How to Fix - Cannot open the Outlook window. Invalid XML, the view cannot be loaded

Submitted by ingram on Fri, 02/10/2012 - 4:17pm
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After launching Outlook 2007 or 2010, you receive the following error message:

Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. Invalid XML, the view cannot be loaded.

Outlook XML

To fix this error, run the following command from the Run box or from the path where Office is installed (For Office 2010, the path is: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14):

Outlook.exe /ResetNavPane 

What does Outlook.exe /ResetNavPane do? It clears and regenerates the Navigation Pane for the current profile. Basically, it removes all shortcuts and favorite folders from the Navigation Pane. Not a big deal, as most users leave the default favorite folders in place, but just something to consider.

Here is a complete list of command line switches for Outlook as well as what they do. It also shows how to run them:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/command-line-switches-HP001003110.aspx

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Submitted by mohammad (not verified) on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 2:14pm.

yes problem is solved

Submitted by debb (not verified) on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 4:31pm.

problem is solved. excellent!

Submitted by Charles Daxboeck (not verified) on Sat, 08/30/2014 - 3:54pm.

typed in the Outlook.exe /ResetNavPane command and instead of getting an ivalid xml notice I get "cannot open default e-mail folder. Information store could not be opened." Now what?

Submitted by mmawss (not verified) on Wed, 03/09/2016 - 11:08am.

This means that outlook in in compatibility mode First, navigate to the following directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office XX\Outlook.exe right click “Outlook.exe” and then select “Properties” – this should be at the very bottom. From there, go to the “compatibility” tab and uncheck the “Run this program in compatibility mode” check box. Select “apply” and then restart your computer and open up Outlook to ensure “compatibility mode” is completely turned off.

Submitted by Kevin (not verified) on Fri, 03/18/2016 - 11:06am.

As we used to say when we were young, "Shut Up! No way!". Thank you!!!!! I never realized that was causing the problem "cannot open default email folder". I'm going to pay special attention to that the next time someone asks me about that.

Thank you! This is one of those things like when I realized the ~ilename.xlsx temp file was causing the problem "The spreadsheet is already open by another user" error. I knew about the file for years but never knew it was the cause of the problem.

Take Care,
Kevin

Submitted by Phoebe36 (not verified) on Fri, 10/24/2014 - 9:20am.

I am happy to find this post very useful for me, as it contains lot of information. I always prefer to read the quality content and this thing I found in you post. Thanks for sharing. gohytxsg

Submitted by rakesh (not verified) on Tue, 11/25/2014 - 9:44pm.

solved. excellent

Submitted by rohin (not verified) on Tue, 04/07/2015 - 4:40am.

This solved my problem thanks

Submitted by Pankaj (not verified) on Thu, 05/24/2012 - 1:55am.

The Problem has been Solved.

Submitted by Sudhir (not verified) on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 8:28pm.

Hi problem got solved like a great trick

thanks i was worried how to fix

but u helped me
thanks a lot

Submitted by Sushil (not verified) on Thu, 08/02/2012 - 3:21am.

Thanks alot for your help, it work on my system

Submitted by tmiller (not verified) on Tue, 08/07/2012 - 1:02am.

Outlook.exe /ResetNavPane worked for me. Thanks.

Submitted by Javed Akhtar (not verified) on Mon, 01/21/2013 - 2:27am.

Hi,
Outlook.exe /ResetNavPane is giving error message, "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened."

Submitted by ad (not verified) on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 2:59am.

my problem is same with your problem

Submitted by Samantha (not verified) on Mon, 08/13/2012 - 12:43am.

Nearly had a heart attack, as I had a report due, this is great and helped immediately, thank you so much!

Submitted by perry (not verified) on Thu, 08/30/2012 - 12:49pm.

I also use the resetnavpane and out look reopened However after the lap top was Re booted
Out will not open again

Submitted by ALBERT (not verified) on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 10:42pm.

EXCELLENT, IT WORKED! THANK YOU!!

Submitted by ALBERT (not verified) on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 10:43pm.

FIXED, THANK YOU!!!

Submitted by adamya (not verified) on Wed, 09/05/2012 - 2:10pm.

thanks

Submitted by Teresa Coberly (not verified) on Thu, 10/11/2012 - 3:22pm.

This fix worked on windows 7 office 2010.

Submitted by Ann (not verified) on Sat, 10/13/2012 - 1:41pm.

I have seen the comments about putting in outlook.exe/resetnavpane. I can't find where I put that in to work. I tried the C: drive path and I got of Office 14, but I don't see where I can type that in the computer. I do have Windows 7, Office 2010. Help!!!

Submitted by ingram on Sat, 10/13/2012 - 9:28pm.

You can enter that command from the "run" box, or open a command prompt and change to the office14 directory like this:

cd C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14

Now run the command

Submitted by Ilona (not verified) on Fri, 10/19/2012 - 5:06am.

Great, it works ! really helpful. Ilona

Submitted by Ann (not verified) on Fri, 10/19/2012 - 10:36am.

Thanks for the help. I found that I wasn't putting a space before the forward slash in the outlook.exe /ResetNavPane. As soon as I did that, it worked. Thanks so much Ingram for posting this information.

Submitted by Geoff (not verified) on Fri, 07/15/2016 - 2:40am.

Thanks a million. Same issue. Everywhere I read it said make sure there is no space.

Submitted by My blog (not verified) on Mon, 10/22/2012 - 7:44am.

Thanks. I had the same problem but it is solved now.

Submitted by scott (not verified) on Tue, 10/23/2012 - 3:55pm.

Excellent it worked fine

Submitted by Jenny (not verified) on Fri, 10/26/2012 - 9:41am.

Thank you!!!!!! It worked.

Submitted by Jan (not verified) on Sun, 11/04/2012 - 4:13pm.

Thanks! Problem fixed.

Submitted by Tin Clemente (not verified) on Tue, 11/06/2012 - 4:21pm.

THANK YOU! This worked!

Submitted by Simon Weiner (not verified) on Thu, 11/08/2012 - 9:35am.

This did the trick - thank you -
Simon

Submitted by arturo (not verified) on Tue, 11/13/2012 - 2:44pm.

Thanks for the help

Submitted by Franklin (not verified) on Mon, 11/19/2012 - 11:38pm.

Superd ..... thanks

Submitted by caren2 on Thu, 11/22/2012 - 9:23am.

Running Windows Vista. Got all the way to Office 14, but that only contains GKExcel, PPT, Word. Office 12 has Outlook.exe.manifest, but what do I do from there? I can't seem to get anywhere. Thank you.

Submitted by ingram on Thu, 11/22/2012 - 10:07am.

Right click on an Outlook shortcut (either from the desktop or in the start menu) and choose properties. On the Shortcut tab, the Target Path field is the correct path to Outlook.exe

Submitted by caren2 on Thu, 11/22/2012 - 12:08pm.

Thanks, but where is the Target Path? It shows email accounts, data files, and profiles. Thanks.

Submitted by Mahendra (not verified) on Thu, 11/29/2012 - 10:17pm.

Excellent

Submitted by Abdullah (not verified) on Tue, 12/04/2012 - 12:46am.

thanks i also solved the problem

Submitted by David Newmark (not verified) on Wed, 12/05/2012 - 4:53pm.

I'm running Windows 8 and that same error message suddenly started showing up. I can't start outlook. I ran that command line and even did a repair install on office..nothing worked. Any ideas? Where does the ResetNavPane executable reside?

Submitted by Dave Ward (not verified) on Mon, 06/20/2016 - 1:31pm.

Ive used the /resetnavpane & /cleanview.. have run the scanpts att and run repair & still get the xml error.

Submitted by Balaram (not verified) on Mon, 12/10/2012 - 9:22am.

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12>outlook.exe /ResetNavPane

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12>

Submitted by Sophie (not verified) on Fri, 12/14/2012 - 6:26am.

WOW instant fix, THANK YOU!!

Submitted by mark (not verified) on Tue, 01/15/2013 - 8:27am.

worked a treat

Submitted by Irfan (not verified) on Mon, 01/28/2013 - 11:31pm.

Thanks a lot.................

Submitted by Mohamed (not verified) on Wed, 01/30/2013 - 5:44am.

Thanks,Working and solved the issue.

Submitted by FG (not verified) on Tue, 03/12/2013 - 4:35pm.

Hello, the outlook.exe/resetnavpane file exists only in Manifest format. in efforts to validate XML error, I am not given the option to open manifest file to correct XML error. any assistance?

Submitted by ingram on Tue, 03/12/2013 - 9:32pm.

Not exactly sure what you mean by that. I did notice that you do not have a space between outlook.exe and /resetnavpane. Outlook.exe is the executable file. /resetnavpane is a command line switch. See this microsoft article for a full list of them and how they work:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/command-line-switches-HP001003110.aspx

Submitted by imrancan (not verified) on Fri, 12/13/2013 - 11:08pm.

i TRIED EVERY THING BUT IT KEEP SAYING THAT PERSONAL FOLDER WAS NOT CLOSED PROPERLY

Submitted by jbc (not verified) on Thu, 03/14/2013 - 7:21am.

worked - thank you!!!

Submitted by It Pro Advance (not verified) on Mon, 03/18/2013 - 7:00pm.

In my case there was a 'outlook' file under %userprofile%\username\Application Data\Microsoft folder

You need to Delete the 'outlook' file and try to re-launch Outlook it will create a new 'outlook' Folder in the place of the file.

Submitted by Russell Smith on Wed, 03/20/2013 - 10:14pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Ingram,

Really it works well. However you can get this problem due to problem with Outlook PST file like virus attack,damaged file structure or oversized issues. When you are encountered such types of problem then it can be resolved through a PST recovery tool.

Regards :

Russell

Submitted by Bhuvana (not verified) on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 4:29am.

Its working.Thank you

Submitted by Faisal (not verified) on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 1:05pm.

Start >> run >>> Outlook.exe /resetnavpane

Submitted by Wendy (not verified) on Tue, 11/05/2013 - 1:16am.

Yours was the only way mine worked. XP Pro THANK YOU!

Submitted by Kaung Myat (not verified) on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 9:06pm.

It's working. Thanks you so much.

Submitted by aqilah (not verified) on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 8:33pm.

Hi, please help. My outlook cannot open even i use "Outlook.exe /ResetNavPane ". It will asked me to open outlook with safe mode. If choose yes. Then, it said unable to open again and start the "Detect and Repair". Finish installing " Microsoft Office Professional Hybrid 2007", then nothing happens. Hope you can understand the problem and help me. Otherwise, do i need to format my pc @ install new Microsoft Office ?

Submitted by Paresh (not verified) on Fri, 04/12/2013 - 8:13am.

HI, when its asked to safe mode select no,or else re-install the MS office.

Submitted by hitachi excavator (not verified) on Fri, 04/12/2013 - 4:01am.

I really like the ability to automatically feed your blog into your email newsletter. However, is there a way to easily add custom content to each blast. In my email blasts, I would like to not only include the recent post on the blog, but some additional call to action.

Submitted by Paresh (not verified) on Fri, 04/12/2013 - 8:05am.

Yes it works thanks.

Submitted by Suhail (not verified) on Wed, 04/24/2013 - 12:44am.

Problem solved thanks so much , Excellent

Submitted by Suhail (not verified) on Wed, 04/24/2013 - 12:44am.

Problem solved thanks so much , Excellent

Submitted by Abdul-Basit Syed (not verified) on Mon, 04/29/2013 - 3:08am.

Thanks. Problem solved.

Submitted by Ronny (not verified) on Fri, 05/03/2013 - 3:20am.

Yes thanks it worked,

Submitted by Milind (not verified) on Mon, 05/06/2013 - 1:31am.

Thanks It wokred

Submitted by woconnor (not verified) on Thu, 05/23/2013 - 10:22am.

Googled this error and this link was at the top, it worked a treat thanks ever so much

Submitted by Chait (not verified) on Mon, 05/27/2013 - 3:03am.

Problem Solved...Thanks so much !

Submitted by CJ (not verified) on Fri, 06/07/2013 - 3:52am.

Thanks for the tip!!!

Submitted by Sukhpal (not verified) on Thu, 06/13/2013 - 2:54am.

Excellent piece of information!! Many Thanks!!

Submitted by Mayank Tripathi (not verified) on Mon, 06/17/2013 - 7:50pm.

Issue resolved...

Thank's buddy..

Submitted by Shyju (not verified) on Fri, 06/21/2013 - 3:59am.

Thanks alot buddy!!!!!! Its Really work..

Submitted by Yeswant Manivannan (not verified) on Wed, 07/03/2013 - 9:48pm.

Outlook.exe /ResetNavPane
- This has fixed my problem in outlook 2007.. Thanks buddy !

Submitted by Richard Sinclair (not verified) on Wed, 07/03/2013 - 11:23pm.

Cannot launch ms Outlook in ms office 2010 in windows 7. Word and other programs work ok. Say there is a problem with C:\users\chard\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst
I uninstalled outlook and reinstalled but same problem....????
Thank you

Submitted by ingram on Thu, 07/04/2013 - 1:36am.

Did you have the exact error message as in this article? If so, did you run this command?

If you have a bad pst file, that is another problem that you can attempt to fix with scanpst.exe

Submitted by Richard Sinclair (not verified) on Thu, 07/04/2013 - 8:38am.

Where does one enter the fix-it command to do what is required?

Submitted by ingram on Sat, 07/06/2013 - 12:23pm.

Run the command from the run box, or from the command prompt, like the article says

Submitted by MoeP (not verified) on Thu, 08/15/2013 - 10:45am.

The command worked. I put a short cut with the command on the desktop for the user and he is happy. Is there a fix so the command does not need to be there? Or do I just re-install MSOffice on his PC and see what happen? My user is a salesperson and he is on the road most of the time, so I would like to try to fix it without him having to come into the office.

Submitted by Amith (not verified) on Sun, 08/18/2013 - 11:49pm.

Thanks,Working and solved the issue.

Submitted by MoeP (not verified) on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 10:21am.

What I did was: 1: Close outlook. 2: Renamed the xml file to xml.old. 3: Opened outlook. Problem fixed. The xml is sitting in "drive:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook" directory.

Submitted by Prakash (not verified) on Wed, 08/21/2013 - 4:46am.

Perfect its working fine :)

Submitted by wasimasi on Tue, 09/03/2013 - 5:34am.

Use PST repair tool and solve your "Cannot open the Outlook window. Invalid XML, the view cannot be loaded problem". The software repair all over pst files and recover also from windows os. Try free demo version at : https://www.facebook.com/OutlookRepairPst

Submitted by Ervin (not verified) on Wed, 09/11/2013 - 2:20am.

Problem solved thanks

Submitted by Ed (not verified) on Mon, 09/16/2013 - 8:02am.

Ingram, thanks a ton, this was such a great post. Saved me lots of time and aggravation!

Submitted by Chuks (not verified) on Sat, 09/28/2013 - 2:29am.

This was very healpful

Submitted by SunshineMom (not verified) on Sun, 09/29/2013 - 12:02pm.

I can't thank you enough! I've been without email for 2 days and after finally getting the repair function to work, I had gotten the XML error.

Submitted by Tomas (not verified) on Mon, 10/07/2013 - 2:24am.

First time saw a such error, your method helped, thanks a lot.

Submitted by Madhusudhan (not verified) on Sat, 10/19/2013 - 4:42am.

Yes its worked.. thanks a lot

Submitted by emzah (not verified) on Tue, 10/29/2013 - 1:55am.

thank gyz this realy solved my proble at the nick of time

Submitted by Susan Skinner (not verified) on Mon, 11/18/2013 - 8:40am.

This did not fix my issue. Any other ideas?

Submitted by Biljana Rakic (not verified) on Wed, 11/20/2013 - 6:18am.

Thanks, problem solved!

Submitted by Lingapandi (not verified) on Wed, 11/20/2013 - 10:10pm.

Yes...Its working. Thanks a lot.

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