MS Outlook, being one of the commonly used desktop email client is very familiar among several users for emailing purpose & the inbuilt Office applications provided with it. The most common error that has been encountered by most Outlook users is error 0x8004060c. This error has been found in multiple versions of MS Outlook, without any warning or may affect the send/receive emails option on an Outlook Account. The blog will be discussing the same error and the method to resolve it.
Unknown Error 0x8004060c
This error is one of the common error messages that users of Outlook has faced, which occurs when user attempts to send or receive an email, remove contact, update the calendar etc. The error may make Outlook crash at irregular intervals, unable to view attachments, prevention of incoming new mails, and other issues.
Causes of the Error
The main reason for the occurrence of this error is exceeding size limit of the message store, leaving no free space for new mails. It can be due to following causes:
- Corruption of PST due to Exchange Crash, Virus attacks, oversized PST
- Exchange Connectivity or Synchronization issues making OST inaccessible
Since oversized PST file is the main factor for the error discussed above, we need to be able to reduce the size of the PST file. The earlier versions of Outlook supported only 2GB size limit of PST file, which was increased up to 20 GB in Outlook 2007. Now the maximum storage supported is 50 GB with the introduction of Outlook 2010. When the PST reaches its limit, the performance will automatically slow down, and oversized PST file becomes more prone to be corrupted making it inaccessible and leads to partial or complete data loss.
- Corruption of PST due to Exchange Crash, Virus attacks, oversized PST
- Exchange Connectivity or Synchronization issues making OST inaccessible
Since oversized PST file is the main factor for the error discussed above, we need to be able to reduce the size of the PST file. The earlier versions of Outlook supported only 2GB size limit of PST file, which was increased up to 20 GB in Outlook 2007. Now the maximum storage supported is 50 GB with the introduction of Outlook 2010. When the PST reaches its limit, the performance will automatically slow down, and oversized PST file becomes more prone to be corrupted making it inaccessible and leads to partial or complete data loss.
Ways to troubleshoot the Error
The possible way to troubleshoot the error is by reducing the size of PST file. Some of the solutions are as follows:
Delete unwanted data from Outlook Account
Reduce the overall size of PST file by deleting some of the unimportant or repeated emails & other data items from inbox, deleted items, and other folders from the Outlook account. These items can be deleted using SHIFT + DELETE to free up the space in Outlook PST file.
Using Compact Feature in Outlook
Second method is to use the Compact option available in Outlook to reduce the size of PST file. When the items are deleted from PST file, the file is compacted in the background while not using computer or Outlook is running. To reduce the size immediately, compact process is used.
Create a new PST file to archive data
This method is used when the size of the PST file of an Outlook account is very large. In order to reduce some space, user can move some of the items and archive them in a new PST file. Archiving feature helps in reducing the current PST file size by creating new PST and storing items in it.
Using Truncation Facility developed by Microsoft
The truncation facility designed by Microsoft is a tool that helps users to create a truncated copy of a PST file allowing recovery when size reaches over 2GB. The copy of the PST file does not contain complete data as the tool cuts the amount of data from the file as defined by the user.
Use Inbuilt Repair Utility of Outlook
This utility helps in dealing with corruption issues or damage in Outlook data files i.e. OST and PST. Scanost.exe was used earlier to repair the OST file, which was later replaced by scanpst.exe for repair of both OST and PST files. It will scan and repair the corrupt file. However, it does not guarantee complete recovery of data items.
Increase Size of the Outlook PST File
Another option is to increase the size of the PST file by editing the registry entries. This method can be difficult for non-technical users but we can follow the steps below to increase the size:
1. Go to Start and type ‘regedit’ and click OK.
2. In the Registry Editor window, follow the path ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\PST’
3. From the PST Folder, locate the values MaxLargeFileSize and WarnLargeFileSize
4. Double-click on MaxLargeFileSize value and select Decimal and enter new size limit in the Value data box and click on OK.
5. Repeat the same for WarnLargeFileSize value to select the new warning size limit
6. Close the Registry Editor.
2. In the Registry Editor window, follow the path ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\PST’
3. From the PST Folder, locate the values MaxLargeFileSize and WarnLargeFileSize
4. Double-click on MaxLargeFileSize value and select Decimal and enter new size limit in the Value data box and click on OK.
5. Repeat the same for WarnLargeFileSize value to select the new warning size limit
6. Close the Registry Editor.
Conclusion
In the blog, we have discussed about one of the most common error encountered by Outlook users related to Send/Receive error that restricts users to receive any new incoming mails. It has been found that the main factor for the error is oversized PST file size. Along with the causes of the error, the blog further describes several methods on how to solve 'Unknown Error 0x8004060c' in Outlook.
Author Bio:
Clark Kent is one of the Microsoft Outlook Expert and an author of MS Outlook Ware. He has experience more than 21 years in IT industry and at present he is working in a Data Recovery organization. He has quality expertise in the Office Products especially in Microsoft Outlook and love to resolve users query by providing best solution.
Post a Comment