How to open a PST file

To open a PST file, use classic Outlook for Windows: File, Open & Export, Open Outlook Data File, and the mailbox appears as a folder in the pane. This page walks through that route, the import wizard, what new Outlook can and cannot do, and free PST viewers when you have no Outlook. A browser tool such as SaveMail cannot read a PST, but the last section shows how to get PDFs out anyway.

Open a PST file in Outlook (classic, Windows)

1. Start Outlook and click File in the top left.
2. Choose Open & Export, then Open Outlook Data File.
3. Browse to the .pst file and click OK. Enter the password if the file has one.
4. Look at the folder pane: the PST appears as a new top-level entry, usually named Outlook Data File or by the name set at export, with its folders under it.
5. Read, search, drag or copy messages as you would in any folder. When finished, right-click the top entry and choose Close to detach the file.

Opening keeps the PST separate from your mailbox. The file should be on a local disk, not a network share or a cloud-synced folder, or Outlook will complain and may corrupt it over time. Outlook 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021 and Microsoft 365 classic all follow the same path; in Outlook 2010 the menu is File, Open, Open Outlook Data File.

Have the email as a file (EML, MSG, MBOX)? Convert it to PDF in your browser: nothing is uploaded.

Import a PST instead of opening it

Import copies the items into an existing mailbox, which is what you want when moving to a new computer or account:

1. File, Open & Export, Import/Export.
2. Import from another program or file, Next.
3. Outlook Data File (.pst), Next, Browse to the file, choose how to handle duplicates.
4. Select the folders to import and the destination account, Finish.

Importing a 20 GB archive can take an hour, and the account then holds a second copy, so delete the PST only after you have checked that everything arrived. The reverse direction, from a mailbox into a new PST, is in Outlook to PST; moving a PST into another Outlook in both directions is in PST to Outlook.

Can the new Outlook or Outlook on the web open a PST?

The new Outlook for Windows (the one with the Try the new Outlook toggle) has been adding PST support in stages: importing from a PST first, and later opening one read-only. Which of those you have depends on the build, and creating or exporting a PST is still classic Outlook's job. Outlook on the web does not open PST files at all; Outlook for Mac can only import one through File, Import.

If the toggle at the top right of Outlook says Try the new Outlook, you are in classic Outlook and the steps above apply. If it says New Outlook and you cannot find Open Outlook Data File, switch the toggle off to return to classic, open the PST there, and switch back afterwards.

Open a PST file without Outlook

Several companies publish a free PST viewer for Windows: a read-only program that opens the file, shows the folder tree and messages, and lets you save or print individual items. When choosing one, check that it handles Unicode PST (the format since Outlook 2003), shows attachments, and does not require the file to be uploaded. On macOS and Linux, the open-source readpst tool from the libpst project converts a PST into MBOX or EML files from the command line, which then open anywhere, including in a browser.

A viewer gives you reading, not a clean, searchable PDF with the header block; for that, see the next section.

Why a browser cannot read a PST, and how to get PDFs from one

SaveMail opens EML, MSG and MBOX files in the browser because each one is a bounded message or a simple text concatenation that JavaScript can parse in memory. A PST is a database: a B-tree of nodes and blocks, often many gigabytes, with its own encoding layer and folder hierarchy, holding mail, contacts and calendar items in one structure. Reading it correctly needs a full database driver and more memory than a browser tab should take. So PST and OST are not supported, and there is no upload endpoint that could send them to a server either.

The practical route to PDF:

1. Open the PST in classic Outlook as described above.
2. Select the messages you need and drag them to a folder on the desktop; Outlook saves each as an .msg file.
3. Go to the MSG to PDF converter, drop a file, read it, press Save as PDF, and download the attachments next to it. Repeat per message.

Nothing leaves your device at step 3. For a few messages, Outlook's own File, Print with Microsoft Print to PDF is faster but drops attachments and the Message-ID; the trade-offs are compared in PST to PDF.

Find, create and move a PST file

Find your PST: File, Account Settings, Account Settings, Data Files tab lists every open data file with its full path; select one and click Open File Location. Typical folders are Documents\Outlook Files for files you created and AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook for older ones. A PST not listed there is not open in Outlook; search the disk for *.pst.

Create a new PST: on the Data Files tab click Add, name the file, and it appears in the folder pane, empty, ready for messages you drag into it. Or File, Open & Export, Import/Export, Export to a file, Outlook Data File to write a copy of a folder or the whole mailbox.

Move or copy it: close Outlook first, since the file is locked while any Outlook window is open, then copy it to a flash drive or another computer and open it there with Open Outlook Data File. A PST can be emailed only if it is small; most mail services cap attachments at 20 to 25 MB, so a shared drive link is the usual way.

What a PST actually contains and how it compares with MBOX and MSG: what is a PST file.

Frequently asked questions