.pst)An Outlook Data File (.pst) contains your messages and other Outlook items and is saved on your computer. POP accounts—which is a common type of account you can create when adding an email account from an internet service provider (ISP) like Xfinity or AT&T or Cox—download all of your email messages from your mail server and save them on your computer. Tip: If your Outlook Data File (.pst) becomes large it can slow down your OneDrive sync and may show 'Processing changes' or 'A file is in use'. Learn How to remove an Outlook .pst data file from OneDrive. Note: In Outlook 2013 and earlier versions, IMAP accounts also used an Outlook Data File (.pst). In Outlook 2016 and Outlook for Office 365, IMAP accounts use Offline Outlook Data Files (.ost). You can also use an Outlook Data File (.pst) to backup or export items from any type of email account. For more information on backing up your email messages, calendar, contact, and task data, see Export or backup email, contacts, and calendar to an Outlook .pst file. You can also import email messages, calendar, contact, and task data from another Outlook Data File (.pst). For more information about importing items, see Import email, contacts, and calendar from an Outlook .pst file. Note: You cannot import from an Offline Outlook Data File (.ost) file. Because these files are saved on your computer, they aren’t subject to mailbox size limits on a mail server. By moving items to an Outlook Data File (.pst) on your computer, you can free up storage space in the mailbox on your mail server. When messages or other Outlook items are saved in an Outlook Data File (.pst), the items are available only on the computer where the file is saved. Offline Outlook Data File (.ost)Most other account types, such as IMAP accounts, Office 365 accounts, Exchange accounts, and Outlook.com accounts use an Offline Outlook Data File (.ost) file to store a synchronized copy of your mailbox information on your local computer. When your connection to the mail server is interrupted, for example, when you're on an airplane without WiFi or if your internet connection disconnects, you can still access all emails, calendar data, contacts, and tasks that have been previously downloaded. You can read and compose messages, create appointments, and add contacts. However, your email messages won't be sent and no new messages will be downloaded until your internet connection is restored. When the connection is restored, changes are automatically synchronized, and the folders and items on the server and on your computer are identical again. File locationsThe fastest way to open the folder where your Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost) are saved is to do the following:
Outlook Data Files (.pst) created by using Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2016 are typically saved on your computer in the DocumentsOutlook Files folder. If you upgraded to Outlook on a computer that already had data files that were created in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or earlier, these files are saved in a different location in a hidden folder at drive:UsersuserAppDataLocalMicrosoftOutlook. Tip: If your Outlook Data File (.pst) becomes large it can slow down your OneDrive sync and may show 'Processing changes' or 'A file is in use'. Learn How to remove an Outlook .pst data file from OneDrive. The offline Outlook Data File (.ost) is also saved at drive:UsersuserAppDataLocalMicrosoftOutlook. Most data remains on the server; however, any items that are saved locally should be backed up. For example, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, and any folders marked Local only. Tip: For information about hidden folders in Windows, see Windows Help and Support. Related TopicsCreate an Outlook Data File (.pst) to save your information Most people know that Outlook stores email for each account in a personal table storage (PST) file, but figuring out where that file is located depends on what version of Outlook you’re using. Here’s where Outlook stores your files and how you can move them if you need to. Outlook is still one of the best desktop email clients for Windows and is the de facto client in most businesses that use a Microsoft Exchange email server. Outlook also works well for personal use. It always provided good support for regular POP3 and IMAP accounts, but has also made a lot of progress in recent years at playing well with email services like Gmail and Outlook.com. It also provides a solid calendar and reminder system that are well integrated. Most of the time, you won’t need to bother with where your Outlook data files are located. But if you want to ensure the files are getting backed up or you want to move them to another hard drive to save space, here’s how to find and work with them. What Is a PST file?If you’ve used Outlook for any length of time, you’ve likely heard of PST files. Each email account you set up in Outlook gets its own database in the form of a personal storage table (PST) file, where emails, calendar items, contacts, and reminders are all stored. The data in a PST file may or may not be compressed and encrypted, depending on your settings.You may notice that Outlook slows down as more data is stored in your PST file. Occasionally, Outlook will offer to archive your old emails to help alleviate this problem and just so that you have fewer old items to wade through as you go about your day. You may also notice files with an .ost extension in your Outlook data folder. OST files are the same format as PST, but are generally used as temporary offline storage of email for Exchange servers and for webmail hosts such as Gmail and Outlook.com. The idea is that you can still interact with the messages stored in the OST file when you are disconnected from the email server–such as when you have no internet–and then when you reconnect to the server again, Outloook syncs everything up. This means your data will be stored in a PST file if you’re using a standard POP3 or IMAP account, or an Exchange account where offline storage is not configured. Gmail, Outlook.com, and other webmail hosts will get an OST file instead. Exchange accounts may even use both an OST file for offline access and a PST file for data backup. Where Are My PST and OST Files Saved?Where Outlook saves your data files depends on the version of Outlook you’re running. By default, Outlook 2007 and 2010 store PST files in your AppData folder at the following location: Outlook also stores all OST files in that same AppData location, regardless of what Outlook version you’re running. Starting with Outlook 2013, the location of PST files moved to the Documents folder. Outlook 2013 and 2016 now store PST files at the following location: You can also find out exactly where the PST file for an email account is stored from within Outlook. In Outlook 2010, 2013, and 2016, click the “File” menu, choose the “Account Settings” dropdown menu, and then click “Account Settings.” In Outlook 2007, you’ll find the “Account Settings” option on the “Tools” menu. In the “Account Settings” window, on the “Data Files” tab, select the account you want to investigate and then click the “Open File Location” button. Outlook will open a File Explorer window showing the folder containing your PST file (or OST file if you selected an account that uses one). How Can I Move My PST File?If you’d like to move your Outlook files off your primary hard drive, or just place your Outlook files in a more manageable location, there is a way. However, you can’t simply move them to a new location using File Explorer. If you try, Outlook will just create a new PST file in its default location and you may lose access to some of what’s stored in your real PST. Instead, you’ll need to dive briefly into the Windows Registry to change the default location where Outlook stores data files, and then move your existing PST file in File Explorer. Standard warning: Registry Editor is a powerful tool and misusing it can render your system unstable or even inoperable. This is a pretty simple hack and as long as you stick to the instructions, you shouldn’t have any problems. That said, if you’ve never worked with it before, consider reading about how to use the Registry Editor before you get started. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) before making changes. Start by making sure that Outlook is not running. Then, open the Registry Editor by hitting Start and typing “regedit.” Press Enter to open Registry Editor and give it permission to make changes to your PC. In the Registry Editor, use the left sidebar to navigate one of the following keys, depending on what version of Outlook you have: Next, you’ll create a new value inside that Double-click the new You can now exit Registry Editor. Outlook should now create new PST files in the location you specified and you can also now use File Explorer to drag the PST file from your old location to the new one. When you reopen Outlook, everything should continue working as before. Whether you’re a professional with years of emails in Outlook or a personal user that wants to backup their Gmail account offline, Outlook is a standard tool of many of our daily lives. Now you know a bit more about your Outlook data files and what you can do with them. With today’s massive inbox sizes, your PST files can often be some of your larger personal data files, but the methods shown in this article can help you store your data files where you want. Comments are closed.
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