Local Outlook folders gone after 365 update on Macbook running Catalina

Question

Local Outlook folders gone after 365 update on Macbook running Catalina

Christensen, Steven Mark 1

After updating a Macbook Pro to macOS Catalina and then updating Outlook to 365, all of the mail folders with emails saved locally on local disk in the computer folders in the folder pane were gone. How can these extremely important emails be brought back into Outlook? They are only saved on the local computer and not in the cloud.

Rajiv Khanna 6 Reputation points

2021-06-16T02:23:41.217+00:00

I faced same issue.
There's a button on top that enables you to deselect "new outlook" and automatically goes back to old outlook with all folders etc.
I
Rajiv Khanna 6 Reputation points

2021-06-16T02:23:58.363+00:00

I faced same issue.
There's a button on top that enables you to deselect "new outlook" and automatically goes back to old outlook with all folders etc.
MorganR 16 Reputation points

2021-08-25T14:48:46.417+00:00

As of 25-Aug-2021, Outlook Mac does not yet support "On My Computer" folders. While Microsoft says this feature is under consideration for a future release, it has now been almost 2-years without support for this key feature.
PinoD 1 Reputation point

2021-08-27T01:59:54.453+00:00

Thank you. I have been banging my head on the wall since I imported a pst file from my older Windows machine to my new Macbook Air drive. I can read it, add mails to it in Outlook, but the pst file itself on the drive will not update.
Waldo1324 1 Reputation point

2022-05-10T20:25:47.42+00:00

So I did a workaround that may help others. If anyone knows a better way to do what I did then by all means please comment on how else to do this to help someone get it faster.

Running Big Sur or Monterey
Step One: I was signed in on Old Outlook on Mac. I used the export tool to export all my email files. (This is emails and folders, you name it it's exporting)

Step Two: I signed out of my account on the Outlook App.

Step Three: I signed back in and imported the files I originally exported in Step One.

Step Four: Make sure under preferences-general, that you're not hiding the local files.

Step Five: I dragged the imported local up to the inbox on the App.

Step Six: I went to New Outlook and it was all there.

Hope this helps!
MorganR 16 Reputation points

2022-05-11T23:40:03.887+00:00

While the answers provided allow one to import old emails (from "On My Computer" into Outlook 365, they really don't address the base problem: "On my computer" emails are there for a reason -- to have a local copy (not cloud). This is important for two reasons: 1) to keep cloud storage within manageable limits (personally I have gigabytes of email messages going back two decades) and 2) to maintain control of the emails (some of us don't want to have to rely on good internet access to have rapid access to our historical emails).

So the approaches offered by the two answers (at the time of this writing) do not address those issues.
MorganR 16 Reputation points

2023-03-08T02:31:23.6033333+00:00

This has been a feature ask for a long time (a feature they "took away" when they created the new Outlook). Here is a link to the outlook roadmap, which is promising they'll add the feature in March-2023 (although they've promised it before for an earlier date, then missed the date):

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=Mac%2COutlook

5 answers

Your answer

Rajiv Khanna 6 Reputation points

2021-06-16T02:23:41.217+00:00

I faced same issue.
There's a button on top that enables you to deselect "new outlook" and automatically goes back to old outlook with all folders etc.
I
Rajiv Khanna 6 Reputation points

2021-06-16T02:23:58.363+00:00

I faced same issue.
There's a button on top that enables you to deselect "new outlook" and automatically goes back to old outlook with all folders etc.
MorganR 16 Reputation points

2021-08-25T14:48:46.417+00:00

As of 25-Aug-2021, Outlook Mac does not yet support "On My Computer" folders. While Microsoft says this feature is under consideration for a future release, it has now been almost 2-years without support for this key feature.
PinoD 1 Reputation point

2021-08-27T01:59:54.453+00:00

Thank you. I have been banging my head on the wall since I imported a pst file from my older Windows machine to my new Macbook Air drive. I can read it, add mails to it in Outlook, but the pst file itself on the drive will not update.
Waldo1324 1 Reputation point

2022-05-10T20:25:47.42+00:00

So I did a workaround that may help others. If anyone knows a better way to do what I did then by all means please comment on how else to do this to help someone get it faster.

Running Big Sur or Monterey
Step One: I was signed in on Old Outlook on Mac. I used the export tool to export all my email files. (This is emails and folders, you name it it's exporting)

Step Two: I signed out of my account on the Outlook App.

Step Three: I signed back in and imported the files I originally exported in Step One.

Step Four: Make sure under preferences-general, that you're not hiding the local files.

Step Five: I dragged the imported local up to the inbox on the App.

Step Six: I went to New Outlook and it was all there.

Hope this helps!
MorganR 16 Reputation points

2022-05-11T23:40:03.887+00:00

While the answers provided allow one to import old emails (from "On My Computer" into Outlook 365, they really don't address the base problem: "On my computer" emails are there for a reason -- to have a local copy (not cloud). This is important for two reasons: 1) to keep cloud storage within manageable limits (personally I have gigabytes of email messages going back two decades) and 2) to maintain control of the emails (some of us don't want to have to rely on good internet access to have rapid access to our historical emails).

So the approaches offered by the two answers (at the time of this writing) do not address those issues.
MorganR 16 Reputation points

2023-03-08T02:31:23.6033333+00:00

This has been a feature ask for a long time (a feature they "took away" when they created the new Outlook). Here is a link to the outlook roadmap, which is promising they'll add the feature in March-2023 (although they've promised it before for an earlier date, then missed the date):

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=Mac%2COutlook

Answer 1

Ketnet 10

I have 16.70 running on mac. No sign of local folders on New Outlook. I reverted!

Why in hell would they remove this?

I have accumulated 110gb of emails since 2007 and I keep only the last 2 years online.

Imo a lot of people that run a business wanna keep old emails for reference.

Jim Fox 5 Reputation points

2023-03-08T00:15:53.0466667+00:00

I completely agree that this is a key scenario for many people. Every time I take an upgrade and lose these local emails I have a moment of panic. They haven't all restored this time, and I hope it is just that an index is being rebuilt. The process is completely opaque and very annoying.

Answer 2

Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,366 Moderator

Please follow the steps below and see if the local folders can show in Outlook:

On the Outlook Menu, click the Preferences button, choose General under Personal Settings.
Under SideBar, clear the checkbox of the Hide On My Computer folders:

If this doesn't work, it's suggested to try creating a new folder under the On My Computer folder and see if the missing folders can comes back.

Update:

Time Machine can be used to try restoring the missing messages.
For files under Office 2011 Identities, you can create a new profile and try importing by referring to Import email messages, contacts, and other items into Outlook for Mac
To merge found emails in the new profile into the Main Profile, it's suggested to export the emails into .olm files and then import them into the Main Profile:

In the Test Profile, go to Tools > Export, select Mails, click Continue, specify a file name and choose the location to store the .olm file, click Save:
Launch Outlook Profile Manager, set the Main Profile as the default profile(follow this link). Restart Outlook for Mac, go to Tools > Import, select "Outlook for Mac archive file(.olm)", click Continue, choose the .olm file exported in the step above, click Import. The imported items will appear under On My Computer.

Reference:
Export items to an archive file in Outlook for Mac
Import email messages, contacts, and other items into Outlook for Mac (Please refer to the "Import a .olm file from Outlook for Mac" section.)

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Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,366 Reputation points Moderator

2020-08-27T09:21:45.247+00:00

@Christensen, Steven Mark , I'd like to follow up to see how things are going with this issue. Did you get a chance to check the suggestions provided.

If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Christensen, Steven Mark 1 Reputation point

2020-08-28T01:52:23.57+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions, but neither had any effect. The files on the local computer were not picked up. We can find hundreds of message files like this one on the local disk, from Get Info on the Mac,

General:
Kind: olk15_message
Size: 1,477 bytes (4 KB on Disk)
Where: Macintosh HD . Users . B.... . Library .
Group Containers . UBF8T346G9.Office . Outlook .
Outlook 15 Profiles . Main Profiles .
Data . Messages . 185

How do we get all these files back into their appropriate folders in OutLook?
Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,366 Reputation points Moderator

2020-08-31T01:33:02.3+00:00

.olk15_message files are just temporary files so there's no built in option available in Outlook for Mac to recover data from them.

Have you activate Time Machine on your Mac? If yes, you should be able to restore your old profile using Time Machine.
Christensen, Steven Mark 1 Reputation point

2020-08-31T05:24:11.067+00:00

Yes, time machine is on. Where would we find this profile and how to install it?
Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,366 Reputation points Moderator

2020-08-31T06:24:49.383+00:00

You can try to restore the entire "~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile" folder (assuming "Main Profile" is the profile you are using). For steps about restoring specific files using Time Machine, hopefully you can find the link below helpful:
Use Time Machine to restore deleted files or older files
Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.

This similar thread which also suggests using Time Machine.

If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,366 Reputation points Moderator

2020-09-07T06:28:40.173+00:00

Hi @Christensen, Steven Mark , any luck with the Time Machine?
Christensen, Steven Mark 1 Reputation point

2020-09-08T03:18:27.5+00:00

I was able to get some 2015 files from Time Machine to restore and those emails appeared back in Outlook, but there are still a lot of files in say

Machintosh HD . Users . B . Documents . Microsoft-Benutzerdaten . Office 2011 Identities . Main Identity . Data Records . Messages . 0T . 0B . OM . 26K

and similar directories. Files of the form x00_26 824.olk14Message. There are hundreds of such files. These are on the local disk still. We can see that these are the missing emails from recent years we need to get back, but Outlook 365 is not seeing them.

Any new ideas?

Thanks.
Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,366 Reputation points Moderator

2020-09-08T05:44:31.583+00:00

@Christensen, Steven Mark , for files under the Outlook for Mac 2011 identity, please try creating a new profile and then referring to the "Import identities from Outlook for Mac 2011" section in the article below and see if it works:

Import email messages, contacts, and other items into Outlook for Mac

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Christensen, Steven Mark 1 Reputation point

2020-09-09T03:17:42.587+00:00

How precisely does one create a new profile? Does it have to have a special name in order to use the 2011 files from the original user? Where will the files show up in Outlook if they are found by the program? I have never used Outlook and am helping a friend try to fix this.
Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,366 Reputation points Moderator

2020-09-10T08:52:32.173+00:00

@Christensen, Steven Mark , There's no special requirement on the name of the new profile. For the steps to create a new profile for importing the Outlook 2011 identity, hopefully you can find the instructions in the link below useful:
I get an error when importing Outlook for Mac 2011 data

If the items can be found, you'll be able to see the mails when starting Outlook using the new profile. If it fails, then I am afraid the files could have been corrupted and cannot be recovered using the built-in options available in Outlook.
Christensen, Steven Mark 1 Reputation point

2020-09-13T04:18:10.927+00:00

I was able to create a Test Profile along with the Main Profile and then get the 2011 emails into the Test lists when using that as the default profile. Now the question is, how to I put those found emails back into the Main profile so that all emails are in one place? Thanks much for the help so far.
Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,366 Reputation points Moderator

2020-09-14T01:41:28.637+00:00

Thanks much for the help so far.

@Christensen, Steven Mark , My pleasure :) Happy to know that the 2011 emails were recovered. As regards to merging the found emails into the Main profile, I'd suggest exporting the emails in the Test Profile into .OLM files, then you would be able to import the .OLM files into the Main Profile and see the items under On My Computer. Due to the character length limit of a comment, I've edited my initial Answer to include the steps about the export/import process, hope you can find that useful.

Answer 3

MorganR 16

As of 25-Aug-2021, Outlook Mac does not yet support "On My Computer" folders. While Microsoft says this feature is under consideration for a future release, it has now been almost 2-years without support for this key feature.

126431-outlook-mac-doesnt-support-22on-my-computer22-fold.jpg

Answer 4

R-Dog Pata 1

Not helpful with the "new outlook" issue. I just reverted to old outlook, all sorted. For me it was the loss of all my calendar info. Not good enough really but happy with old outlook. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

See: https://support.microsoft.com/hr-hr/office/outlook-for-mac-release-notes-for-beta-channel-builds-d6347358-5613-433e-a49e-a9a0e8e0462a

Outlook Beta the local folders On My Computer now available New Mac Outlook build 16.68.22112202

November 28 and 30, 2022 release
Version : 16.69 (22112702) & 16.69 (22112905)

New or improved features:

We are excited to announce that in the Beta channel, the local folders aka On My Computer is now available in the New Mac Outlook. This feature is available from build 16.68.22112202 (16.68.1122.0) and newer. You can start the local data migration either from File > Import On My Computer data or by accessing the On My Computer folder and clicking on Import Now button. We would love for you to try Local data migration and share your experience with us. Please report any issues and feedback via Help > Contact Support. Note: Local PDLs will be available when we support PDL in the app.

Richer flagging – We are now added support for Mark as Complete, Flag for Followup and Flag Reminders.

Added support to allow expanding of the O365 groups in the To, CC and BCC line.

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Local Outlook folders gone after 365 update on Macbook running Catalina

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