Remove Forgotten Password from PST File in Outlook
PST file is password protected and you are unable to remember. Now looking for a solution that can help you accessing password protected PST file. This post, will help you for the same. Let us understand the all possible ways to remove forgotten password from PST file of Outlook 2021, 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, versions.
As per the security point of view, password plays an important role in today’s world. But, there are many applications do not provide any feature to protect a password protected file or folder. Apart from all this, Outlook is the most popular application that provides this feature.
In this way, no one can access the entire data except an authorized user. Even though, make sure you create a strong password to keep your data safe and secure. But, sometimes you forgot the password of PST file. Now, in the upcoming section, we will discuss solutions to remove password from PST file in Outlook all versions.
Table of Content:
- Recover password from PST file using command prompt
- Remove PST file Password via Outlook Interface
- Limitations of Manual Techniques
- Alternate approach to remove PST Password
Free Ways to Remove Password from PST File
Microsoft Outlook itself provides option to either apply password to PST file or remove password from PST file. Apart from this a technical user can run commands on Command Prompt to remove password from PST file. Let us understand both the solutions:
Method-1: CMD Commands to Recover PST File Password
Follow below steps to remove password from PST file in Outlook all below versions. This requires technical knowledge.
- Make a replica of PST that you want to work with and close Outlook application
- Run Scanpst.exe an inbuilt utility and then, browse the specific PST file
- Launch the command prompt by holding Window+R key together
- Paste the file location to pst19up and your PST file named as pst19up.exe- filename.pst and press Enter key
- The command line seems like C:\My Documents\pst19upg.exe- x outlook.pst. This will generate a copy of PST file known as filename.psx
- After considering this copy, rename the original Outlook PST file with different names
- Now at the command prompt, type pst19upg.exe- filename.psx and click the Enter key
- After that, a new password free PST will be created. Again, you can launch MS Outlook and open the PST files
Methods-2: Remove PST Password from Outlook Interface
User will find this option in all Outlook versions. The option may be different in different Outlook versions. Follow the instructions carefully.
- Launch Outlook application and go to File tab
- After that, choose Account Settings>>Account Settings option
- Select the Data Files tab and decide the PST file for which you want to change the password and then, click Settings
- Then, hit on Change Password to apply password to PST file under the Outlook data file pop-up box
- Now, you can set a New Password to protect PST files and press OK button to verify it.
Remember: Keep in mind that password should be of 15 characters or less than 15 characters.
Limitations Faced While Implementing Free Ways
With all the above steps, you can remove password from Outlook PST files. But, there are some drawbacks while performing the manual solution. Some of them are listed below:
- When performing the manual solution, you need to select each PST file at a time to remove password.
- Microsoft Outlook installation is necessary to unlock Outlook PST file.
Professional Way to Remove Password From PST File
To overcome all the shortcomings of manual approach, SysTools developed a reliable PST Password Remover Tool. It is designed in such a way to recover all types of Password: Lengthy and Multilingual. It is capable enough to recover forgotten password from bulk PST files at once. The best thing about this tool is to reset PST Password from protected file with no supported email client. Perform the following steps of the tool which are listed below:
- Download and launch the software on your Windows system and click Add File/Add Folder option. For multiple PST files, choose Add Folder option.
- Locate the PST File which is protected by password and you forgotten the password.
- Now, you can view status of Password Protected .pst file. If the browse PST file is protected by password then this software will show the locked icon.
- Finally, the status report is generated to remove password from all PST files. Click on Remove Password button from bottom.
This software make the password removing process quite easy and secure. Free demo version of this utility is also available to test its working and features.
Time to Conclude
Most of the time it happens with users that they set the password to PST file and now they want to remove password from Outlook data file. Thus, in this blog, we have discussed a manual solution to unlock password of PST file. Multiple ways listed in this writeup, It totally depends on you which solution you opt.