Dealing with “.PST is not compatible” error

Have you ever tried to open an Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 PST file in earlier versions of the Outlook, if you try to do so, you may receive the following error message:
“The file file_name.pst is not compatible with this version of the Personal Folders information service.

Contact your Administrator.”

The reason behind this error is that Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 are devised to store the information in PST file in the Unicode format. The earlier versions of Outlook use the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) format. Hence, the earlier versions are unable to open or import Unicode-formatted PST files.

For dealing with this issue, you need to first copy the entire contents of the Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 PST file to a PST file that is not converted to the Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 Unicode format.

In order to copy the data saved in a Unicode-formatted PST file to an ANSI-formatted PST file in Outlook 2003 or in Outlook 2007, follow the steps given below. Ensure that you take up the PST file from an earlier version of Outlook.

1.Start the Outlook

2.On the File menu, click Data File Management, and then click Add.

3.Click Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders File (PST).

4.Click the Ok button.

5.Click the Ok button to accept default name, and then again click the Ok button.
Based on the earlier PST file, Outlook 2003 now creates a new PST file and maintains it's ANSI format.

6.Click the Close button.

7.At the bottom of the navigation pane, click Folder List.
In the navigation pane, you can now see the new PST file.

8.From your existing Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 folders, drag the information to the new PST file or alternatively use the Import and Export Wizard on the File menu.

9.In the navigation pane, right-click the new PST file, and then click Close "file_name".

With the help of above mentioned steps, you can resolve the PST incompatibility issue between Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 and the earlier versions and can successfully open a Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 PST file in the earlier versions.

However, if the Outlook PST file is corrupt and you are not able to access any of your Outlook emails, then Restore PST file using Outlook PST recovery software. It effectively repairs the corrupt PST file and recovers all available email data from it.