Outlook 2010 error “Cannot open your default email folders. The information store could not be opened”

Today I couldn’t start my Outlook 2010 client anymore. When launching Outlook, the following error message came up:

Cannot open your default email folders. The information store could not be opened.

I always start with some basic steps, that helped me most of the times when I had a problem with an Outlook profile. Those standard steps are listed at the bottom of this article. However, the problem involved with this information store thing could not be solved with my standard steps.

To solve the “Information store could not be opened” –error, I disabled the Compatibility mode on Outlook.exe (who actually did turn this on?! It just suddenly was enabled!)

To disable the Compatibility mode on the Outlook.exe application, do the following:

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to your Office directory (default is “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14” for Office 2010, but your Office may also be installed in Program Files (x86) )
Right click the Outlook.exe and choose Properties
Click the Compatibility tab and UNCHECK the “Run this program in compatibility mode for” option
Click OK and try to launch Outlook again

If the Compatibility mode was not enabled, then your problem is caused by something else 🙂

Try my default steps to see if it solves your particular problem:

Try to Run outlook in safe mode from the Run As window. To do so, press WIN+R (Windows key+R), type “Outlook.exe /safe“ in the text field and click OK.
Recreate your outlook profile. To do so, click Start –> Control Panel –> Mail. Click Show Profiles. Remove your existing profile. Then click Add… to add a new profile. Try to start Outlook again.
Remove the Windows Messaging Subsystem keys in your registry. To do so, press WIN+R (Windows key+R), type “regedit“ in the text field and click OK. Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles]. Delete the key that corresponds to the profile name that causes Outlook not to start. Try to start Outlook again.

0 0 votes

Article Rating

53 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

vishant

13 years ago

solution provide by u, its work no need to apply any other setting.
Thanks for your help.
TC by!!!

Jim Phelps

13 years ago

PERFECT…SOLUTION

I’ve spent hours trying to figure out why OUTLOOK would not open.

THANK YOU!

Sivasankar V

13 years ago

Thanks this helped a lot… when my exchange configuration was not correct i accedentally set the compatability mode to on…

thanks again.

Lizi

13 years ago

Thanks a heap!!
We’ve been investigating this issue for hours. this solution worked.

Sanjay

13 years ago

Thanks a ton….i have been looking for the correct solutions on internet, you tube for months but nothing worked.

Your above solution to remove the entry from regedit worked for me.

Mike

13 years ago

Wow……it’s always the simple things.

Spent ages trying all different Outlook switches to get it to work….NADA.

Turn of Compatibility Mode and voilà! Works

You’re a lifesaver….thanks a million!

E Jiin

13 years ago

I could have spent hours looking for that Registry Key!!!!
Thanks!!

Stumpus

13 years ago

Thanks for this. I have no idea why the compatibility mode was enabled.

Str8b8r

13 years ago

Awesome!..excellent solution!

Spazz

13 years ago

For me it was the removing of the registry key that worked. Thanks.

Ole

13 years ago

Awesome. Thanks.

Spent over an hour deleting, recreating, trying different accounts, while a stupid compatibility setting was to blame.

Mathias

13 years ago

Deleting the registry key worked for me. Thank you!

Robert

13 years ago

Thank you! Removing the old profile did it for me!

Thabiso

Reply to Robert

13 years ago

Thank you, unchecking the compatibility mode did it for me.

Vince caruso

12 years ago

Thanks so damn much! Unchecking worked like a charm…..I love this thing they call internet.

Tony

12 years ago

after several rounds including removing office and starting over… this post put me over the edge… thanks for the help.

Boggy

12 years ago

Excellent.. Unchecking the compatability mode worked for me also.. Nicely found.

Cheers

Boggy

Abolfazl

12 years ago

Thanks a lot

Lan

12 years ago

No solucioné nada.

jams

12 years ago

2 cents… I uninstalled COMODO internet security and the problem went away.

BOFHse

12 years ago

Compatibility mode! AAARGH! Thanks! 🙂

ladycdw

12 years ago

Thanks sooooo much! This had been driving me crazy for a week!

ahmad faez

12 years ago

many thanks…it’s really helpfull…

Oksana

12 years ago

Thank you!!!!

Larry Autman

12 years ago

Used this from your suggestions…
◾Recreate your outlook profile. To do so, click Start –> Control Panel –> Mail. Click Show Profiles. Remove your existing profile. Then click Add… to add a new profile. Try to start Outlook again.

On Windows 8 with outlook2010 I had to use the AD domain login rather than my email address which is also a Live ID. When it asked for my password and my email address was the account it failed. However I used the “Use another account” and supplied my domain\username password.

riya

12 years ago

omg thank you sooooooooooooo much ! I’ve been trying to find a solution for months now. I’m so happy!

reg morris

12 years ago

ON anaother computer I had divided my .pst file into smaller files due to reaching a size limit (of around 4G). But this computer refused to open the new .pstfiles and gave the message; “Information store could not be opened”.

I tried reparing, changing permissions, etc. All to no avail.

Then along came this brilliant solution!!!!!

I now now ‘how’, but not ‘why’. You would have though compatibility mode would enable MORe files to be opened, not less.

Ted lee

12 years ago

Thank You! Thank You!

sudheer

12 years ago

Hello,

This is quite nice investigation on the ways to resolve the problem.Thank you my problem resolved.I really appreciate the given solution.

Sudhir

trainor

12 years ago

Thank you very much. This solution took 5 minutes to solve a problem that Microsofy Exchange Support took 5 days to further mess up

Luvsaa

12 years ago

Thank you very much. It was very helpful!!!

sandeep chander

12 years ago

thank you. it worked!!!!

Santosh

11 years ago

hi!!
i m so much happy i got the solution of this problem..
thanks a lot..

raghav

11 years ago

1st I would like to Thank u for the support.
I have spent 2 hours for this soln finally I got it on this blog.
Really its very useful

Sheryl Ryan

11 years ago

YOU ARE A GENIUS! been trying to get this error fixed for the last 2 days – you are the only one that suggested disabling “compatability”.

Thank you!

Marla DiCarlo

11 years ago

I have tried to fix this issue for over 3 hours until I ran across this post. This worked!! Thank you so much.

Tonin

11 years ago

Nice one. Just like Marla I had been going around this issue for hours, many forums and m$ useless kb’s. In the end it was the compatibility issue. Thanks

Naveen

11 years ago

Thank you for the help…its resolved now

Anonymous

11 years ago

Thank you for the post, without your wonderful instruction I might not be able to get my Outlook 2010 to work. Thanks !!!!

alan

11 years ago

YAY !!! was in safe mode – spent many hours to correct – you rock !!!! Thank you and blessed Easter

Carlos

11 years ago

Thank you for the great effort.
Unfortunately it didn’t work for me. Could not open Outlook 2010 on safe mode.
The error message I get is:
“Cannot open your default email folders. The file C:/………pst cannot be opened”
Boo-hoo, I am desperate!

11 years ago

To whoever you are,

I have struggled for DAYS with this problem and was only till I found this page and tried one of your last options that I found a solution deleting my profile and starting again!

THANK YOU SO MUCH

Great work