Accessing Outlook .pst files in New Outlook

Anonymous
2024-06-04T14:06:01+00:00

I have twenty years of history in various .pst files.  When I first started using Outlook, my single .pst file and all my folders got too large and I was instructed to move some of my folders into new .pst files.  These .pst files contain lots of important emails and historic records attached to emails.  So I filed all the emails into various folders within various .pst files. 

If Outlook will no longer support .pst files, how will I be able to access the .pst files?  I understand that Microsoft will no longer support “Old Outlook”.  So what can I now do to be able to access these various .pst files?  Should i go back to what I was doing originally and move everything from .pst files into folders within my "root" Outlook email? That would put about 4.5G of emails into my New Outlook. How will that work?

Outlook | Windows | New Outlook for Windows | For home

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

117 answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Hal Hostetler MVP-Outlook 12,011 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-02-12T15:48:55+00:00

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2025-03-02T02:49:28+00:00

    I recomend using MailStore is NOT an email client but good for stored PST files. Personally I use the same method of archiving emails like you.
    Very disappointed with the new Outlook.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2025-03-10T07:47:36+00:00

    Hi folks, this may be amazing news for some.

    Every now and again the annoying icon with an exclamation mark saying something needs to be fixed irritates me and I click on it. I've just booted my PC and clicked and the usual "you need a subscription" message didn't happen. Instead I got this:

    Obviously I hit "Continue to open" and BOOM... I had read access to my archive. I tried a few more. All worked. I clicked on the three dots to the top right when you hover over the file...

    You can add files.

    I followed the "Learn more" to the article that tells you more. You can now manage them in Settings>General>Outlook Data Files and add them there too.

    The big thing that I've found is that you can't (yet) re-arrange them into the order that you'd really like them to be in - so mine run from 2016 to 2023 and then I've added the missing 2012-2015 files and they're at the bottom (I may have to remove them all and then add them in the proper sequence in case it drives me too distraction).

    Anyway, I don't know if this is rolling out slowly or if you all have access to it now, but I can certainly read my old email archives within New Outlook. Hooooooorah!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Hal Hostetler MVP-Outlook 12,011 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-03-10T16:25:05+00:00

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2025-03-24T12:24:04+00:00

    As a translation ; new Outlook will force you to move all your PSTs to standard Putlook folders stored in Azure forcing you to move to a paid suscription since you will eat up quickly all your "free" storage

    Bad news....

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments