Remove a password from an Outlook *.pst File

When you add a password to a pst file, every time you start Outlook, a dialog box will ask you for the password. Once you enter the password, the contents of the pst will be accessible to anyone who uses your computer while Outlook is open.

If you know the password but are tired of using it, you can remove it or change it and save it to your password list. If you can't remember the password, see Remove forgotten passwords for instructions.

1. Right click on the .pst file name in your folder list.
   
2. Choose Properties (Data Files Properties in Outlook 2010 and newer), then Advanced button.
   
3. Click Change Password button.
   
4. Type your password in the Old password field.
5. Leave the New password and Verify fields blank.
   
6. Click Ok and work your way back to Outlook.

This dialog is also accessible from File, Account Settings, Data File tab. Select the pst file and click Settings.

Remove forgotten passwords

Many years ago, Microsoft released a utility called pst19upg.exe to upgrade old versions of *.pst (Personal Folders) files so they would work with a later version. One side effect of this was that it removed the password from the pst file. So if you passworded your pst and forgot the password, you can use this utility to remove the password so you can access your email.

This will not work with pst files created in Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010, or Outlook 2013. This utility only works with the older ANSI pst files used by Outlook 2002 and older, not the new Unicode format pst, available in Outlook 2003 and up. You will need to use a utility with the newer pst format.

You need to use two utilities to remove the password from an ANSI pst (old format):

1. pst19upg.exe
2. scanpst.exe - This is installed when you install Outlook. It should be in your Office folder, under Program files- usually C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OfficeXX (where XX is the version number) or use Windows Search to find it.

If this method doesn't work or you have forgotten the password on an Unicode pst, you'll need a commercial password cracker program.

Tip: Make sure you have plenty of free space available - the utilities will need approximately 3 times the size of the pst to work with.

How to remove a password using Scanpst and pst19upg

1. Close Outlook and make a copy of the PST file to work with.
2. Run scanpst.exe on the copy of your pst and choose Repair, if prompted. There is no need to use the backup option in ScanPST, since you are working with a copy.
3. Open a Command Prompt (Start menu, Run) and paste or type the file path to pst19up and your pst name: pst19upg.exe -x filename.pst and hit enter.
   The command line will resemble
   "C:\My Documents\pst19upg.exe" -x outlook.pst
   This will create a copy of the pst called "filename.psx" (where filename is the same name as the original pst file).
4. When complete, rename the original pst file to something else, such as filename.old.
5. At the command prompt, type pst19upg.exe -i filename.psx and hit enter. Remember, you need to use the full path to pst19upg.
6. This creates a password-free pst file from the psx file.
7. Run scanpst.exe against recovered pst and choose Repair, if prompted. As before, you don't need to make a backup using ScanPST because you are working with the backup.
8. Open the file in Outlook using the File, Open, Outlook Data file menu.

Tools to Recover Lost Passwords