0x80040116 Error in Outlook – The Cause and How to Repair it!

Outlook 0x80040116 error pops up due to a single reason that I’ll talk about in a few seconds. It is repairable in most cases; but unfortunately I found that the conventional repair process provided by Microsoft is quite complicated, prone to errors and it may take several hours…

In this article I’d like to demonstrate an easy, safe, and fast way to resolve this problem. This is going to be especially useful to novice PC users and/or busy Outlook users. 

The cause…
This error erupts when the index of your Outlook’s data file called PST (Personal Storage Table) is either damaged or corrupted from some reason. (Sneaky malware, improper shutdown of Outlook, power failure while using Outlook and more)

This file is critical – it contains ALL your Emails, Contacts, Calendars notes, Journals…!

Symptoms
It might happen in the following situations on any Windows platform with whatever Outlook version that you’re using:

(1) When opening Outlook
(2) While trying to open a PST file
(3) While clicking the Send/Receive Emails button
(4) While trying to view Outlook’s Personal Folders settings

Typical error messages that you’ll receive: 
 “Sending and receiving reported error…”
“Unknown error…”
“Outlook.pst can not be accessed…”

Resolving 0x80040116 error
As I mentioned earlier the cause to this problem is in your Outlook.pst file. Since it is damaged and/or corrupted, there is no other way but recovering this file.

In the following steps we’ll recover your Outlook.pst file, get rid of this error, and bring your Outlook back to life.

Step-1: Close your Outlook application

Step-2: Find your Outlook.pst file
Download the following Outlook PST recovery tool.
Click “Find Outlook File”

Step-3: Backup the file
Once you’ve found the location of the file, create a new folder on your desktop, and keep a backup of that file in that folder – just to be on the safe side.

Step-4: Click ‘START’
Wait until it restores all your PST data (Emails, Contacts, Notes…) and reconstructs it from scratch. (Remember – it repairs your original PST file).

Step-5: Replace the corrupted file
Replace the original corrupted file with the recovered file.

That’s it!
Outlook should open now with no problem and without any errors.

Here is a short video that demonstrates how it works: