Repair PST File

Top 5 Outlook Problems that Users Face and How to Fix Them?

Written By Charanjeet Kaur
Approved By Kuljeet Singh
Updated on 23 Jan, 2023
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Summary: In this blog, we will share some common Outlook problems such as; 'Outlook stuck on loading profile', 'Outlook not working', 'Outlook PST is corrupted', & their solutions. Read the blog to see if it includes any Outlook issues that you’ve encountered, and know-how they can be fixed. If you're having trouble accessing your PST file due to issues with your Outlook account, use Stellar Repair for Outlook software to regain access to the PST file.

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There are several attributes that make Microsoft Outlook as one of the most widely used email clients, including a simple-to-use interface, advanced features, and efficiency being the main ones.

However, as crucial as MS Outlook is to manage your work life, some errors can crop up out of nowhere to put a halt, albeit a temporary one, to the regular flow of your daily activities. Some of these common problems with Outlook include freezing, start-up issues, sluggish working, problems with profile handling, etc.

Who knows, you might start loving this simple to fix software even more?

Common Outlook Problems and Solutions

Note: The errors and solutions mentioned below apply to Outlook 2007. Though most of them should work with other versions of Outlook too, you should be aware that they might not.

You might be interested in reading this: How to repair Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010 & 2007

Problem 1 – Outlook Stuck on Loading Profile

This is the most common of Microsoft Outlook problems. Over time, emails, notes, calendar entries, attachments etc. keep piling up in the Outlook PST, making it abnormally large in size. It eventually reaches to such an extent that working with Outlook becomes nearly impossible due to its utterly slow speed. It may cause ’Outlook stuck at loading profile’ issue.

Solution – The first solution here is to reduce PST file size. For this, you need to remove any and everything that is causing the PST to bloat up. Find out the folder called “Larger Than 100 Kb” in Outlook 2007, it will contain all emails that are larger than 100 Kb. Delete all unwanted old emails (especially the ones with bulky attachments). If you really need an attachment, save it to the disk but clear it out of the PST. Also, delete all other unwanted emails and clear out the Trash.

The second thing that could do wonders is Archiving. Archive your emails by year. This will save large amounts of data to your disk, relieving the PST of its burden.

Read this: Five Best Tips to Keep Outlook PST File Size Smaller

Problem 2 – Outlook not Working or Not Responding?

It’s ironic how something that’s meant to help can itself become a cause of the trouble. Many Outlook add-ins claim to help around with Outlook’s working and make things easier for you. Sadly, quite a few add-ins have bugs and many are poorly written. And, using a corrupt add-in may cause Outlook to crash without warning, or it may result in Outlook has stopped working error. Installing too many add-ins can make Outlook slow too.

Other reasons that may cause the email application to crash or halt its working are a corrupt Outlook profile, corruption in Outlook data file, etc.

Solution – To find out if add-ins are causing a problem, start Outlook in safe mode and see if it performs better. If it doesn’t, the problem lies elsewhere. However, if it does, go to Outlook’s Trust Center and disable any suspected add-ins, then restart Outlook normally.

If disabling the add-ins doesn’t help solve the issue, try re-creating your Outlook profile. If this doesn’t help, skip to the next problem and its solution.

Problem 3 – Outlook PST is Corrupted

You’ll know if the PST is corrupted if you start seeing errors pointing out the same on opening Outlook. A corrupt PST file can lead to inaccessibility of all data within your Outlook since it won’t allow it to open.

Solution – Microsoft’s built-in repair utility, ScanPST.exe proves to be quite effective in this situation. You can find it in your Outlook installation folder and just run it. However, if the utility freezes or fails to fix PST file corruption, using Stellar Repair for Outlook software can help.

Read this: [Fix] Scanpst.exe Freezes, Fails on Repairing Outlook PST Files

Problem 4 – An Email on the Office PC Doesn’t Show up on your Laptop

When Outlook is installed on more than one computer, you may find that the email settings on one don’t match the other. Downloading an email on both would also lead to an inconsistency.

Solution – Follow any of these solutions to fix this problem:

Copy the PST file from one computer to the other manually. Whichever computer has all the emails, copy its PST to the other manually, and then restart Outlook.
Switch to IMAP protocol that synchronizes the mail on the server with the mail in Outlook.

Problem 5 – You’re Sending out Spam emails

You may get to know from your contacts that they’ve received unwanted emails from you while you may not be aware of sending them. This could prove to be quite embarrassing if the receiver is an important business associate and the sent out email is inappropriate.

Solution – The cause of this problem could be either a malware-infected computer with access to your email address or your email account being hacked. Changing the password could solve the latter problem. However, if you’re unable to do so, you should contact support immediately and report the issue.

If, however, your computer is virus-infected, scan your entire hard disk with a premium antivirus program, other than your regular one. Meanwhile, also inform your contacts that something like this has happened so that they can be aware of such an issue too.

You can also refer to this Manual guide for outlook related issues

To Sum it Up

Though the above points should pretty much capture most of your Outlook problems such as; ‘Outlook stuck on loading profile’, ‘Outlook not working’, ‘Outlook PST is corrupted’, ‘Outlook PST is corrupted’ however if you’re still facing some issues, you could try other fixes such as rebuilding your Outlook profile, disabling your antivirus, adjusting your calendar permissions, etc.

But, you can save the manual efforts and time spent in Outlook troubleshooting by using Stellar Repair for Outlook software. The software is purpose-built to repair large-sized, severely corrupt PST files. It can also fix common Outlook errors if need be.

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About The Author

Charanjeet Kaur

Charanjeet is a Technical Content Writer at Stellar®who specializes in writing about databases, e-mail recovery, and e-mail migration solutions. She loves researching and developing content that helps database administrators, organizations and novices to fix multiple problems related to MS SQL and MySQL databases and Microsoft Exchange.

110 comments

Jewell says:

June 12, 2017 at 9:49 am

Microsoft ScanPST.exe is free stuff but can’t say how much valid for other users.

I have spent around 4 hours, but the scanning process is still going on.

Reply
1. Eric Simson says:
  
  June 13, 2017 at 10:15 am
  
  Hi Jewell,
  
  Don’t panic with ScanPST.exe!
  
  You can go for the alternative solution. Read the reference
  
  Reply
Abigail says:

May 10, 2017 at 9:00 am

When I am trying to send an email, then reports an Outlook Error 0x800ccc0f.

How can I fix this problem?

Reply
1. Eric Simson says:
  
  May 11, 2017 at 6:07 am
  
  Hello Abigail,
  
  Read our tutorial for eliminating Outlook Error 0x800ccc0f Read More
  
  I suggest diagnosing every reason behind this one error carefully.
  
  Reply
  1. Stephen Harris says:
    
    May 29, 2017 at 5:48 am
    
    Right now, my Outlook 2013 crashes repeatedly without any error message. I also have noticed that safe mode is useless.
  2. Eric Simson says:
    
    May 29, 2017 at 10:15 am
    
    You can try ScanPST.exe i.e. helpful to remove minor error in Outlook database (.pst) file. But, you should take backup of PST file to avoid any adverse outcome.
Charles Wells says:

April 28, 2017 at 9:36 am

Yesterday, My Outlook stopped to work after Windows 10 update.

Why it affects my email application?

Reply
1. Eric Simson says:
  
  May 2, 2017 at 10:00 am
  
  Windows 10 OS update can affect internal structure of Outlook data file (.pst).
  
  Don’t panic about this!
  
  Kindly diagnose Outlook PST file carefully and share the status with us.
  
  Reply
  1. Charles Wells says:
    
    May 9, 2017 at 6:11 am
    
    My Outlook reports an error i.e. “.pst file is not an outlook data file”.
    
    Help me to fix this annoying error.
  2. Eric Simson says:
    
    May 9, 2017 at 6:29 am
    
    If ScanPST.exe is not working then, try alternative solution i.e. Stellar Outlook PST Repair. At the preliminary stage, your IT team can try free demo of this software to judge the accuracy of output.
saudagar somwanshi says:

April 24, 2017 at 5:34 am

Hi,

My emails are suddenly going in the outbox, and I am not able to send single mail and also after clicking send /receive its giving error message like your the capacity of your mail is too large even if its only 6 kb which test mail.

Reply
1. Eric Simson says:
  
  April 25, 2017 at 8:18 am
  
  Are you using webmail account also?
  
  If yes, then log into your account and delete old emails that are heavy in size.
  
  Reply
Dianna Cowden says:

March 19, 2017 at 6:45 am

In my case, I had observed missing emails in Outlook mailbox after installing the antivirus program.

But, this software did a great job to recover all missing emails.

Reply
Natalia Byrd says:

March 12, 2017 at 10:34 am

I have just noticed that size of PST file is responsible for sluggish Outlook performance. So, I am going to try archive method.

Reply
John Webb says:

February 23, 2017 at 10:59 am

Whenever I am trying to open ScanPST.exe, it fails repeatedly. I can’t compromise with safety of important email records. Therefore, I am going to run Stellar PST Repair.

Reply
Sameer says:

October 24, 2016 at 12:40 pm

Hi ,

My name is Sameer. I am facing problem in Outlook configuration.

When I am trying to configure, it shows the error mentioned below:

“an encrypted connection to your mail server is not available.click next to attempt using an encrypted connection.”

Reply
1. Eric Simson says:
  
  October 25, 2016 at 4:53 am
  
  Hello Samir,
  
  Please provide the screenshot i.e. related to this one error. Then, we would be able to provide helpful assistance to fix the root causes of this on configuration issue.
  
  Reply
Swathi says:

July 25, 2016 at 7:32 am

Windows Script Host access is not accessible on PC.

How to solve that? Please reply.

Reply
1. Eric Simson says:
  
  July 26, 2016 at 11:00 am
  
  The Windows Script Host is a Microsoft technology that provides an option to enable or disable scripting for end users.
  
  If, you want to enable this function then go through following steps:
  
  Step 1: Pres Windows key + R and type “Regedit” in the search box and press Enter
  
  Step 2: Double click on “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | Software | Microsoft | Windows Script Host | Settings.”
  
  Step 3: In case, WDS isn’t accessible for the logged- in user then only replace “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” for “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.”
  
  Step 4: Click right on “Settings” and click on “Export.”
  
  Step 5: Now select a location for the backup registry and the click on Save
  
  Step 6: Now right click on the “Enabled” value and click “Delete” . Close Registry Editor
  
  To avoid any bad experience, you should execute above steps carefully.
  
  Reply
Yakub says:

April 5, 2016 at 3:45 pm

outlook not searching my mail it show very old mail but not current mail , i am using office 10, and error comes like ”outlook indexing your mail”

Reply
1. Eric Simson says:
  
  April 7, 2016 at 10:21 am
  Hi Yakub,
  
  You can fix Outlook indexing & searching problem by following the steps given below:
  
  Phase 1: Off Windows Search Feature
  - Go through ‘Control Panel’ -> ‘Add or Remove Programs’. If you are using Windows 8, 7 or Vista then path is: ‘Control Panel’ -> ‘Programs and Features’.
  - Now, click on “Turn Windows features on or off”
  - Uncheck the option along “Windows Search” feature
  - A dialogue box appears with notice message then press ‘Yes’
  - Click on ‘OK’ to confirm your decision
  - Restart the computer with click on ‘Restart Now’ button
  - After restart, open MS Outlook then close the application.
  Phase 2: Enable Windows Search Feature
  - Follow the path: Control Panel > Programs & Features -> Turn Windows features on options and select the “Windows Search” checkbox
  - Then wait till restart the computer
  Phase 3: Rebuild Windows Index
  - Follow the control panel then open ‘Indexing options’
  - Under Indexing Options, select ‘Advanced’
  - On Advanced Options, click on ‘Rebuild’
  - Now click on ‘OK’
  - A dialogue box appears with name ‘Rebuild Index’. Click on ‘OK’
  - When indexing process is completed the close the Window
  - Now, you should wait until email application indexes all items
  Note: You can verify the indexing status of Outlook through predefined path: search menu->Search Tools->Indexing Status
  Reply