Comments on: How to fix "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Unable to open Outlook window" error

Unable to open your Outlook? In this article you will find really working solutions for "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook" problem. The fixes will help you open Outlook again with no errors, the solutions work in all versions of Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007 and lower and on all systems. Continue reading →

Comments page 3. Total comments: 235

  1. DON'T PANIC - TRY REBOOTING FIRST.

    I got stuck in a loop of the first 2 options (navpane, scanpst) - neither worked. Eventually, I put back what Scanpst was saying was my corrupted .PST file, rebooted, and all worked again properly.

    My original problem happened when I tried adding a work email account into Outlook 2013 (I already have 9 email accounts loaded).

    My guess is something was corrupted in Windows' cache, and all the hard options here were unnecessary. >>> try rebooting before panicking.

  2. Adding a new profile worked for me!

    Really appreciate this article and the help it gave me.

  3. Thanks for the troubleshoot, I fixed my Outlook in no time!

  4. thanks. this aurtical is very very use full for me

  5. please help me to activate my ms outlook sos that i can receive and send my emails

  6. outlook 2010 and 2013 having credenitial how to solve

  7. can help me some one

  8. cannot start microsoft outlook. cannot open the outlook window. the set of folder cannot be opened

  9. I found my own solution where all else failed.
    I had to start outlook in safe mode and the ignore the corrupted "Outlook" named profile but go straight to create a new profile called Nick. I then needed my outlook icon to use that profile outlook.exe /profile Nick. I now need to find out how to remove the corrupt profile!

  10. Thanks for the solution to my problem! Accessing the data files through the Control Panel was the magic for me.

  11. Try this if using Windows 7 with Microsoft Outlook 2010:
    Procedure
    1. Click on start menu.
    2. Type "Outlook Files".
    3. Click on "Outlook Files" folder under search result.
    4. Delete "Outlook" in outlook files folder.
    5. Now open "Microsoft outlook 2010" application.
    6. Click "ok".
    7. Type your login password and confirm.
    8. Tick "save password".
    9. Click "ok".
    10. It shall be OK now.

  12. Thank you so very much for your kind advice.

  13. Thanks for the suggestions above. After trying most of the suggestions i finally managed to fix the issue just by creating a new outlook profile. I just copied the old one, gave it a new name and viola, worked fine.

  14. Just tried to open micro soft outlook from my lap top icon for my emails this morning as per normal however... error message just appeared and I cannot get into my emails...
    .."The Operation Failed"...

    Any suggestion on how to fix this !!!

    Thanks..

  15. I am in the same situation with Outlook 2016, following the uninstall of a third party software. This software includes an Outlook addon which might explain why the uninstall affected Outlook.
    Anyway, that's Microsoft.
    I have tried all the above mentioned options to no avail.
    I have recreated a new PST file, Outlook now opens (great!), however I cannot import any mail from the old file (so what?). It is an OST file which has a 250M size.
    So, it seems I have lost 6 months of banking business information.
    This makes me think how right I am of having 4 home computers equipped with Linux Mageia!

  16. This worked wonderful Thank you for posting this

  17. Thanks to everyone, followed steps and job done.

  18. Hi
    You are right. This problem can be solved by this but i have one more tool by which any non technical user can also run this software to resolve this error.

  19. Outlook wont open the error message reads

    Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open the
    Outlook window. The set of folders could not be opened. The
    server is not available. Contact your administrator if this
    condition persists.

    I have little to no pc knowledge and this means nothing to me other than I have no email access. Is any able to give me any advice on what to do. I even had to type long hand the message as I dont even know how to do a screen shot. Many thanks Julie

  20. Thanks a lot for the information, Step 2 has worked for me.

  21. It worked! YAY! Thanks a million!!!

  22. Hello Team,

    I am unable to open my old .pst files into new computer what could be the solution for the same I even tried to use Scanpst.exe to repair it but, not successful.

    Need assistance please

    Many Thanks

  23. Its Working...

    Thanks...

  24. I try to open Outlook and a message comes out that we "can only open one version of Outlook at a time". But I do not have any other version open!! can anyone help in words of one syllable please?

  25. Thanks creating a adding a new outlook mail worked for me. Thanks.

  26. Thank you so very much for your kind advice.

  27. Outstanding advice - thank you so much!!

  28. Svetlana- you are a life saver!!! I was trying to back up my contacts and screwed things up. This helped greatly!!!

  29. I had tried ScanPST.exe with no success. So, I followed your given reference about 5 best PST repair tool. I selected stellar PST repair tool and got access to some important emails of my Outlook mailbox.

  30. Thanks a lot. These steps fixed the issue which i was working for more than an hour

  31. Hello Svetlana,

    this helped me to resolve the issue without my IT to do this and they were not able to fix it. thanks for the useful article.

    You are awesome after Step 3 it did not change anything and it still throwed an error but when checked 3. Switch to the Compatibility tab "Run this program in compatibility mode for" was checked again as Windows XP.

  32. I had the same problem and eventually I resolved it by enabling the isatap adapter from Microsoft through the CLI (netsh int isa set state enabled. I have no idea what the link might be between these two but this resolved my headache. ;-)

  33. KrojamSoft FilesSearch Tool helped me in this case.

  34. i have to say thanks a lot for your help because i was facing some problems in my office outlook and after go on your steps now is okay thanks

  35. Thanks! It was the compatibility setting that fixed it for me in Office 2013.

  36. Helpful, Thanks.

  37. None of these worked for me, but I did find a solution...>>>

    control panel --> mail --> show profiles --> Add -->
    (complete wizard)
    then alter the drop down below-->
    change "outlook" to whatever name you just created.
    click OK and run outlook..

    solved the issue for my office 365 dilemma!

    1. Thanks ... this worked for me

    2. OMG! THANKS! THAT WAS JUST THE KEY!! FINALLY!

    3. Nice.
      Many Thanks. Its working.

    4. You are smart.

      Thanks a lot

  38. I was unable to open Outlook 2007 and was receiving a pop up stating an invalid XLM. I followed the instructions:
    Recover Navigation Pane configuration file
    and it fixed the fault.
    Many thanks.

  39. when i am trying click the outlook itself it is not opening with the error set of folders cannot be opened

  40. Superb.. Thank you so much :)

  41. Errores de Outlook

  42. Thanks Svetlana for this excellent write up. Recently, I encountered "Unable to display the folder...." error in my Outlook 2010 and your article helped me a lot. Now, my outlook application is working fine!

    - Mike

  43. Nice Work
    10X

  44. My problem is a little different in that I do not receive a "cannot open default email folder" note. When I click on the mail icon (Windows 8) the blue screen comes up with the envelope on it and then immediately returns to the start screen with all of the icons on it (not the desk top screen).

    Any suggestions for accessing Outlook email?

  45. An orphaned calendar was my problem. I received the error listed, but it corresponded with me removing an account from Outlook. I followed the steps above with no success. After remembering the removed email account, I added it back in from the control panel and opened Outlook without a hitch. After looking around I found a calendar attached to that email account, removed it then removed the account again. Now Outlook works fine.

  46. I have fix this issue by right clicking the Outlook shortcut properties, click compatibility tab and unchecked "Run this program in compatibility mode for" Windows XP (Service Pack 2) and click OK. This time I run the Outlook shortcut and it works fine.

    Note:For some reason, one of our user Outlook shortcut "Run this program in compatibility mode for" Windows XP (Service Pack 2) was set to enabled. The user did not make any changes to the compatibility tab.

  47. I have deleted my data file (.pst) by mistake though it does not contain any data that I require. However, I am unable to open outlook, it says data file missing. I do not have it in my recycle bin as well.
    Is there any way I can get outlook to open and then create a new pst maybe?

  48. i have some issue when i click to access the outloook-exprees in my desktop used window xp the my pc re-start why and solve the my issue uragent?

  49. Thanks! Running- outlook.exe/resetnavpane worked for me!

  50. Hi Svetlana,

    I'm so glad I found you and your excellent fix descriptions, you're a God send.

    Thank you very much for the info.

    Kind regards
    David

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