Cannot open desktop version of Outlook

Question

I am running Windows 11 and currently use Microsoft 365 Outlook via Outlook.com login, but I am in the process of trying to use it on the desktop so I can add other email addresses to Outlook (not allowed in the online version).

Here is the error I am receiving after I allowed permissions to the folder containing the .ost file and trying to open Outlook locally:

"Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. You must connect to Microsoft Exchange with the current profile before you can synchronize your folders with your Outlook data file .ost."

What are my next steps?

Answer 1

Hi @Tom Grimes ,

Welcome to our forum!

Here is the error I am receiving after I allowed permissions to the folder containing the .ost file and trying to open Outlook locally

What do you mean about “allowed permissions to the folder containing the .ost file”? Didn't you add the Outlook.com account directly in Outlook?

If you just add the Outlook.com account in Outlook and encounter the issue, how did you add the Outlook.com account?

It's suggested that you could try to create a new profile(Control Panel>Mail>Show Profiles>add) and add the account for testing to check if there are some differences.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.