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Robert EhingerFlag for United States of America

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Can't transfer .pst files

When installing new computers part of my job it to transfer end user data to the new computer. This all works well except the archived .pst files. All I am doing is moving them from one PC to another but when I go to map them to Outlook I get an error message that says - "The file C:\users\username\Documents\Outlook Files\archive.pst is not an Outlook data file (.pst)." I have tried to run scanpst but I get the same error. I have checked the attributes for Read Only but they are not set as read only. In fact, the attributes are exactly the same as the file on the previous computer.  I have tried copying the files to a network location and then to the new computer with the same result. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The Outlook version is 2016.

Thank you.

Robert
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Bill Prew

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The files don't transfer using the backup utility used to transfer data so I copy and paste from one computer to the other.

The file lengths do match.

I would assume Outlook was running since we run the backup during business hours.
If scanpst doesn't fix.. do u have actual source? And it is working in old machine?.. copy again to see if that works...
Avatar of Bill Prew
Bill Prew

You really need to have Outlook shut down on the source machine when you copy the file, and then see how that goes.


»bp
Can you go back to the original location (original PC)?  If so, try opening the PST on that computer. If it opens, then close it and copy it to another location on that computer and see if it opens from there.
I transferred the files again making sure Outlook was closed. Now it works. Thank you for your help.
Welcome, glad that solved the problem.

~bp