Friday 8 July 2016

Steps to Delete Complete Outlook Profile by Deleting Profile Registry

In any version of Outlook, you may experience several errors due to Outlook Profile issues. There can be many possible issues related to Outlook Profile. Suppose that you are unable to send/receive messages on Outlook due to corrupt Profile and you are suggested to delete your current Profile and then re-create a new Outlook Profile to fix the error. Now when you try to remove your current Profile from Outlook File option or Control Panel, Outlook doesn’t allow you to create a new Outlook Profile and shows an error same as below:


Before proceeding further, let us first understand an Outlook profile

A profile in Outlook is created to handle all the email accounts that are configured on it. A new Profile is automatically created in Outlook while running Outlook for the first time. Normally we can utilize one Profile at a time that is associated with every individual account. Outlook allows you to create your own renamed Outlook Profile manually by which you can easily find the required Profile (in case more than one user has access on your Outlook).

Steps to Manually Delete Outlook Profile from Control Panel


  • Click on Start button from your Windows screen and open your Control Panel.
  • Click on User Accounts >> click on Mail.
  • Click on Show Profiles.
  • Select the Profile that you want to remove and then click on Remove.

Now a popup will appear asking you whether to allow or not. click on option Yes for confirmation.

NOTE: After applying the above manual method if the Outlook Profile is still not removed then you need to remove it using Registry Editor.

Steps to Delete Outlook Profile Using Registry Key

Before you delete the entire registry keys related to Outlook Profile, you must take the backup of your registry key just in case of any mishap you have an alternate option from which your profile can be restored. To backup, you need to use the Export feature and then proceed to the next step as shown below:

  • To open Registry Editor, click on Start and in the search box type Run and hit the Enter key.
  • Now you will see Run command box, type regedit in the box and click on OK.
  • After clicking OK, you’ll see Registry Editor screen, in the Registry Editor, navigate the following path.
  • For Outlook 2016: “HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Office/16.0/Outlook/Profiles/profile-name”.
  • For Outlook 2013: “HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Office/15.0/Outlook/Profiles/Outlook”.
  • For Outlook 2010: “HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Win Messaging Subsystem/Profiles.
  • Select the Profile that you want to delete and right click the selected Profile and choose the option Export.
  • Choose the folder to save the registry key so that you can re-use that key to restore the Outlook Profile. In the File name, type the name for file and click to Save.
  • Now once you’ve created a backup for your Outlook Profile. Right click on variable of Outlook Profile again and click on Delete. Give a confirmation for deleting the registry branch and its keys.
  • Exit the Registry Editor once you’ve deleted the Profile.
  • After complete deletion of Outlook Profile, you can create a new Outlook Profile.

Conclusion

Before modifying any key in the Registry Editor, do not forgot to take a backup of the registry key of your current Outlook Profile. After following the above steps if the problem still continues then try to uninstall your office and install a latest version. If the issue still persist, it means your Outlook data file is highly corrupted and can't be repaired using manual solution. And hence to repair Outlook emails you'll need to move towards a third party application.

Disclaimer: Before going through any third party application to repair damages in the Outlook data file, firstly try the free Microsoft in-built utility: Inbox Repair Tool. Also while choosing a tool other than SCANPST.exe, I will suggest you to use their demo version to get the your personal experience with the software.
Steps to Delete Complete Outlook Profile by Deleting Profile Registry Captain Ashish 4.5 of 5
In any version of Outlook , you may experience several errors due to Outlook Profile issues. There can be many possible issues related to ...

3 comments:

  1. Very usefull post! Couldn't open Outlook 2016, tried "scanpst.exe", re-installation of Office, but finally created new profile in safe modus and deleted the old profile through regedit. Problem solved!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks dear and good to hear that your problem has been fixed. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank goodness for the post. Corrupt profile was killing my Outlook, regedit solved all my problems

    ReplyDelete