How to RESTORE Outlook, Word, and other Office 365 Apps to their pre-reinstall state

Or... Microsoft could make this easier by having a dialog that did all of this backup and restore of the aforementioned features centered in one place. Maybe even with checkboxes to choose the settings you want to save or restore.

As to my initial problem, I use Gmail. It's irrelevant in this case. My system is working again after hours (leading to over a day) of researching and uninstalling and reinstalling Office. I'm used to this. I started at Microsoft in '86 evangelizing a new product called "Windows." I worked there 14 years and remained in the field until 2010 as an MVP. I still depend on Word and the rest of the suite to write my novels and support my community.

These suggestions are not just for me. I can figure this stuff out eventually and I have the time to do so. However, there are millions of users who are not so comfortable with all of the paths and files and subdirectories you referred to and would be afraid to "just" copy these and replace them later.

All I'm asking is to make stuff like this easier.

I recognized your name. :) But didn't realize you retired as an MVP so long ago.

Microsoft is working on syncing many settings with Microsoft accounts used to activate Office so they are available on any computer where you install office. But most things in classic Outlook - like the autocomplete list and signatures - are only synced for Exchange mailboxes (including Outlook.com). Views and rules have always synced to Exchange and are stored in the data file for POP and IMAP but IMAP data files can't be opened or reused in a new profile, so they are lost (along with calendar and contacts in “(This computer only)" folders.)

New Outlook might do better at saving settings even for IMAP account (because it uses Microsoft cloud technology, as does the Outlook mobile app and Outlook for mac), but it lacks all the features in classic Outlook that we love to hate.

-- Diane

Hi William,

I'm Diane and I'm happy to help you today.

"We're sorry but..." error

Without knowing more, I can't say that the advice you were given was the best. Using the scrub tool should be used as a last resort when there are issues with office.

In Outlook alone there are Favorites, Quick Steps, Rules, as well as email addresses deemed safe so Outlook can display their attachments.

What type of email account do you have configured in Outlook? POP, IMAP, Outlook.com, or Microsoft Exchange?

For POP or outlook.com / Exchange, all of those are stored in the mailbox or pst file and only custom ribbons need to be exported or backed up. With Exchange, they will sync down from the server, for POP you need to use the old pst - don't import, open it and use it as the default data file.

With IMAP, they are in the data file and scrub removes the data file. The only way you could reuse the data file is by exporting the profile from the registry. But the problem could be with the profile, and that would bring it back.

Rules will need to be exported - Rules and Alerts dialog > Options > Export.

Favorites, VBA project files are here: C:\Users%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook Favorites are in [profile name].xml - typically Outlook.xml

Signatures: C:\Users%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures (You'll need to assign the signature to the account.)

Quick Steps are stored in the data file and would need to be exported and imported using MCFMAPI. Same for any custom views.

Autocomplete file - Stream_Autocomplete_0_[code].dat is here - if you have more than one, you want the largest. C:\Users%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\RoamCache

After setting up outlook, send a message then copy the old autocomplete to the folder and rename it, replacing the newly created file. (Use this same method if you make a new profile and want to restore the autocomplete.)

For any account type: custom ribbon files are here - C:\Users%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office

Browse both of these folders for other files you might want to backup - Templates, UProof (custom dictionary files), Excel\XLSTART (for personal. XLSB) C:\Users%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft C:\Users%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\

Let me know how it goes, I'm here to help you further if needed.

-- Diane

Each of the Removal/Reinstall instances were due to bugs ("issues") in Office. In the latest case, I (along with a host of others), got the "We're sorry but..." error and was told that a removal/scrub/reinstall was the solution. I do not use 3rd party tools. I was not talking about the email account. I was talking about the other features in Outlook that do not persist after removal and are not restored post-reinstall. And no, it's not that frequent--four or fewer times a year. But still, it's a PIA to have to rebuild these features each time.

It has to be said that if this remove/reinstall process is a frequent event there is something fundimentally wrong with your system.

Are you using any cleanup/registry third party tools?

With regard email much depends on the type of mail account