Outlook Inbox Repair Tool - A Complete Guide

Microsoft Outlook saves a local copy of all emails and other Outlook data on your computer. This is called a PST file. A simple error notice like "Microsoft Outlook repair Not Responding" can drastically spoil your day. In Microsoft Office Outlook, Scanpst.exe is a built-in inbox repair program. This inbox repair tool examines the PST file for any corruption or damage, then restores it so that it can be accessible again.

Sometimes these files are subject to corruption. It could happen if your system crashes or due to a virus attack. Whatever the reason, you should know that if these files get corrupt, it may interfere with the performance of Outlook. Outlook may freeze frequently or you may have trouble sending/receiving emails or you may be thrown error messages.

What is an Inbox Repair Tool?

For this reason, Microsoft provides a built in tool called Scanpst to repair corrupt PST files. It is designed to fix header corruption and reconstruct file structure. It mostly corrects errors in the internal structure of the PST files.

It’s fairly simple to run the tool; all you have to do is locate the tool and choose the PST file to repair.

When Does It Work?

The Inbox Repair application can assist in situations where the PST file structure has basic issues. After an improper shutdown or profile deletion, the Inbox Repair tool can help you get everything back in order. So, if your error is associated with an Outlook email client, you can use the Inbox Repair feature.

How do Inbox Repair Tools Validate and Correct Errors?

Inbox repair tool fixes any issues with the PST file, when the ScanPST determines and fixes a specific block that is unreadable or corrupted. This specific kind of situation is rare, and it will always be entered in the ScanPST log file.

Advantages Of ScanPST.exe

• It helps in fixing minor corruption.
• Once the scanning process is done it creates a log report, which specifies how many errors are fixed.
• It can restore a .pst file from personnel folder corruption which blocks the entire Outlook program while opening.
• A backup option is provided at the time of repairing PST files which will save the same backup file in .bak format along with .pst file.
• It restructures the damaged default personal storage table row by row. This will ignore the unwanted attributes ultimately.

Limitations Of ScanPST.exe

• The scanPST.exe cannot fix encrypted PST files.
• It can only repair file size with 2 GB, beyond that it cannot repair.
• There are times where the PST file gets damaged, where the inbuilt tool ScanPST can fail to repair it.
• When ScanPST does not find any element like table or message in its folder. There are cases when the whole folder is not detected, it first checks for validation if not it removed the data from the database.
• There will be times where the users will face issues in reaching the exact location of the inbox repair tool, since the tool is residing in program files of C drive. Often users will find this issue.

Where is Scanpst located in your computer?

The location of Scanpst is different for each Outlook version and also varies between.

For Outlook 2007 and other, scanpst.exe tool should be located in the below mentioned address

• C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12 (32 bit version) (outlook 2007).
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12 (64 bit version) (outlook 2007).
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14 (outlook 2010).
• C:\program Files (x86)\ Microsoft Office\Office15(outlook 2013).
• C:\Program Files (x86)\ Microsoft Office\root\Office16 (outlook 2016).
• C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\ (outlook 2019).

How to run Inbox Repair Tool?

To Run Inbox Repair tool follow the below steps.

• Completely exit outlook
• Open the File Explorer program. Navigate through the following folders, depending on the version of Windows you're using
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12 (64 bit version) (outlook 2007).
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14 (outlook 2010)
• C:\program Files (x86)\ Microsoft Office\Office15(outlook 2013).
• C:\Program Files (x86)\ Microsoft Office\root\Office16 (outlook 2016).
• C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\ (outlook 2019).



• Select the Outlook PST file you want to repair with the Browse button.



• Choose Start to begin the scan.
• If the scan finds errors, choose Repair to start the process to fix them.
• When the repair is complete, start Outlook with the profile associated with the Outlook Data File you just repaired.

Alternate way:

• To view the location of the PST file, launch Outlook and click to File > Account Settings > Data Files. After that, make sure to exit the program.
• Start by pressing the Start button. The Inbox Repair utility will look for problems in the PST file. This is going to take some time to fix the issue.
• Select Repair and Check the radio option next to Make a backup of the scanned file before repairing.
• Click on Ok to finish the repairing process.

Additional Information: Cannot Find Inbox Repair Tool Automatically or Manually

Follow the steps below to access the inbox repair tool.

• Select Apps and Features, from the start Windows icon.
• Select the Microsoft Office product you want to repair, and select Modify.
• Note: This will repair the entire Office suite even or just one application.
• You can also repair any Office programs on Windows, select Online Repair > Repair to make sure everything gets fixed.

You need to again repeat aforementioned steps until you get "No errors found" message. But, sometimes the Inbox Repair tool may fail to fix the issues and may further damage your Outlook data file as it works on original file. To be on a safer side, you can use Remo Outlook Repair Software to securely fix corrupt or inaccessible Outlook 2007 PST file. This tool is way more advanced than the default PST repair tool. Simply follow the mentioned steps to run scanpst exe to fix your corrupt/damaged Outlook data file.

Remo Repair Outlook - Alternative solution to Inbox Repair Tool

A professional Microsoft Outlook repair tool by Remo is an aletrnative for inbox reapir tool can diagnose and repair all kinds of PST file corruption issues in just few simple steps. Remo Repair Outlook program even works when scanpst fails to fix the damaged Outlook 2007 data file. The main advantage of using this application is that it does not work on original Outlook data file, instead it creates a new file. In addition to Outlook 2007, this toolkit also works smoothly with other versions of Outlook like MS Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010, 2003 and 2000. Along with fixing PST file, you can even retrieve deleted or lost emails, appointments, contacts, notes, calendar items, journals, etc.

3 Steps To Fix Microsoft Outlook PST File Using Remo Repair Outlook PST

To fix corrupt, broken or inaccessible Outlook data file, you need to download and install the Remo Repair PST tool in your Windows system. Run the tool and follow the below listed steps:

Step 1: Launch the software, select the appropriate option from the displayed screen that is Open PST File, Find PST File or Select Outlook Profile to Browse your Outlook 2007 PST file

Step 2: Once the file to be repaired has been selected, click on Repair button. The software automatically starts scanning the Outlook data file to diagnose and fix the PST file errors

Step 3: Once you get Outlook PST file has been repaired message on your window, then you can view the fixed file along with its data by using Preview option

Remo Repair Outlook utility can also be used to fix

• Encrypted, password protected and compressed Outlook data file
• Outlook showing not responding error
• PST file corrupted due to improper upgradation of MS Outlook
• Outlook data file damaged due to virus / malware threat
• Oversized Outlook .pst file
• PST file corrupted due to sudden termination of Outlook