Setting up Outlook on Mac

Steps for setting up and updating Microsoft 365 Outlook on your Mac

Manage profiles or identities in Outlook 2016 for Mac

If you use Outlook 2016 for Mac in more than one capacity, such as for your personal life and for work, you can set up Outlook to handle these different capacities by using profiles. A profile is associated with and stores a set of email messages, contacts, tasks, calendars, account settings, Scrapbook clips, and more.

The Outlook Profile Manager (previously called the Microsoft Database Utility) is installed as part of your Office installation, and it allows you to create new profiles, edit or delete profiles, and set your default profile. When you open Outlook, it always uses the default profile.

Note: In Outlook 2011 for Mac, profiles were called identities.

Important: If more than one person uses the same computer, Outlook profiles don’t offer as much privacy as separate user accounts in the Mac OS. Outlook profiles don’t offer password protection, and Spotlight searches from the Finder will locate Outlook items from all the profiles in the current user account. To learn more about how to create user accounts, see Mac Help.

Add, change, or delete a profile

From Finder, open the Applications folder.

Ctrl+click or right-click Microsoft Outlook, and then select Show Package Contents.

Open Contents > SharedSupport, and then launch Outlook Profile Manager.

Do ONE of the following:

Create a new profile – Select the Create a new profile button (plus (+) sign), and then enter a name for the new profile.

Rename a profile – Double-click the profile, and then enter a new name for the profile.

Delete a profile – Select the profile that you want to remove, and then choose the Delete the selected profile button (minus icon).

Change the default profile – Highlight the profile that you want, access Set the default profile (gear icon with dropdown), and choose Set as Default. Restart Outlook for this change to take effect.

Manage profiles or identities in Office for Mac 2011

Important: Office for Mac 2011 is no longer supported. Upgrade to Microsoft 365 to work anywhere from any device and continue to receive support.

If you use Outlook in more than one capacity, such as for your personal life and for work, Outlook can be set up to handle these different capacities by using identities. An identity is associated with and stores a set of e-mail messages, contacts, tasks, calendars, account settings, Scrapbook clips, and more. To manage identities, you must use the Microsoft Database Utility, which is installed as part of your Office installation. With this utility, you perform tasks such as creating a new identity, setting the default identity, and rebuilding an identity. When you open an Office application, it always uses the default identity.

Note: In Outlook 2011 for Mac, profiles were called identities.

Add, change, or delete a profile

Open the Microsoft Database Utility.

The default location is in /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office/.

Tip: You can also open the Database Utility if you close Outlook, hold down the OPTION key, and then click the Outlook icon in the Dock.

Do ONE of the following:

Create a new identity – Click plus (+) sign, and then type a name for the new identity.

Rename an identity – Double-click the identity, and then type a new name for the identity.

Delete an identity – Click the identity that you want to remove, and then click Delete (MINUS ICON).

Notes:

The data for each identity is stored in a separate folder in /Users/ username/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities/.

schedules only run for the default identity.

For a list of problems that may indicate that the database of an identity database is damaged, see About the Office database

Add an email account to Outlook

Most email accounts, including Microsoft 365, Exchange server accounts, Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, Live.com and Google accounts can be set up in a few quick steps.

Select Outlook > Preferences > Account

Click the plus (+) sign > New Account.

Type your email address > Continue.

Type your password > Add Account. (Your screen might look different from this one depending on the account you’re adding.)