When you configure your email account with a POP3 account, Outlook creates a PST – Personal Storage Table file. It stores all your mailbox items like – contacts, emails, attachments, etc. However, the PST file is prone to corruption. When your PST file becomes corrupted, you may face issues like:
- Outlook takes longer to load emails
- Outlook is freezing or crashing
- Slow performance
- Errors while opening emails or folders
- Missing emails, contacts, or calendar items
Such issues can affect your everyday email communication and workflow. But these issues can be easily fixed. In this post, we will be providing effective ways to repair PST file, thus resolving performance and other issues in Outlook.
Why Do PST Files Get Corrupted?
Some common causes of PST file corruption are:
- Large PST file size
- Unexpected system shutdown
- Faulty add-ins
- Outdated Outlook software version
- Bad sectors on your hard drive
- Network outage or interruption
Ways to Repair Corrupted PST File
Below are the solutions to fix PST file corruption and resolve Outlook performance and other issues.
1. Use Outlook Inbox Repair Tool (ScanPST)
You can repair your corrupted PST file by using Microsoft’s built-in Inbox Repair Tool – ScanPST. This tool is designed to check PST files for errors and repair minor to moderate corruption. The steps to repair PST file with SCANPST include:
- Close Outlook application completely.
- Next, find the ScanPST on your system. By default, it is located at the location mentioned below:
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\OfficeXX or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OfficeXX folder.
- When found, double-click on ScanPST to open it.
- Click on Browse.
- Choose your PST file.
- Click on Start to begin the scanning process.
- After the scan completion, the utility displays the errors found.
- Click on Repair.
- Once the repairing is done, restart Outlook.
- ScanPST is able to fix corrupted PST file but it has certain limitations, such as:
- May fail to repair large, highly corrupted PST files.
- Does not recover permanently deleted items.
- Sometimes deletes unrecoverable items.
- It requires to run the utility multiple times to fully fix the issues.
- 2. Use a Professional PST Repair Tool
- A more preferable alternative for repairing PST files would be using a professional PST repair application like “Stellar Repair for Outlook.” The application is capable of repairing highly corrupted PST files in spite of their size. Once the repair is done, it saves your mailbox items to a new PST file with 100% data accuracy.
- Below are some impressive features that make this tool perfect for repairing corrupted PST file:
- Repairs severely corrupted or damaged PST files with ease
- Options to save mail items in different formats, like PST, MSG, EML, RTF, HTML, PDF etc.
- Repairs encrypted PST files.
- Previews Outlook PST mailbox items after repair.
- Recovers deleted mail items from PST.
- Follow the below-mentioned steps to use this tool:
- First, download the tool from the given link:
- https://www.stellarinfo.com/outlook-pst-repair.php
- Then, install it.
- Open the tool after the installation is complete.
- You will see two options: List Profile and Choose Manually.
- Choose List Profiles.
- The software will automatically fetch the PST file linked to your Outlook account from the default location.
- You can select the option “Choose Manually” to browse and select the PST file from any other location.
- After selecting the file, click on Repair.
- The scanning process will start. Let the scan process to complete.
- Now, you will see all the mailbox items of the repaired PST file. You can preview any mailbox item by clicking on it.
- Next, click on Save Repaired File.
- In the Save As window, select the file format as PST and then click on Next.
- Browse the location where you want to save the repaired PST file.
- Select the Recovered Deleted Items and Auto Split File options as per your preference and click OK.
Now, you can import the repaired PST file into your Outlook profile
Corruption in PST file can result in issues like slow loading of mail items, freezing/crashing of application, missing mail items, etc. In this article, we have discussed some of the most common causes behind PST file corruption. You can use ScanPST – Inbox Repair Tool – to fix minor corruption issues in PST file. In case of high level of corruption in the file, use the professional PST repair tool – Stellar Repair for Outlook – mentioned in the article. It can effectively repair large, severely corrupted PST files without altering their original folder structure and hierarchy.
