Windows 10: Outlook 2016 pst file disappeared. How to find/recover/reconstruct

Wife's computer... Last Thursday she reported that the display of emails in her Inbox was blank. Subsequently found that the pst file named <her email address>.com(1).pst was not in the folder. It showed in Quick Access, date last accessed, file size of around 21GB, but clicking on it took me to an empty folder.

Have done the usual search for it, run chkdsk, booted from a USB using Ubuntu and run a undelete command to find deleted files - it found a file ending in .com.tmp, but a much smaller file.

Been running spinrite to check for disk errors. Level 2 (data recovery) ran in 30 mins and reported no recoveries to do. Now been running level 5 (data recovery and more) for the last 3 days and it reported it has read 3,2GB (of a 500GB disk) and found at least 3 bad sectors, unrecoverable, but no info on the files - might be/might not be. I've read of reports of spinrite running for days, but we can't wait that long.

Around 3 months ago a similar incident where files in a folder and subfolders disappeared, but these were mostly jpg, pdf and word docs. No trace of those files either.

Have no current backup of the current pst folder - have one from 3 months ago.

Nothing in the Events folders to suggest a problem, beyond some process reporting that the pst file could not be found.

This is so bizarre. Ignoring the earlier incident, though I'm thinking we should replace the HDD, I'm looking for ideas on what might have happened to that pst file, any suggestions or tools to search for/recover?

Or, is there a way to copy the 3 month old backup of the pst folder to the HDD and then download just emails from the last three months on the email server? She's using POP and all her emails for years are on currently on the server. Given the pst file was 21GB, I'd rather not download all those emails if a filter can be applied or do I need to download and apply some filter as they are loaded?

Thanks for any help!

:)

 

Windows 10 automatic update wiped out all my Outlook e-mail folders (except inbox), all my calendar items and all my contacts. Also all my Google bookmarks.

Hi,

Before we proceed, we would like to know what type of email account is configured in outlook?
Is it POP3, IMAP, Exchange?

You can try the steps below:

To recover your email do the following:

1. Sign in to your Outlook.com account (via a Computer/Laptop).

2. Go to your Deleted folder (found on the left pane under Folders).

3. Look for "Lost a message?", and click "recover deleted messages".

If you have set up account as POP lets check if you can find old PST file by navigating to following location.

C:\Windows.old\Users\<username>\Documents\Outlook Files\

You may also go to File Explorer and enter *.pst in search filed to find PST files. If you are able to find PST file you may open it using Outlook by clicking FILE>Open & Export> Open Outlook Data File.

You can also check out the following article for more information on how to recover lost/deleted messages from your Outlook.com account.

Get help with outlook.com

Let us know how it goes.

 

Windows 10 lost my Outlook.pst file and the start button doesn't work

Just sounds as though your pst has become disconnected.

Do a search for *.pst and see what comes up.

If your old pst appears, make a note of the location (if it's in the Windows.old folder then move it to your Documents folder), open Outlook and do File>Open>Outlook Data File.

 

You said you found a pst file. Did you try repairing it with scanpst.exe? (part of Office)

Here are some other locations the pst file may be located.

https://support.office.com/en-us/art...ad=US&fromAR=1

If you click file, upper left, Account settings, then account settings from drop down and then "Data" tab does it show where PST file should be located.

I think you will find slipstick.com an excellent resource for Outlook issues. It makes sense to me that you should be able to import PST file into existing Outlook. It also makes sense that it will sync only required. That said how the server sees Outlook with this PST could be the deciding factor. If it thinks it is new then it would download all.

If it down loads none then you might be able to sign on through a web portal and bulk forward messages worth keeping.

 

How old is the pst file as it may exceed the size limits if it's old ANSI type a file that size is going to give problems after 12gig it gets bad better to have 2 files loading. If there are bad blocks on the drive that could be why it's gone

 

Sounds like you have other issues going on with your PC. That said, need some basic information...

• You say Outlook 2016... Is this Outlook 365?
• Did you recently upgrade to 365?
• Can you still access the .pst file? - If so, I would suggest you leave it as is since it can be easily imported into Outlook. Messing around with it could corrupt it, making useless.
• Which OS on the affected PC are you running?

If you are running Office 365, Outlook 365 no longer uses .pst files, but instead .ost files, and they are no longer stored in (My) Documents, but instead your user profile…. C:\Users\admin\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook.

That said, you can still use and access your old .pst files, but they’ll need to be imported. This is what I’m doing with my old .pst files. This is why we need to know specifically which Outlook version you’re using.

Oh, and this would be a good time to remind why we should always backup, and continue to backup, critical files. And it would also be a good idea to check why the PC is behaving the way it is. Perhaps a new HD is in order.

Anyway please answer the above questions.

 

I could be wrong but .ost file are associated with imap accounts. This user is using POP so pst is still used. At least that is my understanding.

 

.pst file size limits...

They increased to 50gig in 2010 & 2013

The file size limits of .pst and .ost files are larger in Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013...

 

To answer the above questions...

• The pst file I do have is on an external drive. Full copy of the file as of 08-Feb-2017.
• The pst file I do need cannot be found on the system. Is it hidden, under another name, deleted via a proper delete or corrupted, I don't know. Not in the Outlook folder in the path mentioned above that it was previously. What I don't understand is that Quick Access reported it was there and how it would then simply be gone.
• Outlook 2016, part of Office 365
• Windows 10
• Outlook won't start, looking for that pst file in the specific folder
• Old pst file (used since, I think 2007), but has been fine until last week
• It seems that another pst file (that had older emails) that was also used until recently has disappeared
• Yep, I know about backups. Everything essential, besides these files, is backed up to Dropbox. Unfortunately this is the regrettable exception. Beyond the regrets, I'm trying to make good of a bad situation.
• I might have changed a setting in Malwarebytes 3 a couple of months ago to delete, rather than quarantine infected files. I've emailed them to ask if deleted files are recoverable. Is this possibly the issue, I don't know. Would it and others have been flagged, perhaps as false/positives, I don't know. Cannot access the system or any logs or apps right now as SpinRite is still running.
• I'm thinking of cancelling the SpinRite. Now 4 days and no idea on progress/finish. Running from a bootable USB. Have read of some issues using a USB, but nothing clear.
• Recognise that there may be other issues that warrant a HDD replacement to be entirely safe. Beyond these missing files, no other messages of any kind or misbehaviour to suggest other problems.

I would really like to know what happened to these files or if there is anything I can do to try find/recover them. In the event that I simply try to recover best, how do I accomplish this using Outlook? Copy the Feb copy of the pst file to previous folder, start Outlook, import the file to Outlook, and/or create a new profile, download all the messages from the server and then import the old back up. Would appreciate a step by step guide to any options to ensure I don't mess up.

Thanks for all the replies. Appreciated.

 

We did go though upgrades to Outlook 2010 and perhaps 2013, so the file size limit would have, I assume, be ok. In any case, if it was a size issue, I assume the file should not have disappeared, but Outlook would be reporting an issue.

 

Doesn't really matter in this instance for the OP's problem.

BTW...

And I believe Microsoft started using .ost files from Outlook 2010 and on. By default, when Outlook (2010 and above) sets up an account it sets an ost file, not a pst file. Additionally most mail services now use IMAP instead of POP3. I have no POP3 accounts.

Check this... Introduction to Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost)

 

Since you have a good copy on the external drive, you can import that copy to Office 365 using these instructions...

Import email, contacts, and calendar from an Outlook .pst file

Your pst file size is fine. And yes, Outlook would have nagged. As to why your files are disappearing, I can't say other than perhaps a bad HD, but that's a guess based on some info you provided. It could also be malware wiping files. Have you done a recent virus scan?

Edit: Check out this YouTube clip on importing a .pst file...

[youtube]tSga39545UU[/youtube]

 

First jumper2 I think you said you changed Malwarebytes to delete instead of quarantine so I would set that back. Actually I would suspend malwarebytes until you get to the bottom of this.

Next steps open for comment. OP said he can't start Outlook as it wants file. He would have to create new profile and that very well will kick off massive down load. So rather than new profile..

If jumper2 has copy of pst file in backup why not copy that back into place where outlook wants and attempt to start outlook.

Comments

 

The OP said a lot of things so I'm not sure what's what. And the easiest way would be to simply import the .pst file into Outlook. This way all the "guess" work is eliminated as to where the file should go.

That said, the OP needs to make sure the .pst file is on the same machine as the local Outlook account instead of a removable drive. You can keep backups there, but the file Outlook should be looking for is local and always in the same place. What I do is copy my .pst files to my Documents folder and import from there. I simply create a folder called outlook files in Documents, keep my .pst files there, and import from that folder. Simple. In this case, you know exactly where the files are, and should be!!!

Hope this clarifies.

 

Thanks for the continued suggestions. While I really want to know why/how this happened, I'm kind of mostly resolved to accepting I likely won't. So, could use some feedback/confirmation/guidance on the following if I just abandon the 'why' and get on with the 'how to fix':

If I copy the external pst file that I have to the wanted folder location and start Outlook, will this be adequate or do I have to create a new profile and then import that pst file (of emails to Feb-2017)? Given I then need to retrieve the emails from the server since that time, if I hit Send/Receive, will every single email in the server Inbox be downloaded, or just those since Feb-2017? If all, then do I have a couple of choices:

1. Move the emails in the Inbox I just imported to a different folder name. Clear out Inbox. Then Receive all from the server. When finished, delete everything from the new Inbox older than Feb-2017 and copy everything from the other Inbox back? The reason I have to do this is because my wife flagged a series of emails for follow up (in that old pst file I have), so the downloads would not be flagged.
2. Download all emails into the same Inbox (as those prior to Feb-2017). Then there's a method I found on a forum where you add a column to a view of the folder, and then subsequently delete all the duplicates that have a particular date range.

The other possibility, that I'm not familiar with, but a little uncomfortable as I'm not sure of how, is to set up new as IMAP and then let Outlook copy the image/however of everything on the server and use IMAP going forward. Then I would need to import the pst file so that my wife could then find the emails she has previously flagged and deal with them. After, that can be disposed of, and the pst file would no longer be required. How do I avoid the IMAP folders conflicting with the import of the old pst file?

Does this make sense? Best options? Any other suggestions.

I haven't done anything with Indexing or re-indexing. Hidden files in folders is turned on. Anything else worth checking before I go a route described above?

One other thing: a techie security friend of ours stated that Windows Defender has rendered the AVG Internet Security that we previously had installed as redundant... would that be accurate?

Thanks.