What is a PST File ?

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This article explains what PST files are, how to find and use one on your computer, and how to convert a PST file so that emails can be used in another program.

What is a PST File?

A file with the .PST file extension is an Outlook Personal Information Store file that stores personal information used in Microsoft Outlook and/or Microsoft Exchange. They can contain messages, contacts, attachments, addresses, and more.

Outlook Personal Information Store files have a 2 GB file size limit, after which the performance of your email program may be affected. You can make the file smaller with Oversized PST Recovery Tool (also called PST2GB). It will truncate anything larger than 2GB and create a new PST file of the correct size.


Note: Outlook Offline Folders (.OST) files are similar to PSTs, except they support larger file sizes and are used as a cache for Outlook's Cached Exchange Mode feature.

How to Open PST Files

PST files are most often opened in an email program that can use the data, such as Outlook (more on this below) or Microsoft Exchange Server. Outlook Express can also import PST files but it does not store information in a PST file like Outlook does.

To open PST files in Microsoft Entourage on a Mac, use the Microsoft PST Import Tool for Entourage.

You can open a PST file without a Microsoft email program using PST Viewer Pro. Since it is not a real email client, you can only use it to search and open emails or convert and extract messages from a PST file.

Email Open View Pro (we don't have a link for this one) is another full-featured tool that can open PST files. It supports browsing the PST file even without any email client on your computer, so you can export the messages in other formats like EML/EMLX, MSG or MHT. You can extract just emails or the attachments as well and create an HTML index of all messages. 

Tip: Accidentally deleted your PST file or deleted it during a format? Try looking for it with a free data recovery tool. Older Outlook PST files are one of those really important files that are easily forgotten to be backed up.

How to Convert a PST File

PST files in their native format with the .PST file extension are incompatible with a large number of programs. However, you can extract or convert something to make the embedded emails work in other programs.

The best way to get open your PST file into Gmail or on your phone, for example, is to set up the same email account (Gmail or one you use on your phone) on your computer, and then email the data file from Gmail to transfer it to Outlook data file. Then, when you sync your email client with your email server, your messages will be sent to Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, or whatever other account you used with your desktop client.

The Email Open View Pro tool mentioned above is another way to "convert" PST data to other formats (you can convert each email at a time or just the specific ones you want). You can also save one or more emails from the PST file as PDF or in various image formats.

Backup and Copy Your PST File

You can move your PST file to any location you like and even create a backup in case your current file gets deleted or corrupted. However, you need to find out where the file is stored first, which you can see on the Account Settings screen.

These instructions will show you where to find your Outlook data files. Once you find it, make sure Outlook is closed and copy the PST file anywhere.

Another option is to use Outlook's built-in export feature to save the PST file to your hard drive or elsewhere such as a flash drive: File > Open & Export > Import/Export > Export to a file > Outlook Data File ( .pst) .

Add PST Files to Outlook

It is easy to restore PST file in Outlook or add extra PST file so that you can change data files to read other emails or copy messages to another email account.

Go back to the previous link that shows how to find the data file. During these steps, select Add to add a PST file as another data file. If you want this (or another) to be the default data file Outlook uses, simply select the one you want and select Set as Default.

Still Can't Open It?

The .PST file extension shares a striking resemblance to a number of other file extensions, even though they aren't related and can't open with the same programs as the ones mentioned above.

For example, PSD, PSF, and PSB files are used with Photoshop but share two of the same letters as PST files.

Some other examples include PS (PostScript), PSV (PlayStation 2 Save), PSW (Windows Password Reset Disk, Password Depot 3-5 or Pocket Word Document), PS2 (Microsoft Search Catalog Index or PCSX2 Memory Card), and PTS (Pro Tools Session) files.

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