Unlock Password Protected PST Files in Outlook

Written By Vaibhav Pal
Updated on January 18th, 2020

Have you forgotten the password of your Outlook PST file? Learn how to unlock password protected PST files with ease in this guide.

MS Outlook is one of the most successful and reputed Email management software. It offers various tools and services. One of which is password protecting a PST File to avoid people snooping around it.

If somehow you forget the PST Password, it becomes inaccessible and useless. In that case, you won’t be able to access Emails, calendar, contacts, and more. If you’ve forgotten your PST password and want to recover it, you’re in the right place. Here are the available methods.

Table of Contents

Unlock Password Protected PST Files using the ‘pst19ypg.exe.’

In some limited cases, you can use Microsoft’s free utility. You can download it from their official site.
Note: This utility can only work with Outlook 2002 and earlier versions. Which means it isn’t compatible with MS Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010, and other versions. Other than that, it only supports ANSI type PST and not UNICODE PST.
After downloading the software, follow these steps:

1. Run SCANPST.EXE on the backup of the locked PST Files.
2. Open Command Prompt.
3. Enter C:\My Documents\pst19upg.exe – filename.pst > press Enter.
4. A copy of the PST file ending with .psx creates. Rename the Backup PST File.
5. Type “pst19.upg.exe- filename.psx > and press Enter.
6. Open Outlook and import the new PST file.

MS Outlook to unlock Password Protected PST FIles

You can give MS Outlook a try to unlock the password forgotten PST File.

Open Outlook.
Select the Tool Tab.
Choose Account Settings.
Click on Data Files.
Select the PST File for which password is unavailable.
Choose Settings.
Click on Change Password.
Fill the fields leaving the password field empty.
A new dialogue box appears with password change confirmation.
Move on to the next method if none of these two works. When you forget the password for your PST, the best option is to use a password recovery tool.

Using Third-Party PST Password Recovery Tool

A password recovery tool is the best, cost-effective, quick, and easy solution to unlock password forgotten PST Files.
Here are the simple steps:

Run the Outlook Password Recovery Software.
Now click on the “Open” button to select the password-protected PST File.
Click on the “Recover” button.
After that, click on Copy to Clipboard to save the recovered passwords.
In the end, click on Exit to close the app.

Summing Up:

In this article, we’ve discussed how to unlock password-protected PST Files. The best way is using an Outlook Password Recovery Software.
Using this, you can also unlock ANSI and Unicode PST files.
It’s easy to use and requires no prior experience. There is a demo version available too. You can use it with any Windows OS.