Use ScanPST to repair Outlook files

by Pramith September 21, 2026

written by Pramith September 21, 2026

If your Personal Folder in Outlook is corrupted, you can repair it using the ScanPST.exe file. We’ll show you how to do this in this guide.

Repair Outlook files with ScanPST

The following steps have been tested with Outlook 2013. In older versions, some functions may have different names or be arranged differently.

First, close Outlook. Then press the Windows key and E at the same time to open File Explorer.
Navigate to the path C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office. Then, depending on your version of Office, open the “Office12”, “Office15” or a similar folder.
Scroll down slightly and open the file “SCANPST”. Note: If you cannot find the SCANPST.exe file, you can download a similar file by following step 1 in this Microsoft article.
Once you have opened the tool, it will automatically search for the PST file. If the path is correct, click the “Start” button. Otherwise, you can change the path using the “Browse” option. The PST file is usually located in your “Documents” folder.
After a few seconds, the file will have been scanned. If any errors are found, click the ‘Repair’ button.

In many cases, Outlook automatically recognises the repaired PST file. If this is not the case, you will need to import it manually.

Open Outlook and click on the ‘File’ tab in the top-left corner.
On the left-hand side, go to the ‘Open & Export’ category and select the ‘Open Outlook Data File’ option.
Select the new or repaired PST file here. Outlook should then work properly again.
Note: In some cases, the file may have been replaced rather than simply repaired during the repair process. In this case, you must select the new PST file.