6 Ways To Fix “Unable to Expand the Folder Outlook” Error

The majority of business users are using Microsoft Outlook for effective email communication. But, sometimes this application does not work well. Many Outlook users receive this “unable to expand the folder Outlook” error while accessing their Personal Storage Table (PST) folder. A PST file is a proprietary file format used to store copies of messages, notes, tasks, events, and other data items.

Well, if you are also getting this same error then read the blog to learn how to resolve this “cannot expand the folder Outlook error” in an efficient manner.

But before its resolution, let’s understand what are the factors that may cause this error.

Possible Reasons Behind Unable to Expand the Folder Outlook 2016

This error “Cannot expand the folder. The set of folders cannot be opened” can occur to Outlook due to following factors –

1. Folder visible option turned off.
2. Multiple or Invalid Outlook profiles.
3. Bad Sectors in Hard drive.
4. Improper account settings.
5. Corrupt Outlook data files.

Manual Approaches to Resolve “cannot expand the folder Outlook” Error

Trick 1# Turn on the Folder Visible option

As we have already mentioned in the above section that the error may arise if the “Folder Visible” option is turned off. So, the error unable to expand the folder Outlook can be fixed by turning On the Folder visible option. Therefore, here are the complete steps to do so:

1. Choose the folder you want to share on your device.
2. Right-click the mailbox, in the folders list, and select Properties on the shortcut menu.
3. Go to the Permission tab, make a selection of Folder visible option in the permission area.
4. Lastly, press on the “OK” tab.
5. Finally, assign the approval to the assigned folder.

Trick 2# Remove Invalid Outlook Profiles

Another cause of this “unable to expand the folder Outlook” error is due to invalid or incorrect Outlook profiles. You can manually delete those invalid Outlook profiles by following the given steps:

1. Click on Windows start menu> Control Panel.
2. Right-click on “Mail” option in the Control Panel Windows.
3. Press “Show profiles” tab in the new Windows.
4. Then, delete all the invalid Outlook profiles.
5. Click on the add button to create a new profile for your Outlook account.
6. Press “Apply” and then “OK”
7. Start MS Outlook.

Trick 3# Repair Bad Sectors in Hard disk

If there are bad sectors in the hard disk where you have installed your MS Outlook, then this “unable to expand the folder Outlook pane” error will pop up. You can follow the below instructions to scan.

1. Close Outlook and go to “Start Menu”. In the search field, type “cmd”.
2. Open Command Prompt as an administrative privilege. Now type “chkdsk diskname: /f” and press “Enter”
3. If you force it to check the system disk where Windows is installed, it will ask you whether to schedule a disk check next time Windows reboots. If you just need to check other data drives, it will work immediately.
4. Finally after fixing the bad sectors in the hard disk, you can restart Outlook to see if the error has gone away.

Trick 4# Disable the Cache Mode

If it is happening on an Exchange account or in a shared mailbox then turning off the cache mode could resolve the cannot expand the folder Outlook error. Look at the steps required.

1. Click on the File menu option.
2. Click on Account Settings and select Account Settings from the drop-down menu.
3. Now, you will see a list of all email accounts. Then double-click on the email ID which is throwing the Cannot expand folder error.
4. Unchecked the “Use Cached Exchange Mode” option and save the settings.
5. Close and restart the MS Outlook application.

Furthermore, many users still encounter this error, owing to the fact that their Outlook data file is corrupt. Therefore, in order to repair those damaged .ost and .pst files, you need to read the next section.

Trick 5# Fix Unable to Expand the Folder Outlook Error by Repairing Corrupted Data File

Case 1: When PST File is Corrupt

You can use the Outlook PST File Repair that efficiently repairs the major corruption issues from the Outlook PST. The software has quick and advanced scanning mode, by using these options users can easily repair the highly corrupted data files.

Moreover, the utility can easily recover the permanently deleted Outlook mailbox data such as emails, notes, calendars, journals, contacts, tasks, etc.

Case 2: If OST File is Corrupt

If the Unable to expand the folder Outlook error is caused due to the corrupt OST files and scanpst.exe tool failed to fix the issue. Then, the OST Repair will definitely resolve your problem.

It is specially designed to repair the multiple corrupted files. In addition, you can save recovered items into multiple formats such as PST, MSG, EML, PDF, Office 365 from a specific date range.

Conclusion

Sometimes Outlook users are unable to expand the folder in their Outlook account and result in the “cannot expand the folder Outlook error”. In this article, we have mentioned both the manual and automated solution to fix the error.

But sometimes manual resolve can’t fix the issue if the PST files are harshly broken. In that condition, users have to opt for a professional tool that can easily fix the unable to expand the folder Outlook error.