
Throughout his career, he has covered complex concepts and provided accessible solutions for users. Before joining Secure Data, he worked as a freelance technical writer. If you moved your data file or its location changed somehow, Outlook might not be able to find
Office 365 Sync Errors Fix it.
Fixing 'Outlook Data File Cannot Be Accessed' Error on PC
That way, you can access previously downloaded or synchronized messages, as well as calendar information, contacts, and tasks even when you’re offline. In this step-by-step guide, you’ll find practical methods to resolve the error and recover your
FixTechGuide support for Office 365 data, whether you’re dealing with a corrupted file or a disconnected profile. The error message indicates corruption in the Outlook data (PST) file. However, the error may also occur due to various other reasons.
- Find solutions to common problems or get help from a support agent.
- You may need to move the Outlook data file back down from OneDrive.
- Sometimes, data files get corrupted in a way that none of the methods above can help.
- The Inbox Repair tool creates a backup file with the same name as the original, but with a .bak extension, and saves it in the same folder.
- Our Outlook Express file repair software is designed to help you repair your files and recover your data, so you don’t lose access to anything you need.
- If your email server supports both IMAP and POP3, auto account setup will create an IMAP account by default.
Stack Exchange Network

By default, the Outlook data file resides in your local user's \"Documents\" folder. So you'll want to make sure OneDrive is not syncing that folder. By default, the Outlook data file resides in your local user's "Documents" folder. In the Folder Pane, you might see a folder named Recovered Personal Folders that contains your default Outlook folders or a Lost and Found folder. Although the repair process might recreate some of the folders, they may be empty. The Lost and Found folder contains any folders and items recovered by the repair tool that Outlook can't place in their original structure.
What Our Users Say

If repairing the file doesn’t solve the issue, you can try creating a new Outlook profile and adding your existing file to it. This could help if you’re dealing with configuration issues but the file itself is okay. I successfully moved my Outlook PST files onto my new computer. The issue I got caught on relates to the required steps in Outlook to switch files. I am transferring all my files from a Windows 10 PC to a new Windows 11 PC and am having issues moving my Outlook .PST files for POP accounts.
Repair Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost)
You can use the Inbox Repair tool (SCANPST.EXE) to diagnose and repair errors in your Outlook data file. The Inbox Repair tool checks the Outlook data files on your computer to see if they're in good shape. It can recover all the mailbox items from the corrupted file and save them to a new PST file, which you can import into your Outlook profile. It can also allow saving the recovered PST data to other file formats, like MSG, EML, HTML, RTF, and PDF.
Method 2 - Manually create an IMAP or POP3 email account
Sometimes, data files get corrupted in a way that none of the methods above can help. This might happen due to a power failure or improper shutdown, hardware issues, or viruses and malware. This could happen if, for example, OneDrive backs up your Documents folder
reset cached Exchange mode to the cloud and includes the Outlook Files folder where the file is located.