Microsoft Outlook 2016 Mac File Location

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  1. Microsoft Outlook 2016 Mac File Location Windows 10
  2. Microsoft Outlook 2016 Mac File Location Update

On the File menu, select Export Outlook for Mac Data File. Choose to filter by category or item type. To export all items in Outlook, select Items of the following types, and then select all the check boxes. Click the right arrow to continue, and then follow the instructions. The slider allows an Outlook 2016 user to limit the email messages that are locally synchronized in an Microsoft Outlook data file (.ost). By default, if Cached Exchange Mode is enabled, Outlook 2016 caches email messages only from the last 12 months and removes anything older from the local cache for the PC. These default settings depend on.

The default saving location of Outlook data files (.PST/.OST) in Windows is on the disk C if you haven’t changed it. If huge amounts of data are saved in your Outlook data files, they will occupy your system drive and may make your system run slowly so that you may want to change your Outlook data file location from the default C disk to another location. Now, this post will show you how to change the data file location in Outlook 2016 for Windows.

Part 1: How to change the data file (.PST) location in Outlook 2016

By default, the Outlook PST files are saved in ”C: UsersUsernameDocumentsOutlook Files”. To change the location, do as follows.

Step 1: Make sure that Outlook 2016 is closed and the PST files are not opened in any other program/software.

Step 2: Locate the ”DocumentsOutlook Files” folder. Press Ctrl + A to select all the PST files and move them to your desired folder. Then clear the PST files in the ”DocumentsOutlook Files” folder.

Step 3: Start Outlook 2016. You will get a warning message that says yours PST file cannot be found. Click OK to close the message.

Step 4: It will display an ”Create/Open Outlook Data File” dialog. Through the dialog, navigate to the new path you have specified for the Outlook 2016 data files (.PST), then select any one of the PST files, and click Open. This will tell Outlook 2016 the saving location of the data files (.PST) has been changed to the new location. And later on, PST files created in Outlook 2016 will be saved in the new location.

Part 2: How to change the data file (.OST) location in Outlook 2016

By default, Outlook OST files are saved in ”C: UsersUsernameAppDataLocalMicrosoftOutlook”. To change it, do as follows.

Step 1: Make sure that Outlook 2016 is closed and the OST files are not opened in any other program/software.

Step 2: Open Registry Editor by running regedit in Run (Win + R) dialog box.

Step 3: Navigate to the path: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice16.0Outlook, then right-click on any blank area of the right-side pane and then select New -> Expandable String Value.

Step 4: Name the newly created expandable string value as ForceOSTPath, and then double click on it. On the ”Edit String” dialog, enter your desired path under the ”Value data” box and then click OK. This will change the old/default location of Outlook 2016 data file (.OST) to the new location.

Step 5: Close Registry Editor and restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

Note: The location of Outlook 2016 data file (.OST) is changed, and all new OST files to be created will be saved in the new location, but it won’t change the location of the existing OST files.

Before upgrading my PC to Windows 10, I’d like to make a backup of my Outlook pst-file.

I searched on my disk and I already found a few but I want to make sure I’ve got them all or at least the correct current ones.

Where can I find my pst-file?

Making regular backups of your pst-file(s) is always a good thing, not just when upgrading

In theory, your pst-files could be located almost anywhere on your computer but there are of course a couple of default locations in which to look. Also, as long as your computer is still in a functioning state, you can look up where your pst-files are located even when Outlook itself is no longer functioning.

Look up location within Outlook

How install microsoft office on mac. Assuming your computer is still working as it should, you can look up the location of your pst-files in Outlook in the following way:

  • Outlook 2007 and previous
    File-> Data File Management…
  • Outlook 2010, Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016
    File-> Account Settings-> Account Settings-> tab: Data Files


Click on the “Open File Location…” button to be directly taken to the location of that pst-file. (Click on the image to see the full dialog)

Note 1: For detailed instructions about backing up and restoring Outlook data see: Backup and Restore all Outlook data.

Note 2: The pst-files that belong to IMAP accounts are only just a cache of your online IMAP mailbox and doesn’t necessarily need to be backed up. See below for more details.

Look up location via Mail applet in Control Panel

If you can’t open Outlook anymore, you can look up the location via the Mail applet in Control Panel.

When you open that, you’ll see a “Data Files…” button which displays the same overview as you would get via above instructions in Outlook.


Accessing the list of data files without opening Outlook via the Mail applet.

Multiple Mail Profiles

When you have multiple Mail Profiles configured for Outlook, you don’t necessarily need to restart Outlook in each Mail Profile to look up the locations for your pst-files.

Instead, open the Mail applet from the Control Panel just as indicated above and click on the Show Profiles… button, select a Mail Profile and then click on the Properties button to get to see the Data Files button for that Mail Profile just as explained above.


Don’t forget the pst-files of any other mail profile you might have.

Default locations

Checking the default locations in addition to the above methods is always recommended as there might be some disconnected pst-files which you might have forgotten about but still like to keep anyway.

The default locations to check are:

  • C:Users%username%AppDataLocalMicrosoftOutlook
  • C:Users%username%DocumentsOutlook Files

If you are still on Windows XP or previous, check the following locations:

  • C:Documents and Settings%username%Local SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook
  • C:Documents and Settings%username%My DocumentsOutlook Files

Microsoft Outlook 2016 Mac File Location Windows 10

Pst-file cache, ost-files and “Not available”

Up until Outlook 2010, pst-files were also used by IMAP accounts to cache and sync the mail folders with the IMAP mail servers. When this pst-file is lost, Outlook will rebuild it (by redownloading the emails) the next time that you start Outlook or configure the account on a new machine.

Ost-files are also just a cache of your online mailbox unless they are associated with an IMAP account in Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2016.

The “Not available” listing for Outlook Hotmail Connector accounts in Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 is normal. These actually point to ost-files as well and don’t need to backed up either.

In the case of Exchange and Outlook.com/Hotmail accounts, you’d simply reconfigure your account in Outlook and it will rebuild the ost-file cache from your online mailbox.

Microsoft Outlook 2016 Mac File Location Update

Note: For more information about the differences and the quirks of pst-files and ost-files see: Pst-files vs. pst-archives vs. ost-files

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