Microsoft Outlook 2011 for Mac Database repair

If your Apple emails are miss behaving in Microsoft Outlook 2011 for Mac we have a solution. Follow this guide to learn the basic steps in repairing your Outlook user identity database. You can also use this guide to recover missing information in your Outlook profile such as emails and contacts.

Back-up your Outlook 2011 Identity folder

The first steps before you do anything is to take a back-up of your current database. You don’t want to accidental delete/rename or corrupt your current database of emails/contacts/calendar.

1. Exit out of Outlook if it is currently open
2. Open Finder
3. Navigate to User/Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities
   1. Here you will find your identity folder – make a copy of this entire folder to an external USB device or another location

Using the Microsoft Database Utility

Now that your original data is backed up we can safely use the Microsoft Database Utility for repairs.

1. Exit out of Outlook if it is currently open
2. Press and hold the Option button
3. Click on Outlook from the Dock at he bottom of your screen to open the utility
   1. Alternatively you can find the Database repair Utility in your Applications under the Microsoft Office 2011 folder
4. Your current database profile will be Bolded
5. Click on Rebuild to start rebuilding the database – this may take some time if you have a large database

Rebuilding Outlook database doesn’t work

Here as some additional options if you rebuilding the database and Outlook doesn’t help.

• You can use the Database Utility to set a different default database to use
• Create a new profile using the Database Utility and reconfigure your email accounts
• Recover a back-up of your database from Time Machine

Common Outlook 2011 issues the utility can repair

You have most likely experienced one or more of the problems below and need to rebuild your database:

• Blank lines appear in the Outlook message list or in Outlook contacts
• Outlook items don’t open, or the item that opens is not the item that you selected
• Search results don’t match the criteria that you set when you perform a search in Outlook
• Outlook isn’t opening, stops responding, or quits unexpectedly
• Outlook contact entries are not displaying correctly
• Can’t find information that you added to Outlook, such as a calendar event or a contact
• Clippings in the Scrapbook disappear
• Blank Office Reminders window appears

Thanks to Microsoft for helping with their knowledge base article.

This article is for educational purposes only, use at your own risk. Please contact us to expert Mac & computer repairs.

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