Switch from working offline to online

Offline access in the new Outlook for Windows 

You can use the new Outlook for Windows even when you’re not connected to the internet by enabling offline access. When turned on, the new Outlook for Windows saves a copy of your emails, calendar events, and contacts to your device, providing access to these items when you're offline and improved performance when you're online. 

Your offline settings determine which items are saved to your device and for how long. To set these, see the section below Update offline settings. When you’re back online, new Outlook for Windows automatically updates the items that were saved to your device. 

Before you go offline

At this time, to open or restart new Outlook, you need a connection to the internet. Offline access described in this article is only supported when the app is already running and then goes offline. Opening and restarting the app while offline is planned and will be available in a future update.  

What can I do when I’m offline? 

Most actions you perform online are also available when you’re offline. These include, but aren’t limited to:

If you try to do something that’s not available offline, you'll get an error message, or the changes you made will revert back to what was previously saved.

Update offline settings 

Update these settings to choose which folders to save and how many days of items to save. If you have more than one account, select the account you want the settings to apply to:

Select which folders to save locally:

1. Select Settings > General > Offline > Folders to save.

2. From the dropdown, select Default (Inbox, sent, drafts, archive, deleted and snoozed), Default and favorites (this is set by default), or Default, favorites, and recently used.

Select the number of days to save emails locally:

1. Select Settings > General > Offline > Days of email to save.

2. From the dropdown, select 7 (this is the default value), 30, 90, or 180 days of email to save.

Select the number of calendar events to save:

1. Select Settings > General > Offline > Days of calendar events.

2. From the dropdown, select 0, 30 (this is the default value), 90, or 180 days of events to save in the past and future.

Turn offline access on or off

 Offline is turned on by default in new Outlook for Windows. To turn it off or on, do the following:

1. Select Settings > General > Offline.

2. Select the toggle Enable offline email, calendar, and people to turn offline access on or off.

3. Select Save.

What else do I need to know?

The following aren’t currently available offline, but we plan to include in future updates:  

• Create, delete, and move folders

• Reply to and forward emails

• RSVP to meeting invitations

• Search for items

• Sort and filter emails

• View and add attachments and images

• View and update settings for notifications, signatures, and calendars

• View shared and delegated mailboxes

Other capabilities that aren’t available when offline: 

• View email and calendar groups

• View favorited people, categories, and search folders

• Create, update, and delete calendar events and contacts

• View global address list