How to permanently prevent Outlook for Mac from switching to the new GUI?

My biggest panic about the eventual demise of Legacy Outlook is that I have tens of thousands of emails in file folders for tons of different projects -- not to mention personal emails -- that I've saved. Yes, of course, some of that could go and I do periodically purge my stored email. But my entire professional history is saved and there are lots of times when I need to go back into my email to find something, the name of a person, or reference a conversation or issue that is preserved in this way. In New Outlook, those saved folders are gone. They are not on my desktop and I have no way to access nearly 30 years of personal and professional history.

This would be like someone walking into my house and burning my journals, notebooks, files, photos, and letters. How on earth is this okay?

I am not even sure how I could preserve this data in a way that I could access it. So, I'm just worrying and waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Usually when I get a forced and unwanted update, I just ignore it for as long as possible. Eventually, I have to log out of my computer and then I log back on and hope for the best. I just cannot imagine another company (other than Apple) where this would be considered acceptable practice.

Any suggestions or solutions??

Hi Alexandra,
I feel exactly as you do, and it terrifies me.
There is a "fix" further up the thread inputting code into Terminal which disables the update prompt and prevent an automatic update. I did it a while ago and it seems to work for now.
Good luck!

That's exactly how I feel but it would be a pain having to export emails out of outlook and import to apple mail 😞

I agree fully with the comment here and many of the other comments so far.

Three month ago I switched to new outlook thinking that upgrades are always good ... How huge a mistake that was.

It took a a lot of work, search and efforts to communicate with MS but receiving no replies except to check threads like this, only finally to learn how to switch back. Now the I am afraid to close the app as it says it will restart with New Outlook afterwards.

With 8 main group folders and approx 150 subfolders build over 12+ years (lost my outlook history from before 2011 unfortunately) it is an absolute requirement to be able to import these folders with all mails and attachments into a new mail system.

If New Outlook can't tackle this then I have to look for another option. And it is not enough to have them as "On my Computer" set of files because New Outlook did not allow me to file new emails into the folders that was on my computer drive, nor to import them all into the new online location.

So am usually happy every time there is an update - but this one is really a disaster.

Thank you so much!!!! I was afraid in a way to do it, but you gave me confidence and it WORKED! When I reopened Outlook it still was the good version and there no longer is a tab at the top or toggle for the new outlook.

YAY! A great way to start the weekend. Thank you for the time you took to reply.

I just wonder how long we can all use the legacy version before it stops working and how we can prepare for this with our folders etc. ... In the meantime I am so relieved to be able to still have it working.

Best regards,

K

Great - I'm glad that it worked for you. I'm guessing eventually they will stop supporting the legacy version, but hopefully it won't be for a while. I don't mind the interface changes, but loss of basic functions in the new version will keep me from switching until forced. Unfortunately, we use Outlook at work so I won't be able to avoid it.

It would be nice if the person from Microsoft who originally responded to this thread would continue to provide feedback, but I think they only answer the initial question and then drop out.

@Vaidya Darpan MSFT - are you still reading this thread?