1 Outlook Not Responding solutions for hanging, freezing, crashing
Wilfredo Desailly edited this page 2 weeks ago

Download the latest updates by visiting your antivirus software vendor's website. To manage your mailbox by reducing the size of the Outlook data file, see Reduce the size of Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost). I have a user whose Outlook keeps freezing/crashing, and it started right after installing the July 27th updates.

It will freeze while typing e-mails and looking through the inbox. The main reason why your Outlook not responding when sending email is that your data file has been corrupted. You can use the steps to repair by using ScanPST.exe (It’s the built-in Inbox Repair Tool). To start Outlook in safe mode, click on its icon holding the Ctrl key, or enter outlook.exe /safe in the Run dialog box. You'll see a message asking you to confirm that you really want to start Outlook in Safe mode, click Yes.

Also, we go over the stepwise working procedure of both solutions and the reasons behind PST file corruption issues. The Inbox Repair tool or ScanPST.exe is not a convenient way because of multiple restrictions. Moreover, this tool can quickly recover email messages, calendars, tasks and other data from corrupted PST files.

If you can't find a dialog box open, move on to the next step. There’s nothing in particular to warn you about, as there are many informational and diagnostic information there, but reading the entries may lead to a clue about what’s going wrong. Note that you can sort by clicking on the Source column. Be sure to look where both Outlook exited and when it was restarted. Do you have another machine you can try to duplicate the problem on, preferably with a configuration that is as close to possible to the machine that has the problem? Identifying patterns helps to diagnose what the problem might be.

Two methods, manual and professional will be explained here along with their stepwise working procedure to fix Outlook data files or Personal Storage Table (PST). The manual solution will uncover the step by step guide on the Inbox Official Fix Outlook guide Repair Tool (ScanPST.exe). In addition, it turns into leading Outlook errors, which might affect overall productivity and efficiency and can increase downtime. Therefore, users should put some effective solutions into action to deal with inaccessible or damaged PST files as soon as they encounter Outlook issues. OST files in Outlook 365 allow users to access their mailbox data even without an internet connection.

This synchronization occurs automatically and transparently, allowing you to work seamlessly between online and offline environments. You can also enable the OST file by turning on or turning off the Cached Exchange mode in Outlook. At a higher level, the more visible changes that you see involve folders and messages. If ScanPST determines that a specific block of the structure or table is unreadable or corrupted, ScanPST removes it.

ScanPST mostly validates and corrects errors in the internal data structures of a .pst file. Therefore, structures such as BTrees and reference counts, are checked and repaired as necessary. These low-level objects have no knowledge of the upper-level structures, such as messages, calendar items, and so on, that are built upon them. If you cannot import the Newname.pst file into Outlook, unfortunately you have lost all the information Official Fix Outlook guide that is not in the Lost and Found folder. After you run the Inbox Repair tool, you can start Outlook and recover repaired items. Optionally, you can try to recover additional repaired items from the backup personal folder.

As @ode2joy said, clearing out the user’s profile usually works, which is a more thorough procedure than just deleting .nst and .ost files. When something goes wrong with Outlook, Microsoft Official Fix Outlook guide recommends that we start it in Safe mode. Simply that Outlook will be loaded without your add-ins and customization files. Originally, the freezing would only occur when I actually tried to do something. So, if I tried to open a message, search my inbox, write a new email, go to the calendar, etc., it would freeze up for about 5-10 seconds at a time. The freezing never seemed to occur when I had Outlook open but was not using it.

If you can open the original Outlook Data File, you might be able to recover additional items. The Inbox Repair tool creates a backup file with the same name as the original, but with a .bak extension, Official Fix Outlook guide and saves it in the same folder. There may be items in the backup file that you might be able to recover that the Inbox Repair tool couldn't. In this guide, we will mention the common reasons behind the Outlook PST file corruption and the methods to repair corrupt Outlook PST file with complete integrity and precision.

Also, if you placed the corrupted PST file in your In-Place Archive folder, it may trigger an automatic repair attempt. But what happens if these files become compromised, and you can no longer access their information? Not all hope is lost, as Microsoft has some built-in tools to help you recover it, which we will show you how to do in this guide.