How to fix 'Cannot start Microsoft Outlook' issue - universal solutions Outlook 2003: ' Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. The information store could not be opened.'

Outlook 2007: ' Cannot open your default e-mail folders. Outlook 2010: ' Microsoft Outlook has encountered a problem and needs to close. There may be a few variations of this message depending on which Outlook version you use. ost) was deleted or damaged as the result of incorrect uninstallation or reinstallation of Outlook.Īnyway, whatever the reason is, the outcome is the same - you cannot open the Outlook window because of this error: ' Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Other reasons may be when you run Outlook in the compatibility mode, or if you are using a profile created in an older Outlook version, or if the Outlook data file (.pst or. No one knows the exact reason why this happens, but all versions of Microsoft Outlook from 2003 to the newest Outlook 2019 may be affected. A good indication that the file is corrupted is when its size is 0 KB. The main symptom of this problem is very obvious and easily recognizable: you click Outlook's icon, an hourglass appears and is hanging for a while, and then you get the 'Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook' error.Īccording to Microsoft, the major cause of this issue is a corrupted Navigation Pane settings file - profilename.xml, where 'profilename' is the name of your Outlook profile. 'Unable to start Microsoft Outlook' error - causes and symptoms

Microsoft outlook will not open