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Outlook 2016 opens with "Something is wrong with one of your data files and outlook needs to close." RRS feed

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    Each time Outlook 2016 opens it will display the message "Something is wrong with one of your data files and outlook needs to close."  Sometimes it's the OST, sometimes it's an archive that is being opened in Outlook and sometimes it's an archive that was once loaded in Outlook but no longer is.  The repairs proceed to the end and Outlook opens but when I close and reopen, again it wants to repair a data file.  Even more bizarre, while it's repairing I can click on Outlook and it will open up, so it seems to me this is a bogus error message.  For grins I restored the PST files from a two-week old backup, before this issue arose.  Anyone run into this before?


    Friday, January 6, 2017 4:53 PM

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    Wow - this was a nightmare problem. Outlook continually said that the data file was corrupt and needed to scan it.

    I had already deleted the datafile, it was no longer in the system and was removed from Mail in the Control Panel.

    I tried creating a new profile, opening outlook in safe mode and all the other common things.

    The solution was as follows:

    1. In regedit, go to: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\PST
    2. Delete the following two keys: LastCorruptStore and PromptRepair
    3. Start Outlook

    That's it.

    • Proposed as answer by pjjonesnz Friday, June 12, 2020 6:49 AM
    • Marked as answer by Andy DavidMVP Monday, June 15, 2020 12:31 PM
    Friday, June 12, 2020 6:49 AM
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    user's requirement is that he has access in that profile to his archive files, which are located on a network share. 
    PST files on a network share are not (and never have been) supported which may/can lead to file corruption / unstable behavior. Operative words are "can/may". The fact that it may work one time and not another is absolutely irrelevant. There's nothing in the registry that alters that nor does opening Outlook in safemode.

    Karl Timmermans [Outlook MVP] "Outlook Contact Import/Export/Data Mgmt" http://www.contactgenie.com

    Tuesday, January 10, 2017 2:49 PM

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    Hi Miles,

    I suggest you can back up all mailbox items by exporting them to PST file. Then go to Control Panel > Mail > Show Profiles, click add to create a new profile, setup your email account, finish the account auto setup.

    In Mail window, set "When starting Microsoft Outlook, use this profile: Prompt for a profile to be used". Use this new profile and confirm if the issue can be fixed. If there is no issue in new profile, we can import the old mailbox data to new profile.

    Regards,

    Winnie Liang

    Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
    If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com.

    Monday, January 9, 2017 7:37 AM
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    Hi Winnie and thank you for answering.  I should have mentioned that I've created maybe three new profiles over the course of troubleshooting this but I get the same result.
    Monday, January 9, 2017 1:27 PM
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    #1 ...........sometimes it's an archive that was once loaded in Outlook but no longer is. 

    #2 .........Even more bizarre, while it's repairing I can click on Outlook and it will open up, so it seems to me this is a bogus error message.

    That description contains some serious red flags - specifically item #1. If the archive is no longer part of the Outlook profile then Outlook "itself" would not be opening it - no ifs, ands or maybes on that one. So just to clarify/confirm the description, the "archive" file you are eluding to is absolutely no configured in the Outlook profile under the data files tab - correct?

    Outlook also would not open a PST file that is "in use" so that is equally strange.

    First thing I'd be checking would be any 3rd party addins that are installed along with any applications that use Outlook data in any way. Generally, if encountering a scenario where the Outlook data files are getting constantly corrupted, the cause is generally caused by a 3rd party application of somekind (add-in, app of any kind including backup sync service). This presupposes one very important thing which is that these files are not being stored on a network connected drive or on a file sharing service (i.e. OneDrive).

    That fact that you have mentioned creating multiple new profiles would exclude "profile corruption" as being a cause so if it were me.........I'd be focusing on external causes as noted above.

    One last item for the sake of confirmation - when you said multiple new profiles were created, were those profiles created from scratch or changes made to a copy of the original. If it's the latter, any profile related issue would easily be carried forward regardless of email account configuration.

    Karl Timmermans [Outlook MVP] "Outlook Contact Import/Export/Data Mgmt" http://www.contactgenie.com


    Monday, January 9, 2017 10:30 PM
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    To clarify, yes, I create the profile 'from scratch'.  Outlook will then open and operate normally.  The user's requirement is that he has access in that profile to his archive files, which are located on a network share.  Once a PST is added, Outlook will either crash or when restarted ScanPST will start.  One would think, "corrupted PST, end of story", but all four PSTs behave the same, and they have not changed (per backup stats) since 2014.  My gut tells me there is some flag in the registry that is at fault.  Anyone ever use Revo to uninstall Office?
    Tuesday, January 10, 2017 2:20 PM
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    I forgot to mention as well that starting Outlook in various safe modes doesn't seem to have any effect.
    Tuesday, January 10, 2017 2:21 PM
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    user's requirement is that he has access in that profile to his archive files, which are located on a network share. 
    PST files on a network share are not (and never have been) supported which may/can lead to file corruption / unstable behavior. Operative words are "can/may". The fact that it may work one time and not another is absolutely irrelevant. There's nothing in the registry that alters that nor does opening Outlook in safemode.

    Karl Timmermans [Outlook MVP] "Outlook Contact Import/Export/Data Mgmt" http://www.contactgenie.com

    Tuesday, January 10, 2017 2:49 PM
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    I've copied the PSTs to the C drive and am running ScanPST against each of them before adding them to the newly re-installed Outlook 2013.
    Tuesday, January 10, 2017 3:21 PM
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    Success.  They open fine if saved locally.  Wish I had thought of that sooner.  Thanks everyone.
    Tuesday, January 10, 2017 4:31 PM
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    Hi Miles,

    Glad that the issue has been resolved.

    Do you mind helping to mark the helpful replies as answers? It would be easier for other community members who have a similar issue to quickly find the helpful information in this thread :)

    Thanks for your understanding.

    Regards,

    Winnie Liang

    Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
    If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com.

    Thursday, January 12, 2017 6:00 AM
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    I know im late this, but was hoping someone (maybe an OL SME/Guru) Im on a corporate netwrk. using Outlook 2013- I just had this error occur this morning "

    Something is wrong with one of your data files and outlook needs to close

    Outlook prompts to repair it,  I allow the repair, says its completed successfully-  restart outlook, and get the same error! -  next  I created a new profile, only adding in the email account, no data files-  then make the new profile the default profile-    start outlook, it again prompts  stating something is wrong with my data files- 

    next!-  I uninstalled ALL of Office 2013, restarted, cleaned up the user profile folders (nothing in them!)
    reinstalled Office 2013, rebooted-   ran a gpupdate to grab the lastest gpo from the server(s)- launched 
    outlook-  no resolve-   still prompting that there is something wrong with my data files! 

    Last attempt,  opened regedit,  navigated to:  Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\PST

    there are only 2 entries here, neither contain anything (verbage) regarding PST repair 

    If I had to guess, via enterprise environment, once an uninstall is done on any application, any of that applications updates, will now need to be manually installed so its patched to the most current level the enterprise has standardized onto

    Tuesday, August 7, 2018 7:55 PM
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    Wow - this was a nightmare problem. Outlook continually said that the data file was corrupt and needed to scan it.

    I had already deleted the datafile, it was no longer in the system and was removed from Mail in the Control Panel.

    I tried creating a new profile, opening outlook in safe mode and all the other common things.

    The solution was as follows:

    1. In regedit, go to: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\PST
    2. Delete the following two keys: LastCorruptStore and PromptRepair
    3. Start Outlook

    That's it.

    • Proposed as answer by pjjonesnz Friday, June 12, 2020 6:49 AM
    • Marked as answer by Andy DavidMVP Monday, June 15, 2020 12:31 PM
    Friday, June 12, 2020 6:49 AM
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    You are so right pjjonesnz -- WHAT A NIGHTMARE.

    Working with Outlook 2016, I tried everything you did, short of uninstalling the program.

    Finally, in regedit, I navigated to:

    Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\PST

    the PromptRepair value was set to 1 (true).  I changed it to 0 (false).  That fixed the problem.

    This registry location is different than the location discussed in many other posts on the web, but the concept is the same -- change PromptRepair from true to false.  The registry location changes based on the version of Outlook you are using, so you may just have to poke around to find the key,  I'm sure that deleting the key works just as well, but I am always a little hesitant to delete keys.  

    Friday, June 12, 2020 11:14 PM
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    You are absolutely correct. For the last 3 days, I tried everything from deleting App Data files, temp files, uninstalling and reinstalling, deleting credential manager etc. but got no solution.

    Finally, tried deleting those two culprit files in regedit and got rid off the error.

    Thank you

    Friday, June 12, 2020 11:43 PM
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    Thank you

    That solved my problem as well

    Regards,

    Oshik

    Monday, June 15, 2020 12:14 PM
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    AMAZING!  I did it and it is working!  Still on hold with BB Tech Support, so happy I could fix it myself WITH THIS FORUM!!!
    Monday, June 15, 2020 5:10 PM
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    You are an absolute STAR!!!!

    2 hours of using scanpst, changing data files and massive frustration, you solved it in one.

    Thank you so much,

    Peter

    Monday, June 15, 2020 7:59 PM
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    Worked for me.  No way.  Too easy. 
    Tuesday, June 16, 2020 3:51 PM
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    I've tried to delete the two keys, but then, another message coming "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened"

    Can you please help me with this issue?

    Thanks

    Wednesday, June 17, 2020 1:17 PM
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    After hours and hours of searching and trying this solved my problem!!!!!!! THANKS!!!!!!!
    Wednesday, June 17, 2020 11:11 PM
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    I could not find PromptRepair in Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\PST, I only found LastCorruptStore, any suggestions? I also used the search function in Registry, I could not find it either.
    Friday, June 19, 2020 8:25 AM
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    Thank you! I've been trying to fix this issue for hours and this fixed it right away. 
    Friday, June 19, 2020 5:39 PM
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    Wow! Great solution! To solved my problem!

    Btw, for anyone else who are experiencing this problem, it is pointless to uninstall and reinstall again :) 

    I tried a few different permutations by fooling around with the registry, but seems that pjjonesnz got it right!

    Friday, June 19, 2020 6:18 PM
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    Worked like a charm! What a headache...thank you!


    Monday, June 22, 2020 2:07 AM
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    Thank you! Stumbled across your solution after 2 hours of searching, fixed the problem in two minutes once I found it.
    Monday, June 22, 2020 8:23 PM
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    I am facing this Outlook issue with one of our client machine > Something is wrong with one of your data files and Outlook 2016 needs to close

    Steps Performed:

    -Open runbox > regedit > Went to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\PST > Deleted the following two keys: LastCorruptStore and PromptRepair > Opened Outlook and it start working fine like a charm.

    Thank you so much Dude to save my lots of time. Many Thanks to you.  God Bless you.

    Tuesday, June 23, 2020 6:24 PM
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    Fixed it! Amazing, thank you pjjonesnz!
    Friday, June 26, 2020 2:52 AM
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    WOW!!

    believe me I have spend hours checking and deleting and restoring to solve this problem on Office Professional 2019.  clearly helps if you know the keywords in whcih to search.

    your expert and outstanding advice is very much appreciated.

    I am back online

    thanks again

    Tuesday, June 30, 2020 3:55 AM
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    When I delete PromptRepair it pops up again with the value 1 when I open Outlook.
    and when I change the value to 0, Outlook works,  I close Outlook and I open it again and then the value of     PromptRepair changes to 1 automatically again and I get the same problem. Any suggestions please? I've been facing this problem for more than 3 weeks now.
    Thursday, July 2, 2020 11:23 AM