Throughout his career, he has covered complex concepts and provided accessible solutions for users. Before joining Secure Data, he worked as a freelance technical writer. If you moved your data file or its location changed somehow, Outlook might not be able to find guide to Office 365 sign-in errors it.

Fixing 'Outlook Data File Cannot Be Accessed' Error on PC

Then, in the next window, make sure you're on the tab marked \"Sync and backup\". On the righthand side of the window, choose the button to \"manage backup\". In that window, ensure the \"Documents\" folder is not enabled to sync to OneDrive. You may need to move the Outlook data file back down from OneDrive. rebuild Outlook data file quickly Sometimes, rather than keeping a backup it actually takes the files off your system and moves them up to the cloud.

• I am transferring all my files from a Windows 10 PC to a new Windows 11 PC and am having issues moving my Outlook .PST files for POP accounts.
• You can check the location of your Outlook Data Files in Outlook.
• The Lost and Found folder contains any folders and items recovered by the repair tool that Outlook can't place in their original structure.
• Sometimes, rather than keeping a backup it actually takes the files off your system and moves them up to the cloud.
• Then, in the next window, make sure you're on the tab marked \"Sync and backup\".
• You need to configure your OneDrive to not back up the directory where your Outlook data file resides.
• This might happen due to a power failure or improper shutdown, hardware issues, or viruses and malware.

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To make sure this is not the case, try opening Outlook and see if it found the data file. Then, in the next window, make sure you're on the tab marked "Sync and backup". On the righthand side of the window, choose the button to "manage backup".

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During the syncing process, OneDrive locks the file, which prevents Outlook from accessing it, resulting in the "Outlook data file cannot be opened" error. You can try to repair Outlook data files to fix the error. This is a good solution if you think your data file might be corrupted. MS Outlook stores all the information related to your email account both online and in a local file on your computer.

Repair Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost)

You can use the Inbox Repair tool (SCANPST.EXE) to diagnose and repair errors in your Outlook data file. The Inbox Repair tool checks the Outlook data files on your computer to see if they're in good shape. It can recover all the mailbox items from the corrupted file and save them to a new PST file, which you can import into your Outlook profile. It can also allow saving the recovered PST data to other file formats, like MSG, EML, HTML, RTF, and PDF.



On the other hand, accounts through modern authentication troubleshooting Office 365, Exchange Server, Outlook.com, and IMAP store information offline in Outlook data files (.ost files). One of the major reasons for the "Outlook data file cannot be accessed" error is corruption in the Outlook data file (PST). You can repair the corrupted PST file using the built-in Inbox Repair tool (also known as SCANPST) in Outlook. That is almost definitely the problem and it's very common unfortunately. You need to configure your OneDrive to not back up the directory where your Outlook data file resides. It is not possible for Outlook and OneDrive to both try to access the data file at the same time.