Data file checks and you
When Outlook doesn’t shutdown cleanly, your Outlook Data File (either a .pst or .ost file) can be left in an unverified state that can cause one of the following errors to appear the next time you boot Outlook:
“Outlook cannot open the data file filename until it has been checked for problems.”
“Microsoft Office Outlook’ exited without properly closing your Outlook data file ‘drive:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\outlook.ost’. ‘Microsoft Office Outlook’ must be restarted. If this error message recurs, contact support for ‘Microsoft Office Outlook’ for assistance.”
“The data file filename was not closed properly’. This file is being checked for problems.”
At this point Outlook needs to perform a reconciliation of the data file, a simple process that ‘cleans up’ the file from an incorrect shutdown. While the verification is happening, you will see a small ‘gear’ icon in the lower-right corner of Outlook:
Again, it’s okay to continue using Outlook as you would normally while this is happening as this reconciliation process happens in the background. When this icon disappears, the .pst file or the .ost file is verified.
If you shutdown Outlook while the gear icon is present, then verification must restart the next time you run Outlook. We recommend that you leave Outlook running until the gear icon disappears before shutting down.
An incorrectly shut down Outlook Data File may occur for one of the following reasons:
- Another program that is accessing your Outlook Data File doesn’t exit cleanly
- Antivirus scanning of the file
- Outlook add-ins
- Outlook crashing
- Forced Microsoft Windows shutdown before the Outlook.exe process shuts down completely
If you believe you’re seeing this last issue often and need to shutdown Outlook shortly before shutting down your computer, then it may be better to shut down Windows when the Outlook window is still open instead of shortly afterwards.
Michael Affronti
Outlook Program Manager