Summary

Somebody has handed you a .pst file, or one has surfaced from an old computer, and you need to read what is inside it. This article shows you how to attach the archive to Outlook, locate the file when nobody remembers where it lives, search it, move the mail you need into your real mailbox, close it again safely, and repair it when it refuses to open.

In this guide

• 1. Open the .pst File in Classic Outlook
• 2. Find a .pst File When You Do Not Know Where It Is
• 3. Read and Search the Mail Inside It
• 4. Copy Mail Out of the .pst So It Is Actually Backed Up
• 5. Close the File Without Deleting It
• 6. Open a Password-Protected .pst File
• 7. Repair a Damaged .pst File With SCANPST.EXE

Before You Start

• Classic Outlook for Windows. New Outlook and Outlook on the web cannot open .pst files at all. If you have already moved to new Outlook, How to Switch Between New Outlook and Classic Outlook on Windows gets you back for as long as you need.
• The .pst file itself, stored on a local drive. Copy it off a USB stick, network share, or OneDrive folder before you open it.
• The password, if the file was protected when it was created. See Step 6.
• No admin rights are required for any step in this guide.

Instructions

1. Open the .pst File in Classic Outlook

Opening a data file attaches it to your Outlook profile. Nothing is uploaded, nothing merges with your mailbox, and nothing about the file changes — Outlook reads it where it sits.

1. Open classic Outlook and click File at the far left of the ribbon. The backstage view opens on the Account Information page. If there is no File tab, you are in new Outlook — see the Prerequisites above.
2. Click Open & Export in the left column.
3. In the pane on the right, click Open Outlook Data File. It sits in a column of buttons alongside Open Calendar, Import/Export, and Other User's Folder.
4. A file browser titled Open Outlook Data File appears, already pointing at C:\Users\<your name>\Documents\Outlook Files. Select your .pst and click OK. If it is somewhere else, browse to it — Step 2 covers where to look.
5. The dialog closes. A new top-level entry appears at the bottom of the folder list on the left, below your mailbox. It is named Outlook Data File, or whatever display name the file carries — often Archive or the previous owner's name.

Verification: Click the arrow to the left of the new entry to expand it. Its own Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, and any folders the original owner created appear beneath it. Click one and the messages load in the message list.

Note: Opening is not importing. The archive stays a separate file, its own top-level branch in the folder list, and closing Outlook does not merge it into anything. To genuinely combine it with your mailbox, move the mail across as described in Step 4.

2. Find a .pst File When You Do Not Know Where It Is

Archives hide in a small number of predictable places. Work down this list.

The two default locations:

• C:\Users\<your name>\Documents\Outlook Files\ — Outlook 2013 and later put exports and AutoArchive files here. This is the first place to look.
• C:\Users\<your name>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\ — older versions and some IT-configured installations use this. AppData is a hidden folder, so it does not appear when you browse normally.

To reach the hidden folder without changing any Windows settings, open File Explorer, click once in the address bar at the top so the path becomes editable, type %localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook, and press Enter. The folder opens regardless of whether hidden items are visible.

To search the whole drive:

1. Open File Explorer and click This PC in the left sidebar.
2. Click the search box at the top right, type *.pst, and press Enter. The search takes a few minutes across a full drive.
3. Right-click a column header and add Size if it is not shown, then sort by it. A real archive runs from tens of megabytes to several gigabytes; anything a few hundred kilobytes in size is an empty stub.

To see the files Outlook already has attached, click File > Account Settings > Account Settings, then open the Data Files tab. Each row lists a file name and its full path. Select a row and click Open File Location to jump straight to that folder in File Explorer. This is the fastest way to find an archive that Outlook was already showing you last week.

Tip: If the file arrived by email, on a USB stick, or from a network share, copy it to a local folder such as C:\Outlook Archives\ before opening it. Microsoft does not support .pst files on network drives or OneDrive-synced folders — a dropped connection mid-write corrupts the file, and OneDrive re-uploading a multi-gigabyte file every few minutes is its own problem.

3. Read and Search the Mail Inside It

Outlook treats an open data file as a second mailbox, which matters mostly for search.

1. Expand the archive's entry in the folder list and click any folder inside it. Messages load exactly as they do in your inbox, and you can open, reply to, forward, and print them normally.
2. Click the Search box at the top of the Outlook window. The Search tab appears on the ribbon.
3. Set the scope using the buttons on that tab: Current Folder, Subfolders, Current Mailbox, or All Mailboxes. With a folder inside the archive selected, Current Mailbox searches the whole .pst — Outlook counts the data file as the current mailbox. All Mailboxes covers your live mailbox and every open archive at once.
4. Type your terms and press Enter. Each result shows its folder name underneath, so you can tell archive hits from live-mailbox hits at a glance.

Note: Windows Search indexes a newly opened .pst the first time, and a large file takes anywhere from several minutes to a few hours. Until it finishes, a banner reads Outlook is currently indexing your items. Search results may be incomplete. and older messages are missing from results. Leave Outlook open and running to let it complete. If results are still incomplete a day later, How to Fix Outlook Search Not Finding Emails has the index rebuild.

4. Copy Mail Out of the .pst So It Is Actually Backed Up

This is the step people skip and later regret. A .pst sits on one hard drive. Your organization's backup covers the mail server, not a file in your Documents folder — so if that drive fails or the laptop is swapped, the archive goes with it. Move anything you would be sorry to lose into your server mailbox.

1. Expand the archive in the folder list and open the folder holding the messages you want.
2. Select messages: click the first, then hold Shift and click the last to take a run; hold Ctrl and click to pick individually; press Ctrl + A to take every message in the folder.
3. Right-click the selection, point to Move, and click Other Folder. The Move Items dialog opens with your full folder list.
4. Select the destination folder inside your mailbox and click OK. A progress bar appears for large batches.

To take a whole folder with its subfolders, drag the folder from the archive onto your mailbox name in the folder list. Outlook rebuilds the folder structure on the other side. Hold Ctrl while dragging to copy instead of move.

To leave the archive untouched, use Copy to Folder rather than Move — it sits in the same right-click menu, one entry below.

Note: Mail moved into your mailbox counts toward your storage quota. Check what you have left before shifting several gigabytes across, and use the server-side Online Archive if it is available to you — How to Manage Your Outlook Mailbox Storage and Avoid "Mailbox Full" Errors shows how to read your current usage in one click.

Tip: Give the imported mail its own folder rather than dropping it into your inbox. How to Create and Manage Outlook Folders covers the structure that keeps an inherited archive separate from your own mail.

5. Close the File Without Deleting It

When you are finished, detach the archive so it stops appearing in your folder list and stops being searched.

1. Right-click the top-level entry for the data file in the folder list — the same one you expanded in Step 1.
2. Click Close "Outlook Data File". The command shows the file's display name in the quotes, so if the archive is named Archive the entry reads Close "Archive".
3. The branch disappears from the folder list immediately. No confirmation prompt appears.

Note: Closing does not delete anything. It removes the file from your Outlook profile only. The .pst stays on disk with every message intact, and Step 1 re-opens it whenever you want. To actually delete the file, close it first and then delete it in File Explorer — Outlook keeps a lock on an open data file, and Windows refuses to delete, rename, or move it until you close it.

To rename the entry so you can tell three archives apart, right-click the top-level entry, click Data File Properties, click Advanced on the General tab, and type a new name in the Name box. Click OK twice. This changes the label in the folder list only — the file on disk keeps its original filename.

6. Open a Password-Protected .pst File

Some archives were password-protected when they were created, usually during an export.

1. Select the file in Step 1 and click OK. A dialog titled Outlook Data File Password appears instead of the file opening.
2. Type the password and click OK. Passwords are case-sensitive.
3. Check Save this password in your password list before clicking OK if you plan to open the file regularly, so Outlook stops asking.

To remove the password from a file you can already open, right-click its top-level entry in the folder list, click Data File Properties > Advanced > Change Password. Type the current password in Old password, leave New password and Verify password blank, and click OK.

When nobody remembers the password, there is no recovery route inside Outlook. The password is stored in the file itself, not on the server, so IT cannot unlock it either and Microsoft publishes no tool for it. Two things are worth trying before you give up on the contents:

• Ask the person who created it. The most common answer is that no password was set and the prompt is coming from a different file than the one they meant to hand over.
• Ask IT whether the same mail still exists on the server. Recovering from Exchange is far more likely to succeed than opening the file. Send them this:

Subject: Archive recovery request

I have a password-protected .pst file from name's old mailbox that nobody can open. Can you check whether mail from that mailbox between start date and end date is still recoverable from the server, from a retention hold, or through eDiscovery? I need the describe the records correspondence specifically.

7. Repair a Damaged .pst File With SCANPST.EXE

If Outlook refuses to open the file, reports Errors have been detected in the file, opens it but shows empty folders, or freezes whenever you click into it, the file structure is damaged. Outlook ships with a repair tool for exactly this.

Find SCANPST.EXE. It is not on the Start menu and there is no shortcut to it.

1. Open File Explorer, click once in the address bar, and type C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16. Press Enter.
2. Look for SCANPST.EXE in the file list. Type scanpst in the search box if the folder is crowded.
3. If that folder does not exist, you have 32-bit Office on 64-bit Windows. Try C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16 instead. Outlook 2019, 2021, 2024, and Microsoft 365 all use the Office16 folder name regardless of the year on the box.

Run the repair:

1. Close Outlook completely. The tool cannot repair a file Outlook has open. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, look for Microsoft Outlook in the Processes list, and click End task if it is still listed.
2. Double-click SCANPST.EXE. A small window titled Microsoft Outlook Inbox Repair Tool opens.
3. Click Browse, select the damaged .pst, and click Open. The path appears in the box at the top.
4. Click Start. The tool runs eight phases and shows a progress bar. Several gigabytes take half an hour or more. Leave it alone until it stops.
5. If problems are found, the tool lists them and the Repair button becomes available. Check Make a backup of scanned file before repairing and note the path beneath it — the backup is written alongside the original with a .bak extension.
6. Click Repair. When Repair complete appears, click OK.
7. Re-open Outlook and open the file again using Step 1.

Note: SCANPST.EXE repairs the file's structure, not its contents. Anything it cannot rebuild is discarded, so a badly damaged archive comes back smaller than it went in. Run the tool a second and third time — each pass often clears errors the previous one left behind. If it still reports problems after three runs, the file is past what this tool recovers, and the server-side recovery request in Step 6 is your better option.

Troubleshooting

WARNING

New Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web cannot open .pst files at all — not through Import, not through settings, not through any add-in. This is the single biggest surprise with inherited archives, because a machine set up in the last two years often has new Outlook as the default. Classic Outlook for Windows is required, and it is the only option on a Mac too, where Outlook imports .pst contents rather than opening the file in place.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
There is no File tab in the Outlook ribbon	Running new Outlook, not classic	.pst files open only in classic Outlook for Windows. Switch back using How to Switch Between New Outlook and Classic Outlook on Windows.
The file is in use and could not be accessed	Outlook still running, or file on a synced drive	Close Outlook and end any leftover Microsoft Outlook task in Task Manager. If the file sits on OneDrive or a network share, copy it to a local folder first (Step 2).
The file is not an Outlook data file (.pst)	Damaged header or an interrupted transfer	Run SCANPST.EXE against it (Step 7). If the file was emailed or downloaded, request a fresh copy — a truncated transfer produces this exact message.
The archive opens but every folder is empty	File damage, or a collapsed folder tree	Right-click the top-level entry, click Data File Properties > Folder Size and read the totals. If they show 0 KB, run SCANPST.EXE (Step 7).
Outlook asks for a password nobody has	Password set by the original owner	Nothing in Outlook recovers it. Ask IT to check whether the mail is still recoverable from the server, using the wording in Step 6.
Errors appear as the file approaches 2 GB	Old ANSI-format .pst from Outlook 2002 or earlier	ANSI files cap at 2 GB and corrupt at the limit. Move the mail into your mailbox or a newly created data file (Step 4) rather than adding to it.

Related Articles

• How to Archive Old Emails in Outlook
• How to Manage Your Outlook Mailbox Storage and Avoid "Mailbox Full" Errors
• How to Switch Between New Outlook and Classic Outlook on Windows
• Understanding Outlook Versions — Classic vs. New vs. Web
• How to Fix Outlook Search Not Finding Emails
• How to Create and Manage Outlook Folders
• Understanding What to Do When You Leave or Change Jobs — IT Offboarding Checklist

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