Repair Outlook Data Files

Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2016 cannot be opened? This article will provide real solutions to the "Cannot open Microsoft Outlook" issue. These solutions will allow you to get your Outlook back up and running without any errors. These solutions work for all versions of Outlook as well as all systems.

A few articles ago we discussed what can be done when Outlook is freezing and not responding. Let's now see how to fix Outlook not opening at all.

Causes and symptoms of "Unable to open Microsoft Outlook" error

This is the main problem. When you click Outlook's icon you see an hourglass hanging from it. Then you get the "Cannot open Microsoft Office Outlook" error.

According to Microsoft, the major cause of this issue is a corrupted Navigation Pane settings file - profilename.xml, where "profile name" is the name of your Outlook profile. If the file's size is less than 0 KB, it is likely to corrupt. cannot open the outlook window Although no one can pinpoint the cause, all versions of Microsoft Outlook (2003 to 2019) may be affected.

You may also experience problems with Outlook compatibility mode or when you use a profile that was created in an older version of Outlook. Or if your Outlook data file (.pst,.ost), was damaged or deleted due to incorrect uninstallation or restart of Outlook.

Whatever the reason, the result is the same: Outlook cannot be opened because of this error: "Cannot open Microsoft Outlook." The Outlook window cannot be opened. It is impossible to open the set of folders.

You may see several variations depending on the Outlook version.

Outlook 2010"Microsoft Outlook is experiencing an error and must be closed. We apologize for any inconvenience caused."

Outlook 2007"You cannot open your default email folders. The information store couldn't be opened."

Outlook 2003"Microsoft Office Outlook cannot be opened. Outlook window not opening The view can't be loaded because it doesn't have valid XML."

Universal solutions to the "Cannot open Microsoft Outlook" problem

Let's now see how to fix Outlook problems. Here are the steps to fix four of the most common issues that prevent Outlook from starting properly. They are listed in alphabetical order.

Save the Navigation Pane configuration file

Most often, Outlook is unable to start successfully because of corrupted Navigation Pane settings files. In these cases, you should repair it. This is how to do it on different operating systems.

1. Click the Start link if you are using Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. Windows XP users can click Start > Open.
2. In the search box, type the following command:
3. To reset the Navigation Pane settings, press Enter or click the file. Click on Outlook to open it.

If you would prefer to work alongside theRunFollow these steps to get the dialog for Windows 7 or Windows 8.

1. Click on the Start menu and click All Programs > Accessories.
2. Type the and clickOK.Notice: Microsoft offers an automatic solution to the Outlook unable-to-start problem on its Windows 8 and Windows 7 sites. Just click "This problem must be fixed.
3. Remove the Navigation pane settings from your file

If for some reason you were not able to recover the Navigation pane configuration file, nor did the automatic fix provided by Microsoft work, try to delete the XML file that stores the navigation pane settings. Follow these steps to do this:

1. In the box below, enter the following command start > Searchfield in Windows 7 or Windows 8Start > RunWindows XP), and hit Enter%appdata%\Microsoft\Outlook
2. This will open the folder containing Microsoft Outlook configuration files. Locate and delete the outlook.xmlFile.

Use the Inbox Repair tool to repair Outlook data files (.ost and.pst)

Outlook might not open if you recently reinstalled Outlook and there was an error in the uninstallation of the previous version. This error is likely to occur: "Cannot open Microsoft Office Outlook." Outlook.pst does not belong to your personal folders.