Outlook is one of the most reliable and used email clients around the globe. It provides webmail, calendaring, contacts, and tasks facility to users. The Outlook regularly ranks among the best and most preferred email clients for business, work, and school. Outlook uses two file formats to store user’s data. One is an OST file (offline storage table), and another one is PST (personal storage table). If you’re familiar with Outlook, you may know PST files are used to store copies of messages, contacts, calendars et cetera. As Outlook is used by several multinational organizations sometimes, PST files may store business-related data. And to secure the organizations’ crucial data, Outlook allows making PST files more secure by applying passwords to them.
Having millions of users, it is understandable that someone can forget the PST file password. In this scenario, users seek a PST password recovery solution, but unfortunately, there is no manual way to recover the PST file password generated in Outlook 2007 and later versions.
How to recover PST file password?
Instead of using a complex and advanced algorithm, Outlook uses the CRC32 algorithm to secure PST files. And luckily, there are multiple automated tools available in the market which can crack the CRC32 algorithm and provides a password to recover and reset the PST file password.
Shoviv PST password recovery
It is an advanced Outlook password recovery tool to recover passwords from the Outlook PST files. This software offers an easy-to-use GUI. Even non-technical users can use the software without any hassle. Being a professional choice software offers multiple user-centric features to make the PST password recovery process an effortless task.
Features of Shoviv Outlook password recovery tool:
- Users can recover the PST file password in three steps.
- The software can recover the password made of string, any language, multilingual, special character, numerical values, and any complexity.
- It can recover passwords from both types of PST files ANSI and UNICODE.
- The software has no bar on adding PST files. Hence users can recover the password of any sizes PST file.
- It efficiently supports all versions of Outlook. In other words, users can recover the password from the PST file generated in any version of Outlook.
- Shoviv software provides a free trial version of the software. Users can use the free trial version to check the software skills and compatibility. Besides this, the free trial version can recover the password of the PST file up to 200 MB.
We suggest you install and use the free version before investing time and effort in a random solution. Now we’ll describe the manual method for Outlook password recovery.
Manual method for PST password recovery
Manually there is no manual method to recover Outlook PSTfile password in Outlook 2007 and later version, but you can recover the password in Outlook 2003 and below versions.
In Outlook 2003 and lower versions, Outlook creates an ANSI format of PST file to store user’s data. Manually users can upgrade the password-protected PST file (ANSI) to UNICODE format to remove the password from the PST file.
Many years ago, Microsoft released a free utility called PST19upg.exe. It was primarily designed to upgrade the ANSI file to Outlook 19 (UNICODE). Its biggest advantage & disadvantage is it strips out the password.
The step-by-step process for PST password recovery using PST19upg.exe
The PST19upg.exe method’s process is divided into two phases:
Phase1
- Firstly, close the Outlook program and create a backup of the PST file before commencing the Outlook password recovery process.
- Secondly, run the ScanPST.exe and browse the PST file.
- After browsing the PST file, click on the Start button.
- Now, wait until the Scanpst.exe completes the Scanning process, may take few minutes.
- Once the scanning process gets completed, hit the Repair button.
- When the ScanPST.exe utility completes the repair process, click Ok.
Phase2
- Click Windows +R key combination to open the command prompt, then type cmd in the text box and click the Ok button.
- Now enter the following command and press Enter.
C:\backup\pst19upg.exe -x C:\backup\outlook-copy.pst (PST19upg.exe location and Outlook PST file location).
(Above command will change your PST file to .psx format).
- Now type the following command.
C:\backup\pst19upg.exe -x C:\backup\outlook-copy.PSX
(Above command will create a password-free PST file from the .psx file.)
- Now you will get a password-free PST file, and you can access your data.
It is the manual way for PST password recovery. We don’t suggest this method for non-technocrats as it has a high risk of data loss and PST file corruption. Besides this, the PST19upg.exe utility only works for Outlook 2003 and lower versions (ANSI file). If you need to remove or recover the UNICODE PST file password, then use the Shoviv PST password recovery tool that supports all Outlook versions and both types of PST files.
Conclusion
Forgetting PST file passwords can be the worst nightmare for Outlook users as Microsoft doesn’t provide any inbuilt utility to recover or remove forgotten PST file passwords. Users have to go with a third-party PST password recovery tool to remove or recover forgotten PST file passwords. We have described two solutions, the first one is the Shoviv PST password recovery tool, and the second is PST19upg.exe (manual method). Now it depends on you what you choose.