Microsoft Outlook is the most widely-used email client. However, the application is not free from issues and errors. Outlook users encounter issues and errors from time to time that sometimes prevent them from accessing their Outlook data, impacting their productivity. In the current year (2023), many users have posted on different forums various issues and errors related to Microsoft Outlook. In this article, we will cover some common issues and errors that Outlook users have encountered this year, along with their fixes.
Common Outlook Issues and Errors and Their Solutions
Below, we will be mentioning some common errors and issues that you may encounter while using Outlook, along with the solutions to fix them.
Issue 1: Outlook Data File Cannot be Accessed (Error 0x8004010F)
When trying to send or receive emails, you can get the Outlook Error “0x8004010F: Outlook data file cannot be accessed” error. This error is usually caused by a corrupted Outlook profile.
Solution: The most obvious solution is to create a new Outlook profile.
To do this, follow these steps:
- Go to Start > Control Panel > Mail.
- In the Mail Setup – Outlook dialog box, select the “Show Profiles” option.
- On the General tab, click “Add”.
- In the New Profile dialog box, enter a name for your profile and your email address. Click Finish.
- Now, again go to the Show Profiles option.
- Under the “When starting Microsoft Office Outlook, use this profile” option, select the “Always use this profile” option. Then, select the profile that you’ve just created.
Issue 2: The set of folders cannot be opened in Shared Mailbox
Sometimes, when opening Outlook, you see the following message:
This error can occur due to many reasons, such as corrupted OST file, too many items in the shared mailbox, incompatible Outlook add-ins, damaged Outlook profile, and more.
Solution: Here are some possible solutions to fix this error:
- Recreate your Outlook profile.
- Fix the corrupted OST file using the built-in ScanPST tool.
- Restart devices, Outlook, and router.
- Recreate the OST file.
- Repair MS Office.
- Start Outlook in safe mode to identify and remove faulty add-ins.
- Disable shared folder download.
Issue 3: OST is not an Outlook Data File
Outlook throws the “OST is not an Outlook Data File” error when the OST file is corrupted or damaged, preventing you from accessing the mail items.
Solution: To fix this error, you can recreate your Outlook data file (OST). For this, just go to the OST file location, move (backup) the OST file to another location, delete the file, and start Outlook. It will create a new OST file.
After recreating the OST, check if there are any missing mail items. If there are any, use Stellar Converter for OST to extract the missing items from the backup OST file and save them in PST format. It is a Microsoft MVP-trusted tool that can convert orphaned OST file to PST format. You can even opt to convert the OST data into other formats, like EML, MSG, RTF, PDF, and HTML. You can also directly migrate OST file data to Microsoft 365. This tool is simple to use and requires no technical know-how to operate.
Issue 4: IMAP Server is not responding in Outlook
When the IMAP server doesn’t work, you can’t access your emails and other mail items. The root cause of the problem can be a large OST file, corrupt Outlook profile, faulty add-ins, and network or firewall issues.
Solution: To fix this, you can check your network connection, check the firewall settings, find and remove faulty add-ins, or create a new Outlook profile or OST file.
Check this article, to resolve the large OST file issues.
Issue 5: The file username.ost is in use and cannot be accessed
You may get this error if the offline OST file is used by another program. However, identifying the program or process that’s using your OST file is not easy. Sometimes, it can also be caused by faulty add-ins or inaccessible/damaged OST file.
Solution: You can close all the processes related to Outlook from the Task Manager. If this doesn’t work, find and remove faulty add-ins. If the error still persists, recreate your OST file.
Conclusion
Above, we have mentioned different errors and issues that have impacted Outlook users in 2023. We have also provided solutions to fix such errors. In case your Outlook OST file becomes inaccessible or orphaned, then you can use an OST converter to safely extract data from your OST file and save it in a PST file. You can then easily import this PST file into your Outlook to access the items.
