Outlook 2016 opens with “Something is wrong with one of your data files and outlook needs to close.”

by | Jun 15, 2020 | Office | 0 comments

Q: 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?

A: Open Search and type Regedit to start the Registry Editor:

  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

You should be able to open Outlook now. If this doesn’t work, make sure you try setting a new Mail Profile under Control Panel > Mail and open with that.