How to Prevent Outlook Corruption and Recover Deleted Emails?

Written By Amrita Yadav
Updated on December 19th, 2020

Corruption is always bad, isn’t it? It often causes data loss which can bring you to tears. Almost no computer file immune to corruption. Outlook data file is prone to corruption due to many reasons. Have you ever faced Outlook corruption? You’re lucky if you haven’t faced it yet. But you may face it sooner or later without any prior warning. In this article, I’m gonna share some useful tips to prevent Outlook corruption. Also, I’ll help you recover deleted emails from the Outlook data file.

Email has become the primary mode of communication these days, especially at work. And Microsoft Outlook is undoubtedly one of the highly popular email clients of all time. Although commonly used as a stand-alone application, it can work with Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SharePoint Server for multiple users in an organization. Being a part of an Exchange Server/SharePoint Server, Outlook users can easily access the shared mailboxes, calendars, Exchange public folders, SharePoint lists, and meeting schedules.

How to Prevent Outlook Corruption?

Microsoft Outlook has so many features which you may not get in other email clients. But it has a major drawback, and that has been known to be corruption. Microsoft Outlook creates an Outlook data file to store emails, attachments, contacts, calendars, notes, tasks, etc. Any sort of issue or error associated with the Outlook data file may cause corruption.

Generally, file corruption is inevitable. However, there are certain things you should try to prevent Outlook corruption:

Prevent Outlook Corruption Tip #1

PST file has a definite size limit, i.e 2 GB for ANSI and 20 GB to 50 GB for Unicode. Since an ANSI PST file can only store up to 2 GB of mailbox data, it quickly reaches its maximum size limit. Remember, you should never let the PST file size grow at any cost. Because if it reaches near its maximum size or crosses it, the PST file becomes prone to corruption. So whenever you notice that the PST file is about to reach its maximum size, you should split the file into two or multiple parts. Also, you can compress PST file by size by using the built-in Compact feature of Microsoft Outlook.

Prevent Outlook Corruption Tip #2

A computer system can crash at any time due to any reason, and it may lead to severe issues. Even the Outlook application is also prone to crash. So if your computer crashes while Outlook is running, this may put the PST file at high risk of corruption. Whenever this happens, you must run the Inbox Repair tool for the PST file on which you were working before the computer/Outlook crashed down. Also, try to find out the root cause of the crash so next time you won’t experience it again.

Prevent Outlook Corruption Tip #3

You should always close a software application in the right way. If you close Outlook abnormally, this action may put the mailbox content at high risk of corruption. In order to prevent this from happening, make sure that you close the Outlook client by using the File menu. Also, you should wait a few minutes between closing the Outlook client and turning off your computer system. It’s just because the Outlook client keeps running as a process for a short time even after you close it. Always use a UPS device that provides you power backup in case of a sudden power failure that leads to unexpected system shut down.

Prevent Outlook Corruption Tip #4

There’s no computer file immune to virus infection. Since the Outlook client is connected to the Internet, a virus can easily enter your Outlook data file through incoming email messages. It may infect the complete PST file and make it corrupt. So make sure you always use an Antivirus program that supports scanning of the incoming email messages. Also, it helps you scan the computer to detect the viruses. You should scan the computer for viruses on daily basis.

Repair PST File

The aforementioned precautions will surely help you prevent Outlook corruption. However, sometimes corruption may occur before you can try anything to avoid it. In such a situation, you should repair PST file so that you can save your crucial mailbox data from getting lost. Microsoft provides a freeware utility, called the Inbox Repair tool aka scanpst exe, to repair PST file. It comes as a built-in repair tool in Microsoft Outlook client to scan the corrupt PST file and diagnose the problem. By running the Inbox Repair tool, you can successfully fix the header corruption issues and rebuild the file structure. Refer to this article to know how to repair PST file by using the Inbox Repair tool.

Although the Inbox Repair is one of the best solutions to fix corrupt PST file, it may fail in a case of severe corruption. Also, the Inbox Repair tool can’t help you recover deleted emails from an Outlook data file. In such a situation, you should always consider using a professional Outlook Recovery solution.

PST Recovery Tool

There are many vendors in the online marketplace which provide Outlook Recovery tools. So it might be a challenge for Outlook users to choose the best PST Recovery tool from many options. I would like to recommend here the PST Recovery tool from SysInfoTools Software. It’s considered one the best solutions to repair PST file and recover maximum possible data from it. Via this software, you can even recover deleted emails from the corrupt PST file. It supports both ANSI and Unicode PST files created by all Microsoft Outlook versions including the latest 2016.

Unlike other Outlook Recovery tools, it can scan any large size of PST file with ease, i.e. PST files up to 80 GB have been successfully tested. If your PST files are encrypted and/or password protected, even then you can use this software. It can effortlessly recover emails, attachments, contacts, calendars, notes, tasks, journals, etc. from the corrupt PST file and save them into a new file.

Conclusion

The article explained a few useful tips to prevent Outlook corruption. The precautions are only helpful to prevent Outlook file from being corrupted. But if the corruption occurs before you do anything, you have to repair PST file. In this article, we’ve learned how to repair PST file by using the Inbox Repair tool. And if the Inbox Repair tool fails, you should use a professional PST Recovery tool that can recover deleted emails also.

About The Author:

Amrita Yadav

I'm a content writer in the field of Email Migration, Data Recovery, Email backup, and File Management. I started this writing career two years back. I think the vast range of information in this industry is the reason I am so fascinated to read about the newer techniques and technology.