Would really appreciate some help - Outlook PST Files

[GE90]

Hi

Going crazy! I have a PST file I would like to import into Outlook on a W10 laptop. My account is Plusnet IMAP. However, I only want this PST local, on my laptop.

I have done this before, as I imported a PST with 'this computer only' in brackets, and I cannot see them on any other device. However, when I go through Import / PST/ etc they automatically go into my IMAP emails, and shared across devices.

Can anyone remind me how I managed to this this previously?

Many thanks!

[quinny100]

You don't want to import it, you want add the PST as an Outlook Data File.

Go to Account Settings, Data Files tab, click Add and point it at the PST file. Doesn't really matter where the PST is stored, but obviously if you move or rename it, it'll break the link.

[K50 DEL]

Yep, as Quinny says the option you want is "open an Outlook data file" rather than "import"

[TonyRPH]

GE90 said:

Hi

<snip>
My account is Plusnet IMAP. However, I only want this PST local, on my laptop.
<snip>

That's the entire point of an IMAP account. The entire mailbox is available across shared devices.

Depending on the mail client you are using, you might be able to import the PST into a specific folder and then unsubscribe from that folder on devices where you don't want to see it.

As per above - you can also just open the PST on the device you want to access it on (instead of importing it).

[GE90]

Thanks so much - that makes sense.

Next issue, when I view in Outlook I have the folder structure just fine, but no emails!

[quinny100]

Tried restarting Outlook?

How big is the PST file? They can take a while to load if they are large or have massive numbers of items in them.

Historically PST's used to be prone to corruption and data loss but I've not seen that recently - although I'm not as involved in end user stuff as I once was. At one time if you went over 2Gb on a PST the file could no longer be read by Outlook and if you didn't have a backup you were pretty much screwed for getting the data back.