Multiple Office "identities"

Question

12Jan2018:

[I'm running a Mac Powerbook Mid 2015 model, on High Sierra, using Office 365 Personal]

I've been using Office since 1995 and have purchased several versions of Office over time.  In trying to free up computer storage on my Powerbook, I find "Office 2004 Identities", "Office 2008 Identities" and "Office 2011" identities, each file containing .6–2.6 Gigs of data.

To make matters worse each of those folders contain one or more "Main Identity" files, each with .8–1.4 Gigs of data (not surprising as such data constitute the date of the relevant Office #### Identities file).

Does anyone know with relative certainty what the "Office #### Identities" files are and whether then can be safely deleted?

Thank you. [end]

Answer 1

The decision to keep or toss is ultimately your own.

If you are satisfied all the old email, contacts, tasks, and calendars have migrated forward to Office 2016 and you don't need anything from those old versions and you don't need them for record keeping purposes, then go ahead and delete all that old stuff.

Answer 2

If you imported your identities as time passed from 2008 to 2011 to 2016, then you should be all set, assuming you looked the data over each time to make sure it looks reasonably complete (check the oldest content, the newest and some in between).

If you used some other method, I can't say whether or not that method will have migrated your content.

Answer 3

You've put your finger on the "there's the rub" question.

Exactly how do I confirm that the old emails etc. have migrated. I do perform work where certain records must be kept for 10+ years.

Many thanks for the response. Thoughts?