A few days ago, Outlook started behaving strangely on my PC. It would freeze during startup, so I tried the usual troubleshooting step and launched it in Safe Mode. Surprisingly, that didn’t help. Instead, Outlook Fails to Open in Safe Mode and now it won’t launch in normal mode either. Every time I click the Outlook icon, it either hangs on the loading screen or closes without any error message.
I searched through Microsoft forums and found several suggestions. Some users recommended creating a new Outlook profile through Control Panel > Mail, while others suggested resetting the navigation pane using the outlook.exe /resetnavpane command. I also tried repairing Microsoft Office through Programs and Features. A few people even mentioned that damaged add-ins or a corrupted PST file can prevent Outlook from starting correctly. Although these methods work for some users, they can be quite time-consuming because you never really know what is causing the issue.
What made things more confusing was that Outlook had been working perfectly a day earlier. There were no recent changes except a Windows update. After spending hours testing different fixes, I started wondering whether the Outlook data file itself had become corrupted. Several community posts pointed toward PST corruption as a common reason behind startup failures, especially when Safe Mode refuses to load as well.
After trying multiple manual fixes without success, I came across the DRS Softech PST Recovery Tool. The software scans damaged PST files, recovers mailbox data, and helps restore emails, contacts, calendars, and attachments without changing the original structure. What I found useful was the preview feature, which lets you verify recovered items before saving them. It also supports large PST files and different recovery modes depending on the level of corruption.
Has anyone else faced this issue recently? If Outlook refused to open in both normal and Safe Mode, which method finally worked for you? I’d appreciate hearing real experiences before I spend another evening troubleshooting Outlook.