Knowledge Base

OL97: How to Move Your Personal Folders File to Another Location

Article ID: 197124

Article Last Modified on 1/23/2007

APPLIES TO

This article was previously published under Q197124

SUMMARY

This article describes the following process for moving your personal folders file (PST) to another location:
  • Identifying the PST file used by your mail profile.
  • Renaming or copying the PST file.
  • Configuring your profile to reference the new name or location of your PST file.

MORE INFORMATION

Identifying Your Profile's PST File Name and Location

  1. Start Outlook.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Services.
  3. On the Services tab, click to select Personal Folders, and then click Properties.
  4. Note the path and file name of your PST file. For example, C:\Exchange\Mailbox.pst indicates a personal folders file named Mailbox.pst located in the Exchange folder on drive C.
  5. Click OK.
  6. With Personal Folders still selected, click Remove to remove the current local PST file from your profile.

    If this is your default mail delivery location, you will see the following message:

    This information service contains the default message store for the profile. Are you sure you want to remove this information service from the profile?

    Click Yes.
  7. Click OK to close the dialog box, and then click "Exit and Log Off" on the File menu to quit Outlook.

Renaming or Moving the PST File

  1. Quit all programs.
  2. Use Windows Explorer to locate the PST file you noted in step 4 in the "Identifying Your Profile's PST File Name and Location" section.
  3. After you have located the file, you may rename, move, or copy the file to another location.

Configuring Your Profile to Use the PST File That You Renamed or Moved

  1. Start Outlook.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Services.
  3. On the Services tab, click Add to open the "Add Service to Profile" dialog box.
  4. In the Available Information Services list, click to select Personal Folders, and then click OK.
  5. In the File Name box, type the path and name of the PST file you renamed or copied, and then click Open. You may want to use the Browse button to help locate the file.
  6. Click OK to close all dialog boxes.
  7. On the File menu, click "Exit and Log Off."
  8. Restart Outlook.
If the PST is your default delivery location, you will see the following message:

The location messages are delivered to has changed for this user profile. To complete this operation, you may need to copy the contents of the old Outlook folders to the new Outlook folders. For information about how to complete this change of your mail delivery location, see Microsoft Outlook Help. Some of the shortcuts on the Outlook Bar may no longer work. Do you want Outlook to recreate your shortcuts? All shortcuts you have created will be removed.

Click Yes to have Outlook update the Outlook Bar shortcuts so that they point to your new PST file location, or click No to leave the shortcuts for your original local PST file.

Your profile now points to your personal folders file that you renamed or moved.

Additional query words: transfer data information store

Keywords: kbhowto KB197124


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