Creating a PST in Outlook 2010

I have a friend that is moving from Outlook 2003 to 2010, and who had trouble figuring out how to move their mail to a PST (offline mail store).  In case anyone else is looking to do this, here we go:

In the top left of Outlook, click on “File”.

Click on the Account Settings drop down, and then click “Account Settings…”

In the window that pops up, click the second tab “Data Files”

Click on the “Add…” icon, and then give your PST file a name (they call it “Outlook Data File, which makes much more sense to end users), choose where it goes, and then hit “OK”.  By default in Windows 7, it goes into your My Documents folder into a folder called “Outlook Files”. 

I’m not sure what Outlook 2010 does on earlier versions of Windows, but Outlook 2007 and earlier defaulted to C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.  I know that because I used to have a job upgrading PC’s in a large enterprise to Windows XP, and I had to manually move over the PST files that people forgot to back up.  That path is burned into my brain :)

Close the Account Settings window, and you will be back to the main Outlook window.  Your new PST (Outlook Data File) will be over on the left, and you can create new folders and drag mail into them (or setup rules).

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Great worked a treat

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Thanks, very helpful and simple.

• Anonymous
  July 07, 2010
  Awesome! Without these steps I would not have found it. Thanks

• Anonymous
  July 20, 2010
  I perform the IT duties for a small technical office.  Outlook files have always been an issue for swapping users over to new machines, and performing backups.  As soon as I set-up a new machine for Outlook I move the PST file into a folder I created called Outlook Mail in My Documents either the public side or non-shared.  I create numerous PST files in this folder for customers, suppliers, etc. Because the PST file is now located in My Documents this makes backups easier, and when using Active Sync to back up it only has to copy 5 or 10 smaller PST files that have changed versus a humongous 10 GB file which would take a couple hours to transfer over. My problem now is that I can't find "Data File Management" in Outlook 2010.  I'll look in the area you illustrated above but it looks to take a few more steps to do so.

• Anonymous
  August 29, 2010
  But when I do all this, and then drag any mail or folders into the new PST file, it disappears forever.  What am I doing wrong?

• Anonymous
  December 06, 2010
  I deleted my outlook pst file by mistake. Then i remove Office 2010, but when i install again, Outlook always asks for the file i deleted. What should i do about it?

• Anonymous
  December 22, 2010
  I like your blog very useful and very inspirational .Thanks a lot. It will help me a lot. By your inspiration even I have started blogging to share my work experience on sharepoint 2010 and  Microsoft outlook 2010. godwinsblog.cdtech.in/.../send-sms-directly-from-microsoft.html

• Anonymous
  December 30, 2010
  And what does a person do when Outlook 2010 will not open, because the current  pst file (from outlook 2007) is corrupt. yes I ran a scanpst, no help.

• Anonymous
  April 29, 2011
  Thanks Mate, was trying for a couple of days now, and now its working!:-)

• Anonymous
  June 14, 2011
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  July 06, 2011
  Thanks that helped....Its always been an issue for migrating Outlook. Anyways good info shared here.

• Anonymous
  July 08, 2011
  thanks for the tip, saved time for me !

• Anonymous
  August 14, 2011
  In oulook 2010 when i made my pst default then mail not able to download in my default Pst.Please help out.

• Anonymous
  August 16, 2011
  Very helpful information... Thanks a lot !!!!

• Anonymous
  September 21, 2011
  Thanks a lot !!!! Very helpful information.

• Anonymous
  September 30, 2011
  This was the best ever.  I went to several other sites before finding this one, this was the easiest fix EVER!   Thanks for posting!

• Anonymous
  October 14, 2011
  Great! it works and takes less than a minute ;)

• Anonymous
  October 18, 2011
  Thanks for the help....Saved time for me too...

• Anonymous
  November 27, 2011
  Great help, thanks!   Wish I found it an hour earlier, when I began trying to figure it out on my own!

• Anonymous
  December 23, 2011
  Thanks. Sometimes it's better to search on the internet than wait for helpdesk to respond. Happy Holidays!

• Anonymous
  December 29, 2011
  Thanks this is helpful!!! Keep up the good work.

• Anonymous
  January 03, 2012
  I've been searching forever in Outlook, without this I wouldnt have found it! Thanks!

• Anonymous
  January 11, 2012
  Me and my office are trying to move from one cloud server to another.  In order to do this, we are trying to back up all our mail/calendars etc in the way described above.  Everything seems to work fine, but when we try to import the data onto the outlook running on the new server nothing imports.  If anyone has any ideas I'd be incredibly grateful.  So far we've been at this for 5 hours and so far no joy. THanks.

• Anonymous
  February 09, 2012
  Thanks for this post, helped me create my own personal pst :)

• Anonymous
  February 16, 2012
  it's not use ful....,Please update correctly...

• Anonymous
  February 17, 2012
  I've been searching Outlook for over a week. Then I wised up and searched the internet. Your description made it quick and easy.

• Anonymous
  May 11, 2012
  Thanks for the tip. Saved some good time for me!

• Anonymous
  June 10, 2012
  Thanks it very helpfull.................

• Anonymous
  June 18, 2012
  Today i created my 1st PST in less than 30 sec..u rock :)

• Anonymous
  July 11, 2012
  Thank You .. It was very helpful.. :)

• Anonymous
  July 18, 2012
  Thanks... for detailed steps provided

• Anonymous
  July 18, 2012
  Thanks for simple and useful steps.

• Anonymous
  July 30, 2012
  Thanks for Really simple and useful steps.

• Anonymous
  August 03, 2012
  You got it right - thank you for taking the time to help the less skilled among us.

• Anonymous
  August 17, 2012
  dara just run your scanpst.exe to recover it

• Anonymous
  August 28, 2012
  Thanks for the great help, as simple as it sounds..i struggle when I upgraded from 2007 to 2010 and couldn't find how to craete new PST.  Thx again. thumbs up.

• Anonymous
  September 06, 2012
  Thank You .. It was very helpful.. :)

• Anonymous
  September 16, 2012
  it really hlp me to rsove the same issue for one of the user. thnx mate.

• Anonymous
  September 27, 2012
  Very Helpful! No need to contact IT!!!  

• Anonymous
  October 02, 2012
  Thanks a million for the great help!!!

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2012
  wow its cool.. and pretty easy all because of u guys Thanks team, u are better than Msoffice.online help !

• Anonymous
  November 12, 2012
  Cool !!   Now i can migrate my Outlook 98 emails to 2010.

• Anonymous
  November 14, 2012
  Though its a simple step,steps were really helpful.

• Anonymous
  December 03, 2012
  Great!!!! this was very helpful blog and thanks for providing screenprints

• Anonymous
  December 06, 2012
  clearly understood, awsome thanks a lot....!!!

• Anonymous
  December 10, 2012
  Simple and straight forward. Thanks.

• Anonymous
  December 18, 2012
  Thanks a lot.... it helped me a lot otherewise i would have to keep waiting for it professional for help...

• Anonymous
  December 24, 2012
  how i can have file outlouck2010 back i cancel by mistake

• Anonymous
  December 28, 2012
  Dude, you rock.  There's a reason this answer is right at the top of the Google results for this question, you answered the question completely and conclusively, and very concisely to boot.  Thanks, Kudos, and Happy New Year.

• Anonymous
  January 03, 2013
  Thanks a million ! We upgraded in 2012 and I create a new Personal Archive every year. Not a logical place for MS to hide this feature !!

• Anonymous
  January 08, 2013
  Thank you for this, we just upgraded to 2010 and people have been scrambling for these steps.

• Anonymous
  January 09, 2013
  Thank you very much Dude!   You save me a lot of time

• Anonymous
  January 11, 2013
  Thankyou very much ....saved a lot of time ....Awesome

• Anonymous
  January 17, 2013
  How is this different to  setting it up by selecting New Items - More Items - Outlook Data File and selecting where to save on c drive or Network? I know both ways work but one is a lot quicker than the other.

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2013
  Thankyou very much ....saved a lot of time ....Awesome

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2013
  Thanks for your information. Its very descriptive with step by step process  :)

• Anonymous
  January 31, 2013
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• Anonymous
  February 20, 2013
  thank u so much!! my boss is happy now!!

• Anonymous
  February 20, 2013
  that a fantastic professional job. Appreciate your efforts

• Anonymous
  February 22, 2013
  You Rock!  Every year I have to set one up but do you think I can remember how!!

• Anonymous
  March 05, 2013
  Lots of Thanks for getting chance to blog by me.

• Anonymous
  March 06, 2013
  It's work very nicely....... Thanks a lots

• Anonymous
  March 13, 2013
  The inbox repair tool helps to repair damaged PST files. But in severe cases the tool fails. In such situation you need the best third-party Outlook PST repair software is the best third-party software and it efficiently helps you to repair all sorts of PST corruption. The software is easy to use and it supports all the Outlook versions. Read More: http://pstscan.webs.com/

• Anonymous
  March 14, 2013
  Very helpful information... Thanks a lot !!!

• Anonymous
  March 17, 2013
  With the Outlook PST repair software you can easily repair your severely corrupted PST files. It is capable of repairing oversized PST files and also it can repair the poorly damaged header PST files. It supports all the latest and earlier Outlook versions. It is easy to use and provides you graphical user-interface. For more information: freescanpstexe.weebly.com

• Anonymous
  March 19, 2013
  thanks so much that is exactly what I was looking for

• Anonymous
  March 27, 2013
  Good Job! This is a great document!

• Anonymous
  April 02, 2013
  Exactly what I needed. Thanks a lot!

• Anonymous
  April 05, 2013
  Thank you!  Very good walk through instructions.

• Anonymous
  April 07, 2013
  Excellent Information - Very helpful

• Anonymous
  April 11, 2013
  Thanks for your information. Its very descriptive with step by step process  :)

• Anonymous
  April 14, 2013
  really very usefull ,with in two , mins we can create this pst file thanx alot

• Anonymous
  April 22, 2013
  It doesn't work for me.  It keeps telling me "This operation failed."  I follow the steps but do not know what is wrong.  I need to create a new archives folder because my current folder is full.  Please help.

• Anonymous
  April 25, 2013
  Thank you for taking the time to show it to us.

• Anonymous
  April 29, 2013
  Screen shots, details. Doesn't get any easier. Thanks!

• Anonymous
  May 21, 2013
  Every version of Windows requires a new learning curve

• Anonymous
  June 05, 2013
  I am running MS Outlook 2010 version.  I cannot "open" Outlook, at all.  My system is looking for a .pst file that doesn't exist.  How can I make changes to Outlook with another .pst file?  I created another .pst file, but Outlook isn't able use that file, it is looking for an old corrupted file.

• Anonymous
  June 08, 2013
  Thanks really nice post, More good information about repairing PST file can be found at gallery.technet.microsoft.com/How-To-Repair-PST-Files-4c463251

• Anonymous
  June 11, 2013
  Really very useful information Thanks a lot

• Anonymous
  June 18, 2013
  thanks.................it really helps...................

• Anonymous
  July 02, 2013
  Cool!  Thanks for this idiot-proof help!

• Anonymous
  July 10, 2013
  Can't believe it's your blog and not the MS Outlook 201 Help or Tutorial that gets the most hits from google which points me here. Very helpful and impressive work. Thank you! Just for your reference, below is MS way which does not take you out of the Home tab. In that sense, I think it is (just a tiny little bit) simpler. office.microsoft.com/.../create-an-outlook-data-file-pst-to-save-your-information-HA010355677.aspx

• Anonymous
  July 13, 2013
  Thank you, thank you and thank you!!!

• Anonymous
  July 18, 2013
  Thank You.. it works and took less than a minute

• Anonymous
  July 18, 2013
  Thanks for your post. My mailbox works fine now.

• Anonymous
  July 22, 2013
  I like your blog very useful and very inspirational .Thanks a lot. It will help me a lot. I've also started blogging by inspiring your stuff.

• Anonymous
  August 13, 2013
  Thanks a bunch! This made it so easy..

• Anonymous
  August 26, 2013
  Thanks! Very helpful (better than MS help functionality :-S)

• Anonymous
  September 21, 2013
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 03, 2013
  thank you so much its reallty very helpful blog along with screen shots...

• Anonymous
  October 04, 2013
  Good blog, screen shots helped in configuring quickly.

• Anonymous
  October 23, 2013
  I don't know what's wrong with my Outlook 2010, but when I create a new PST file, it only has 2 folders called "Deleted Items" and "Search Folders". Ok, I can create new folders called "Inbox", "Sent Items" and "Contacts", but when I copy the data to them they don't have the same format, I mean the sent Items show my name in the TO column. Seems like Outlook 2010 doesn't recognize this manual created folders like an Inbox or Sent Items or contacts folders, though they have the same name. So, what I did is a copy of an old  1GB PST file I had in Office 2007, emptied the Inbox, Sent Items and Contacts folders, made the compact in this PST Properties->Advanced, and Outlook 2010 recognized this PST with the same format as my online PST. I would appreciate any help on this issue. Thanks in advance.

• Anonymous
  October 29, 2013
  Thanks for the detal steps.It really helped a lot :-)

• Anonymous
  November 25, 2013
  It was really helpful. Simple and effective. Thanks to who ever posted this on the web. Thanks a Very lot

• Anonymous
  November 26, 2013
  It is quite good solution but  in the manual session to transfer the back up data files may create complication and chances to loss database that's why you can try ADD PST Software for adding PST files to Outlook 2010. It will create new folder in Microsoft Outlook 2010 after importing email files. And also you can recognize healthier and corrupt data files before insert PST files. So  quickly grab it with it demo version now. For further detail click here: www.outlookaddpst.outlooktolotusnotes.com

• Anonymous
  December 04, 2013
  Thanks, this was very helpful!  I would have never have found this!

• Anonymous
  January 26, 2014
  Thanks, i need this information, i will try it!

• Anonymous
  March 16, 2014
  Thanks a lot.

• Anonymous
  March 21, 2014
  Thank you very much. Seems like I have to relearn it every time. Wish it was more intuitive.
  But thank you seriously.

• Anonymous
  March 27, 2014
  thank you so much

• Anonymous
  April 01, 2014
  Awesome - thanks for the help; it worked perfectly!! :)

• Anonymous
  April 29, 2014
  Nice and quick..
  

• Anonymous
  May 19, 2014
  Thanks for your Tutorial helped me alot. Good work done

• Anonymous
  June 05, 2014
  good simple steps

• Anonymous
  June 10, 2014
  Thanks been very helpful ....

• Anonymous
  June 16, 2014
  Hi. My .pst file is on my desktop and when I am trying to Bring it to the newley installed MS outlook i ma facing "Path not found verify the path Error". Please do help me out on this.

• Anonymous
  June 30, 2014
  Great!!!Many Thanks

• Anonymous
  July 03, 2014
  Thanks Buddy!!!

• Anonymous
  July 20, 2014
  tanx.

• Anonymous
  August 14, 2014
  this was a life saver - thanks so much for posting !

• Anonymous
  September 22, 2014
  Fab, thanks so much.

• Anonymous
  September 30, 2014
  Thank you so much, it was really helpful and the easiest i have ever seen

• Anonymous
  October 08, 2014
  Thank you for posting these steps! It helped a great deal!

• Anonymous
  October 17, 2014
  Thanks Man!!

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2014
  Awesome post...... Simply great.... Thank you
  

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2014
  Very Useful, Thanks!!

• Anonymous
  December 29, 2014
  Very usefull.....

• Anonymous
  April 22, 2015
  Really helpful advice. Thx a lot!

• Anonymous
  April 24, 2015
  Thank You!!! Genius

• Anonymous
  May 29, 2015
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 16, 2015
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 17, 2015
  Hi,
  I like your blog very useful and very inspirational .Thanks a lot. It will help me a lot. By your inspiration even. I have started blogging to share my work experience on Microsoft outlook. Outlook PST repair tool will help you to repair corrupt pst file.
  
  See more on: http://www.softwaredownloadcentre.com/software/outlook-pst-repair.php