Microsoft Outlook is an email client and a personal information manager for the millions of business and home users. It is available both for Windows and Mac operating system. It is a part of Microsoft Office and comes with Office Suite.
Outlook uses Personal Folder File (PFF) to store all emails, tasks, contacts, notes and other information of the user. There are three types of PFF are known –
Personal Address Book (PAB) – It contains the address book of contacts in .pab extension.
Personal Storage Table (PST) – It contains all emails, notes, tasks, appointments etc. with .pst file extension.
Offline Storage Table (OST) – It contains all items like emails, notes, journals, tasks etc. with Microsoft Exchange with .ost file extension.
Supported File Types
Primary File extension
.MSG – It is a single mail message file of Outlook.
Other File extensions
Few are the famous file extensions –
.BCM – Business Contact Manager file
.EML – E-mail message
.HOL – Outlook holidays file
.ICAL – iCalendar File
.ICS – Calendar File
.OAB – Offline Address Book
.VCF – vCard File
Outlook Data file default locations
Outlook data file location on Windows XP
Outlook 2013 & 2016: My Documents\Outlook Files
Outlook 2007 or earlier versions: C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
Outlook data file location on Windows Vista, 7 & 8
Outlook 2013 & 2016: Documents\Outlook Files
Outlook 2007 or earlier versions: C:\Users\YOUR_USER_NAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
Outlook data file location on Mac OS
Outlook 2011 database file: Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities/Main Identity/
Outlook 2011 storage folders: Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities/Main Identity/Data Records
Some Important Facts
- Outlook stores data in Personal Storage Table and have .pst file extension. The default file name is Outlook.pst. If you archive to the default folder, that is called archive.pst
- PST files cannot be read if they have marked read-only. You can copy them to your hard drive and remove read-only attribute before opening them.
- To open the Outlook data file, you need to choose File > Import and Export wizard and then choose a .pst file. You cannot open PST file with a double-click on it.
- The earlier versions of Outlook have some storage limitations that create issues in Outlook and PST file. Outlook 2003 and earlier versions have 2 GB storage facility. In Outlook 2003 and later versions, it is increased to 20 GB and then it becomes unlimited with new versions.