Microsoft Outlook Backup Addin not Available

The Personal Folders Backup addin creates backup copies of your .PST files at regular intervals making it easy to keep all of your Outlook folders safely backed up. Although the download site states that it works for Outlook 2002 or later, it actually still works for Outlook 2000 as well.

In some cases after you install it the backup add-in the option File-> Backup… isn’t available and doesn’t appear to be installed. An attempt to reinstall the product however indicates that it has already been installed and the add-in also shows up in Control Panel-> Add/Remove Software.

This is often true when you have upgraded your Outlook version, updated the backup add-in or installed the backup add-in logged on as a different user.

Troubleshooting

• Make sure you have the latest version of the Outlook Backup addin installed to be sure you are not running an older incompatible version
• Remove the tool and reinstall it again. By default the tool is installed in the following folder
  C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE_version_number\ADDINS
  This means that after an upgrade the backup tool is left in the old Office folder. A reinstall of the backup tool will place it in the right folder
• Make sure the Outlook Backup Addin is listed and selected;
  Outlook 2007; Tools-> Trust Center-> Addins
  Previous versions of Outlook; Tools-> Options-> tab Other-> button Advanced Options…-> button COM Add-Ins
  If it is not listed press the Go-> Add… or Install button and browse to the following location;
  C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE_version_number\ADDINS\outbak.dll
• Reset the add-ins registry cache by renaming extend.dat to extend.old when Outlook is closed. By default you can find extend.dat here;
  Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\
  Windows Vista: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\
• Reset the Toolbar; all Toolbar customizations will be lost and the Toolbar will reset to what it looked like when you first installed Outlook. It will also add all the buttons and menu options created by add-ins again. To do this locate outcmd.dat and rename it to outcmd.old when Outlook is closed. By default you can find it here;
  Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\
  Windows Vista: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook\