Outlook PST File Large But Empty Error- Step by Step Guide To Fix It

Microsoft Outlook is an eminent application to manage your emails. Despite being a reliable and convenient platform, Outlook users face many issues with it. One of the most common issues they found is “Outlook PST file large but empty” in Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007.

So, in this article, we are going to discuss the solutions to fix this issue. But before we proceed further to its solution, let’s have a quick glance what does this error means and why this error occurs?

What does Outlook PST file large but empty Error Means and its Cause?

It means that when the users tried to open their PST files, it shows an empty error message, even though it’s having a huge size data files in it.

Generally “PST files huge but empty” issue occurs when the PST files are moved from one location to another. This situation also can take place while migrating all mailbox to PST file locally and when they attempted to load the previous version of Outlook PST to currently using Outlook.

Why Users Got Stuck into ‘Outlook PST file so large’ issues?

Here, we share a couple of reasons where they see a huge size of PST file but when opened it shows empty in Outlook.

Scenario 1: When you delete mailbox files from Outlook PST file, its size doesn’t decrease until you compact it. Hence, you can see the file as large but there are no data files in it.

As a result, it leads to an error “Outlook PST file empty” error. So it is essential for a user to compact the files because huge PST files are prone to corruption easily.

Resolution: Reduce Outlook data File Size

You can reduce the file size of the Outlook data file by using a compact now option. follow all the steps to fix the large PST file but no email error.

1. First of all, launch Outlook and right-click on the “Data File” option on the right-hand side of your screen.
2. Now, choose “Data File Properties” from the pop up menu.
3. It will open wizard named like Outlook Today – [username @ domain name] Properties
4. From that wizard, click on “General” tab and below you can see “Advanced” button
5. Hit on the “Advanced” button to open the Outlook Data File Setting window.
6. Lastly, click on the “Compact Now” button.

After completing the steps you will see Outlook PST file will be in its original size. And it will not affect any files already present on it.

Scenario 2: One of the major reasons due to which Outlook PST file shows empty even if it has data files is PST file corruption. When your PST file is corrupted and it becomes inaccessible to you. In those circumstances, you need to repair those corrupted files with the help of some manual or an automated tool.

Resolution: Repair File by Using ScanPST.exe

The inbox repair tool is a free inbuilt utility provided by Microsoft. This tool helps to repair the minor corruption.

Follow the given steps to resolve the Outlook PST file too large error caused by corrupt PST file.

1. First of all, locate the Inbox Repair Tool depending on the Outlook versions you are using.
2. Now, double-click on the scanpst.exe file.
3. In the next step, click on the browse button to insert the PST file.
4. Finally, press on the Start button to scan the file.
5. If the tool found any errors, click on the Repair button.

It is noticed that the ScanPST.exe tool is not the safest way to recover or repair the files. There might be chances that user can lose their valuable data like email, attachments, and other important files.

Thus, to overcome these certain limitations, we have an automated tool that helps users to repair the highly or severely corruption issues of file.

Fix Outlook PST file large but Empty Issue – Using an Instant Solution

The Outlook PST recovery tool is specifically designed with brilliant algorithms to repair and recover data. With the help of this tool, you can perform decryption of multiple PST emails in bulk and keep attachments integrated after email decryption.

The tool provides the two different scanning options depending upon the level of corruption.

Quick Mode: This option is used to repair the minor level corruption from Outlook data files.

Advanced Mode: Users can use this option when their PST files are harshly broken and severely corrupted.

Apart from this, the software is integrated with many other features that can resolve the Outlook issues without any data loss. Moreover, the tool is compatible with all the latest Outlook versions such as 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003 etc.

Step-by-Step Procedure To Repair Outlook Data

The complete working of this professional tool is discussed in a descriptive manner. You need to follow all the steps to get a positive outcome.

Step 1: Run the software.

Step 2: Click on the Add File button to insert the corrupted PST file into the software.

Step 3: Select the Quick or Advanced Scanning mode to fix the corruption.

Step 4: After scanning PST, preview all the desired items such as email, attachments, contacts, tasks, etc in the software panel.

Step 5: Hit the Export button and access the recovered data successfully.

Concluding Thoughts

In this article, we have discussed what is Outlook PST File Large But Empty error and what are the cases of getting this error. Depending upon those cases when mentioned the manual solutions to fix this issue.