. you must also change your AutoArchive to point to the new location or a new archive file will be created. If you want to remove a pst-file from Outlook. Most people know that Outlook stores your email in a PST file. Where is My PST File and How Can I Move It Somewhere Else? Point it to your new location. . Make sure you point it to the same pst-file and not another or you’ll. To change the location of an IMAP pst-file in Outlook 2010 and previous see Moving an. If you are using a Microsoft Exchange Server account, an Outlook Data File (.pst). On the Home tab, in the New group, click New Items, point to More Items.
Outlook PST file (Personal Storage. Outlook PST files (Personal Storage Table files) Tweet. 5 of 11Previous Next. What is a.PST file? point Outlook to your. Where is my Outlook “PST” file located? default location to that folder and make the necessary change in the Data folder settings in Outlook to point to the. . select Outlook Data File (*.pst). Click Yes to have Outlook update the Outlook Bar shortcuts so that they point to your new.pst file location.
About the Outlook PST- File - How. To- Outlook. Pst- files, unless you are using an Exchange or Outlook. Hotmail account, Outlook can’t live without them. The pst- file is also known as Personal Folders and Outlook Data File. Knowing how to properly treat pst- files is one of the more important basic Outlook skills. 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- file. If you are not using an Exchange account or Outlook. Hotmail 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 are; Inbox.
Drafts. Outbox. Sent Items. Deleted Items. Junk E- mail (since Outlook 2. Search Folders (since Outlook 2. RSS Feeds (since Outlook 2. Calendar. Contacts. Suggested Contacts (Outlook 2.
Tasks. Notes. Journal. Default folders in Outlook 2. 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, Auto. Archive 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- file. Pst- files are created in the following locations by default; Outlook 2.
Windows XP C: \Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook 2. Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 1. C: \Users\%username%\App. Data\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook 2. Windows XPC: \Documents and Settings\%username%\My Documents\Outlook Files.
Outlook 2. 01. 0, Outlook 2. Outlook 2. 01. 6 on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 1. C: \Users\%username%\Documents\Outlook Files. Note: Upgrading to Outlook 2. Outlook 2. 01. 3 or Outlook 2. While it is not required to move it, it is recommended to do so. See the Moving a pst- file section for more details.
The Local Settings and App. Data folders are hidden folders. If you don’t have Windows configured to show hidden files and folders, you can type or paste the above paths directly in the title bar of Explorer as well to access them. Tip! A quick way to open the location of a pst- file is to bring up the Data Files list in Outlook, select the pst- file and then press the “Open Folder…” or “Open File Location” button.
Outlook 2. 00. 3 and Outlook 2. File- > Data File Management…Outlook 2. Outlook 2. 01. 3 and Outlook 2.
File- > Account Settings- > Account Settings…- > tab Data. Quickly open the folder location of a pst- file from the Data Files tab.
Moving a pst- file. To 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 and Hotmail Connector accounts are an exception though, moving them will simply create a new pst- file and will re- cache the entire IMAP or Outlook. Hotmail account. To move a pst- file or ost- file belonging to these accounts see: Moving the ost- file or pst- file of an Outlook. IMAP account. If you move a pst- file which is associated with Auto. Archive, you must also change your Auto. Archive to point to the new location or a new archive file will be created. For more details see; Relocate the archive file.
Tip! If you end up moving the pst- file out of the default location each time, you could change this default location via the Registry; Change default location for pst and ost files. Backing up or copying a pst- file. Backing 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- file. To open a pst- file use; File- > Open- > Outlook Data File…If you backed up your pst- file to a CD- ROM or DVD, you’ll first need to copy the pst- file back to 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! Never try to open a pst- file by overwriting an existing pst- file. Doing so will corrupt your mail profile and could lead to countless of “weird” issues. Removing an opened pst- file. If 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> ”. The root folder is the top folder of a mailbox. 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. Outlook 2. 00. 3 and Outlook 2. File- > Data File Management…Outlook 2.
Outlook 2. 01. 3 and Outlook 2. File- > Account Settings- > Account Settings…- > tab Data. Note: You cannot remove a pst- file which is marked as the default or pst- files which are still associated with an e- mail account. Deleting a pst- file.
If 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 file. The archive. pst file is the default name for pst- files created by Auto. Archive. Subsequent archive files will be numbered like archive.
Auto. Archive is a feature of Outlook to automatically off- load older messages of your main pst- file or Exchange or Hotmail 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! Schedule the frequency of the backups of your archive. Auto. Archive to make sure you still have a copy of all your mail.
If you enable Auto. Archive, the default archiving interval is 1. Network support for pst- files. While 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 Auto.
Archive 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: The Outlook Backup add- in requires an additional registry key change for Outlook 2. The add- in doesn’t function with Outlook 2.
Fixing a broken pst- file with scanpst. When a pst- file gets corrupted you can use scanpst. The location of scanpst. Outlook. To find the location of scanpst. Outlook and how you can use it to repair your pst- file see; Using the Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst. Tool Tips! Scanpst. When a pst- file is too badly corrupted you can then try repairing or salvage recoverable items via a 3rd party recovery tool.
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. ANSI and Unicode formatted pst- files. With Outlook 2. 00. 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 2.
GB limit of the ANSI formatted pst- files. Newly created pst- file in Outlook 2. Unicode format by default. Outlook 2. 00. 2/XP and previous cannot open Unicode formatted pst- files. Outlook 2. 00. 3 and later can open both ANSI and Unicode pst- files. Unicode formatted pst- files created in either version of Outlook can be opened in Outlook 2.
Maximum size of a pst- file. Pst- file which are in ANSI format can become up to 2. GB. 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 PST2.
GB crop tool to reduce its size before you can open it again. The new Unicode formatted pst- files have a configured maximum size of 2. GB in Outlook 2. 00. Outlook 2. 00. 7.
In Outlook 2. 01. Outlook 2. 01. 3 and Outlook 2. GB. 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- file. As 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 2.
Outlook running. During this compacting process, the free space within the pst- file is returned to the disk and the file will become smaller. System Restore and pst- files.