How to Repair Contacts in Outlook

By Jim Campbell

Microsoft provides you with a repair feature included with the installation of Microsoft Outlook to fix a corrupted PST file, which contains your contacts and email messages on your computer. The repair utility fixes any file corruption and returns the PST file to its original format. This is beneficial if the PST file has changed due to a virus or other malware.

Click the Windows "Start" button on the computer that has Outlook installed. Type "scanpst.exe" in the search text box and press "Enter." The location of the utility file opens in a separate window.

Double-click the "scanpst.exe" file shown in the Windows search results, which opens the utility and starts the repair wizard.

Click the "Browse" button and double-click the PST file that contains your Outlook contacts and email messages.

Click "Start" to scan the PST and fix any corruption in the file. This may take several minutes, depending on the size of the PST file.

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