Outlook folder lost when moving to a separate .pst folder

Question

I was moving 2 Outlook folder from my Inbox to a separate Personal pst folder. During the move, Outlook froze and required a shutdown. One Outlook folder has disappeared altogether and whilst I can access the emails in the second folder, I can't move them out.

In addition, the Personal pst file is now show a status of Sync Paused and message says file is opened by another program and can't be synced.

Is there any way to recover the lost folder and restore the Personal pst folder?

Answer 1

To recover the lost Outlook folder and restore your Personal PST file, you can follow these steps:

1. Repair the PST File: Use the Inbox Repair tool (Scanpst.exe) to repair your Personal Folder file (.pst). You can find the tool in the following typical locations:
   • For Outlook 2016 Click-to-Run installation on a 32-bit version of Windows: <disk drive>\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
   • For Outlook 2016 Click-to-Run installation on a 64-bit version of Windows: <disk drive>\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
   • For Outlook 2013 Click-to-Run installation on a 64-bit version of Windows: <disk drive>\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15
   After locating the Scanpst.exe file, double-click it to start the repair process. You will need to browse to the location of your .pst file and select it for repair.
2. Recover Repaired Items: Once the repair is complete, you may need to create a new .pst file to recover any items that were repaired. Drag the recovered items from the Lost and Found folder to your new Personal Folders (.pst) file.
3. Sync Issues: If your Personal PST file shows a status of "Sync Paused" and indicates that it is opened by another program, ensure that no other instances of Outlook are running. You may also want to restart your computer to release any locks on the file.
4. Accessing Emails: If you can access the emails in the second folder but cannot move them, try to copy them instead of moving them. This can sometimes bypass issues related to file locks or corruption.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, you may need to consider restoring from a backup if available.

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References:

• How to repair your Outlook personal folder file (.pst)