Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and 2007 are advanced versions of MS Outlook. The have different file structure and provide Unicode support and thus do not have file size limitation for PST. For this reason, a number of Outlook users might plan to upgrade for these later versions. But in some situations, version incompatibility issues might occur that result into serious inconsistencies. These problems might cause PST file corruption and critical data loss. At this point, you are required to PST Recovery to gain access of your mission critical data.
In a practical scenario, when you attempt to import the PST file (Personal Folders file) into Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or 2007 from earlier version, the PST file could not be imported and it become inaccessible or unusable. Furthermore, you might come across that might be similar to the following one:
“Personal Folders
Properties for this information service must be defined prior to use.”
After this error message, when you click OK button on the error message
dialog box, further error message errors, which states:
“Microsoft Outlook
The file path\filename.pst is not compatible with this version of Personal Folders information service. Contact your administrator.”
At this point, all of your significant emails, notes, contacts and other PST file objects become inaccessible. In order to gain access of these items, you need to find out the cause of this behavior and carry out Outlook PST Repair by sorting it out.
Root of the problem
This behavior of Microsoft Outlook might take place when you try to import the PST file of an earlier version into Microsoft Office Outlook 2003. The Outlook 2003 supports multilingual data and the PST files are in Unicode format. The PST files of earlier version, such as Outlook 2002, 2000 and 98, do not support multilingual data and are not in Unicode format.
How to resolve version incompatibility problem in Outlook?
In order to sort out this problem and import Outlook PST file into earlier or later versions first save the PST file as the PST file of Outlook version in which you are trying to import. After that, export the Outlook PST file, which is compatible to earlier or later versions of Outlook. Then import the new PST file into particular version of Microsoft Outlook.
In order to save your Outlook PST file and export or import it, follow underwritten steps:
- In Microsoft Outlook, point new in File menu and then select the Outlook Data File.
- In New Outlook Data File dialog box, select appropriate version of the PST file and then click OK button.
- In Create or Open Outlook Data File dialog box, name the new PST file and then save the file to desired location such as Windows Desktop.
- Click OK button for closing Create Microsoft Personal Folders dialog box.
- You will see a new PST file in Navigation Pane in Outlook. Select it and then click Import and Export in File menu.
- Select Import from another program or file and click Next.
- Select Personal Folder File (PST) and click Next.
- Select Browse to choose PST file, which you want to export and click Open and then Next.
- In Select the folder to import from window, click Personal Folders.
- Select Include Subfolders check box.
- In Import items into same folder in box and then click PST file that you saved earlier on your drive and click Finish.
- Click OK when you get below message:
“You are importing data to a location that does not fully support Unicode. To avoid loss of multilingual data, it is recommended that you choose a location that supports Unicode, such as a Microsoft Office Outlook Personal Folders File.”
Although, the above method might help you to successfully import or export the PST file, but in some situations the version incompatibility might cause serious PST corruption and data loss situations. In such situations, you need to repair and restore damaged PST file using PST Recovery Tool to get your valuable data back.
This is best possible with the help of powerful and advanced third party applications. They are particularly designed to effectively scan damaged PST file and successfully recover PST file. These tools are completely easy and safe to use.
Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair is the most effective and advanced PST file Recovery tool to handle all sorts of PST corruption situations. It works well with Microsoft Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000. This software is compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista, 2003, XP, 2000 and NT4 (SP6).
How to Resolve Version Incompatibility and PST Corruption Issues in Outlook 
