Outlook 2013 Can’t receive emails after moving .pst file to new location.

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I’m running Outlook 2013 under Windows 7 SP1. I want to move all the data files from c: to j:.

With Outlook not running I copied the .pst file from c:Outlook to j:Outlook and then renamed the original c:Outlookxyz.pst file to Oxyz.pst.

I then started Outlook. It complained that it could not find its .pst file. I pointed it to the j:Outlookxyz.pst file. It loaded the data file and all old messages were visible.

Then I hit F9 to send and receive all of my accounts. It failed to retrieve messages on all five POP3 accounts. I don’t believe that the account sign on data was moved with the .pst fie.

I switched back to the original file location at c:Outlook and all worked properly.

How do I move the account settings to my j: drive along with the .pst file?

Paul_L

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I’m running Outlook 2013 under Windows 7 SP1. I want to move all the data files from c: to j:.

With Outlook not running I copied the .pst file from c:Outlook to j:Outlook and then renamed the original c:Outlookxyz.pst file to Oxyz.pst.

I then started Outlook. It complained that it could not find its .pst file. I pointed it to the j:Outlookxyz.pst file. It loaded the data file and all old messages were visible.

Then I hit F9 to send and receive all of my accounts. It failed to retrieve messages on all five POP3 accounts. I don’t believe that the account sign on data was moved with the .pst fie.

I switched back to the original file location at c:Outlook and all worked properly.

How do I move the account settings to my j: drive along with the .pst file?

Paul_L

I think it’s more involved than simply moving the file.
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/aboutpst.htm#move
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/21384/where-is-my-pst-file-and-how-can-i-move-it-somewhere-else/
http://www.remosoftware.com/import-outlook-pst

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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I think it’s more involved than simply moving the file.
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/aboutpst.htm#move
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/21384/where-is-my-pst-file-and-how-can-i-move-it-somewhere-else/
http://www.remosoftware.com/import-outlook-pst

Hi Berton,
Your first link is where I found the instructions to move the file when Outlook is shut down then point Outlook to it after restarting. The second link relates to changing registry values in previous versions of Outlook. The third link contains instructions for using remosoftware to import data into outlook. None of this explains why, after moving the pst file, outlook could not connect to my ISP’s mail server. Thanks anyway for trying.

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I suggest recreating the profile for this email account. Something might have gotten corrupted in the current one.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Did you move everything from the default location to the new one? I think there is a .dat file as well?

A couple of other things to check:

Using the relocated .pst files, start Outlook and go into your account settings, and check that all the parameters (username, password, mail servers, ports, etc.) are the same as previously. If it all looks OK, do “Test Account Settings” and see what happens. If you get errors, such as “Invalid Password”, you will need to fix them.

If or when that works correctly, go into Send/Receive settings > define Send/Receive Groups, and check that the expected group (or All Accounts if you don’t have groups) is set for “Include this group in send/receive (F9)”.

I have moved my .pst files to a different location, on a different disk, and it works as expected – firstly in Outlook 2003, and now in Outlook 2016. So it can be done, there’s just something in your setup that’s not quite right.

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Did you move everything from the default location to the new one? I think there is a .dat file as well? ………….

My c:Outlook directory contains the xx.pst file and a subdirectory c:OutlookAccounts which contains a file named account{nnnn}.oeaccount. This file contains html account data code including a line which begins

followed by a 492 character hex number, and ending with
.

I copied the entire c:Outlook directory, with its subdirectory, to drive j: then I renamed c:Outlook to c:oOutlook. Outlook found the pst file in its new location after being pointed to it, and it found all my email addresses and server names, but it apparently could not find the ISP server passwords associated with each email account.

I wonder where they could be.

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I believe the information for each email account is held within the Outlook profile, and there could be more than one of those. It is possible that you have inadvertently switched to or created a different profile. To check what profiles are available, go to Control Panel > Mail > Show Profiles. In there you can switch profiles, if there is more than one, and either “always use” or “prompt” when starting Outlook. You could also look at the E-mail Accounts tab for each profile, and see what’s in there. Select the profile, then Properties, then E-mail accounts. The box will be headed with “Mail Setup – (name of profile)”. Hopefully you will see your usual accounts in there somewhere, with their usual parameters. If you can’t find the correct profile, I can only suggest that you go back to the previous setup, make a note of all the account parameters, and then re-enter them into the new setup. Or create a new profile, which is essentially the same thing. For more info, put Outlook Profiles into a search engine.

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@Bundaburra.

There is just one profile shown named POP3. The five email accounts seem to be correct.

Do you know where Outlook stores the profile. Is it in the pst file or somewhere else?

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On further investigation I think I found the passwords in the registry, but the data is all encrypted binary and is valueless to me.

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice15.0OutlookProfilesPOP MAIL9375CFF0413111d3B88A00104B2A6676
00000002POP3 PasswordREG_BINARY
00000004POP3 PasswordREG_BINARY
00000005POP3 PasswordREG_BINARY
00000006POP3 PasswordREG_BINARY
0000000aPOP3 PasswordREG_BINARY

Each binary value contains 128 hexadecimal numbers or 256 8 bit bytes. The five passwords are all the same and so is the byte string in all five registry values. They do not change when the data file is moved between drive c: and drive j:.

Curiouser and curiouser!

The total amount of data that Outlook and Office force the registry to carry around is somewhere in the vicinity of 45 Mega Bytes! I begin to understand why people call it WINDOZE!

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You should be seeing more than just passwords. I ran regedit, went to HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftOffice16.0OutlookProfiles, where I saw my profile. Expanded that, and then under that same subkey starting with 9375CFF….. I saw a number of 000000x subkeys – one for each of my email accounts, one for each data file, and one for address book. The email account entries had the passwords the way you describe, but other parameters such as Account Name, email address, POP server, were all in plain text. The password entries did all look the same, as you say, but of course they are not the same in fact. The data file entries had the internal name of each file (Personal Folders, Archive Folders etc.) but not the actual file names (such as Outlook.pst).

If your data files, or email logon credentials, are missing, this could explain your problem. But it doesn’t explain how it all works OK when you swap the data files back to their original location. It might be an idea to do that, check that it all works, and look at those registry entries again. If they now have all the other data, you could try backing up the registry, or exporting those keys to a .reg file – if you are comfortable with editing the registry, of course …..

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@Bundaburra

The other parameters you mention are present in my registry. I mentioned the password keys because the ISP server reports that my password authentication is incorrect when the outlook directory points to j: instead of c:

I have swapped the data files back and forth from c: to j: several times. The registry keys don’t change except for the drive letter. The copy of the keys above was taken from an export to a .txt file.

Curiouser and curiouser!

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As you say, curiouser and more curiouser ……

Did you go to Control Panel > Mail > E-mail accounts? If I do that, I see a list of all my accounts. I can select one, click on Change, and it will show me all the settings, including Name and Password (which displays as a row of asterisks). If I then click on Test Account Settings, it will log on to the mail server and send a test message, or will give an error if unable to do that. Do you see all the correct account information when you do that, and does the test work? I would assume that the info is obtained from the Registry. Notice that this is all done from outside of Outlook. There is also a Repair tab next to Change. I haven’t tried that, because “if it aint broke, don’t fix it”, but it could be worth a try.

Speaking of Repair, there is also a repair program for .pst files which are corrupted. Do you know about that? In case not, it’s called SCANPST.EXE, and is located in the Office folder. It’s in every version, as far as I know. I have used it, and it works. Also, if it’s any use, there is a free .pst viewer program which can be run from outside of Outlook, to view messages etc. Details at http://www.freeviewer.org/pst/ .

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As you say, curiouser and more curiouser ……

Did you go to Control Panel > Mail > E-mail accounts? If I do that, I see a list of all my accounts. I can select one, click on Change, and it will show me all the settings, including Name and Password (which displays as a row of asterisks). If I then click on Test Account Settings, it will log on to the mail server and send a test message, or will give an error if unable to do that. Do you see all the correct account information when you do that, and does the test work? I would assume that the info is obtained from the Registry. Notice that this is all done from outside of Outlook. There is also a Repair tab next to Change. I haven’t tried that, because “if it aint broke, don’t fix it”, but it could be worth a try.

Speaking of Repair, there is also a repair program for .pst files which are corrupted. Do you know about that? In case not, it’s called SCANPST.EXE, and is located in the Office folder. It’s in every version, as far as I know. I have used it, and it works. Also, if it’s any use, there is a free .pst viewer program which can be run from outside of Outlook, to view messages etc. Details at http://www.freeviewer.org/pst/ .

Outside of Outlook the e-mail account data display seems correct whether it points to c:OutlookREAL.pst or j:OutlookREAL.pst, but the test fails when pointing to j:OutlookREAL.pst. I did not try the repair tab because I can read all message folders from either c: or j:.

I used SCANPST.EXE about seven years ago. I still have a log file from it. It seemed to work.

Thanks for the link to the viewer.

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[bbearren]

This should work:

Open Outlook, then click File > Account Settings > Account Settings

In the lower pane of the Account Settings dialog box, click the “Change Folder” button. This will bring up a new dialog box, “New E-mail Delivery Location”.

In the right pane of that dialog box, click the button “New Outlook Data File…”. This is only an intermediate, temporary step.

This will bring up yet another dialog box, “Create or Open Outlook Data File”, and the pre-loaded File name will be My Outlook Data File(1).pst. Change the name to TEST.pst, and click OK.

Back in the New E-mail Delivery Location dialog box, you’ll see TEST. Expand TEST to see “Inbox”, click on “Inbox” and then OK. That dialog box will close.

Now click “Change Folder” again, then expand your existing .pst file that you’ve moved, and click on “Inbox”, and OK.

Now close Account Settings and try Send/Receive.

If you have more than one .pst file, you’ll need to do this with each file. I have four. When I moved mine I used TEST, TEST1, TEST2, and TEST3 to avoid confusion. Once I had everything going where it was supposed to go, I just deleted the TEST folders from within Outlook.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

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• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by bbearren.

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This should work: …… If you have more than one .pst file, you’ll need to do this with each file. I have four. When I moved mine I used TEST, TEST1, TEST2, and TEST3 to avoid confusion. Once I had everything going where it was supposed to go, I just deleted the TEST folders from within Outlook.

I’m a little confused. I think you’re telling me to
first copy the old REAL.pst file from c:OutlookREAL.pst to j:OutlookREAL.pst, then
second start Outlook, then
third in Outlook create a new j:Outlooktest.pst and point Outlook to it, then
fourth point Outlook to the j:OutlookREAL.pst.

Is that correct?

I have only one .pst file but it uses five email addresses, all at the same ISP, optonline.net. I use rules to deposit incoming messages in five different folders named 1InABC, 2InBCD, 3InCDE, 4InDEF, 5InEFG. I trick Outlook into keeping these folders at the top of the folder list by including a leading space in the folder name, like ” 1InABC”. This has been working well for seven years now.

To make sure you understand my problem,
I can open and view all my message folders in either c:OutlookREAL.pst or j:OutlookREAL.pst,
I can receive and send mail when Outlook is pointed to c:OutlookREAL.pst,
the log in to the ISP server is rejected when Outlook is pointed to j:OutlookREAL.pst.

It sounds like the server is not getting the correct five passwords when Outlook is pointed to j:OutlookREAL.pst.

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I’m a little confused. I think you’re telling me to
first copy the old REAL.pst file from c:OutlookREAL.pst to j:OutlookREAL.pst, then
second start Outlook, then
third in Outlook create a new j:Outlooktest.pst and point Outlook to it, then
fourth point Outlook to the j:OutlookREAL.pst.

Is that correct?

When you copy Outlook to a new location (copy the folder, not just the .pst file), you must rename the Outlook folder in the original location. Precede it with a number or letter or whatever (C:1OutlookREAL.pst, or C:AOutlookREAL.pst), but the Outlook folder cannot retain the same name in the old location. The .pst file itself can retain the original name; that doesn’t matter.

If you move the folder instead of copying it, there’s nothing in the old location to rename.

All of the following steps must be done from within Outlook in order for Outlook to retain the settings. Open Outlook, click File > Account Settings > Account Settings. If you get a warning that Outlook can’t find the pst file, just click OK.

In the lower pane of the Account Settings dialog box is the “Change Folder” button (note that beside that button is the path to your pst file, “C:OutlookREAL.pst”. This path is what needs to be changed). Click the “Change Folder” button. This will bring up a new dialog box, “New E-mail Delivery Location”.

This next step is only an intermediate, temporary step. In the right pane of that dialog box, click the button “New Outlook Data File…”.

This will bring up yet another dialog box, “Create or Open Outlook Data File”, the pre-loaded File name will be My Outlook Data File(1).pst. Pay attention to the path statement in this dialog box; that’s your original path. Use the left pane in that dialog box to change to the new target folder J:Outlook. (If you see your moved .pst file in the folder, don’t follow the temptation to click on it; that doesn’t work) You still need to create a new pst file. Change the new File name to TEST.pst, and click OK.

Back in the New E-mail Delivery Location dialog box, you’ll see TEST. Expand TEST to see “Inbox”, click on “Inbox” and then click OK. That dialog box will close and you’ll be back in the Account Settings dialog box.

Now click “Change Folder” again, then expand your existing .pst file that you’ve moved, and click on “Inbox”, then click OK.

Now close Account Settings and try Send/Receive.

This works because in creating a “New E-mail Delivery Location” you are establishing the new path for Outlook to follow to find the .pst file. When you “Change Folder” back to your actual .pst file, the new path has been established and is retained.

Once you get this working the way you want it to work, I suggest making a new drive image of C: and J:.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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