I'm getting a message in New Outlook that says ""Delete copy of migrated data from Legacy Outlook to free up space."

Adding to this thread.

I was able to migrate all my "On My Computer" folders from Legacy Outlook to New Outlook. For several reasons, including a couple that others have mentioned on this thread, I regret having switched to New Outlook. So, please take the following a words of caution.

• I found the search capability in Legacy Outlook to be quite good and came to rely on it heavily. The search capability in New Outlook I find to be lacking as it simply does not find all emails matching the search criteria. I find myself doing much more detective work, trying to take the search results that I am given, narrow down the time window around a conversation and then scroll through emails from the same time period to find the exact email I am seeking.
• Scrolling through large email folders is 'klunky' in New Outlook. One must scroll downward to view the earliest UI-cached email and then continue to scroll downward to cause New Outlook to refresh older emails into the UI cache. I can understand why this was probably done, and it's not a showstopper. But the user experience is annoying. Something that I think should be fixed: if one tries to sort email from earliest to latest, New Outlook only shows the earliest email in its UI cache, not the actual earliest email in the folder.
• I was able to migrate my 'On My Computer' folder to New Outlook. The operation was a nail-biter, taking many hours to succeed and making me think that bad things were happening. But it did work. For reference, I have 12 years' worth of old email at a rate of about 100-300 emails per day. (Only about 15-20% of these emails to I read. The rest - mailing lists, support ticket threads, etc. - I archive for the purpose of searching for information if I need it. With Legacy Outlook, this approach to managing information conveyed in email worked great. With New Outlook, as noted above, it no longer works as well, but I find it manageable.)
• Unless I'm missing something, new Outlook still appears not allow one to create Rules that allow incoming email to be moved to 'On My Computer' folders. Rules only allow email to be moved to other online folders. Moreover, the new Rules interface seems to be klunkier than it was in Legacy Outlook. Whenever I want to add or update a Rule in New Outlook I find that the existing Rules UI loads very slowly. Moreover, I'm not convinced it applies properly the Rules I specify. I never had this concern with Legacy Outlook.
• Finally, I have tried repeatedly to "Delete copy of migrated data from Legacy Outlook." This process seems to run for several hours, eventually consuming all memory on my Mac (an MBA with 24GB) and crashing the system. In my most recent attempt, I quit all other applications, so nothing else would interfere. No luck. So for now, I just ignore the prompt. I'd love to know whether anyone has had success.

joe

LK Hill: I have the same question; adding on to your query.

Sherry:

I use Microsoft Outlook for Mac v16.84.2 (24042814) with a 365 subscription.

It is not clear how the data in New Outlook is being handled. I don't see anything at all in the folders named "On My Computer". Plus all my New Outlook folders show inconsistent email counts while hovering on individual folders and sub-folders. I see an option for "sync" while right clicking on each folder; awaiting results if I get access to all my 15 years of emails. I am sure there are people like me who rely on Outlook for a certain type of "file management" in addition to local filing folders by virtue of file attachments. Clubbed with sender info and time stamp, it becomes a more powerful resource than just filing of files in local folders.

In New Outlook, I don't see any option to Export, this is scary. What's the best way to export for backup purposes. MacOS Time Machine is not an ideal solution but that is a separate discussion.

Is the migration file an exact duplicate that can be ignored and deleted? (Not even sure where the migration files are in the first place). But like I said, I don't see anything in "On My Computer" folder.

Thanks,

PK

Based on Sherry's input yesterday, I pulled the trigger on the "Delete old Outlook data" message, and now I don't see a thing in any of the folders in the "On My Computer" section of Outlook, contrary to what the Microsoft message promised...

Joe: I agree with you about all these shortcomings of New Outlook. I do hope Sherry will get back to all the users who have expressed dismay about New Outlook.

I reluctantly switched to New Outlook because Outlook kept beating me up if I didn't. The new interface for me as a mac user is a mess.

The pop-up message that LK Hill queried is genuine as Sherry says, but it's multiply ambiguous. For a start it orders you to 'delete' the migrated data and has a button for 'delete'. But it's not clear whether this means click 'delete' to delete the migrated data or to delete the pop-up message. And if it's to delete the migrated data, there's no certainty that your data will still be there when the process ends.

I spent 90 minutes in fruitless discussion with a MS technician today about this very issue. He referred to this thread but wrongly thought everything had been sorted by Sherry. It hasn't. After multiple restarts and much messing about, the same old stupid message returned and is staring me in the face right now.

I'm not going to risk deleting the migrated data until MS write a comprehensible pop-up message explaining exactly what to do, how to do it, and what the result will be.

New Outlook runs slow for me and this may be because I haven't deleted the migrated data. But without certainty, I can't risk it.

BTW, I'd also like to know how to back up a copy of Outlook data using Time MachineDoes Time Machine actually do this?

Wake up, please, Microsoft, and tackle this problem about migrated data for Mac users and others. SHERRY - please answer this thread in detail - thanks.

Based on Sherry's input yesterday, I pulled the trigger on the "Delete old Outlook data" message, and now I don't see a thing in any of the folders in the "On My Computer" section of Outlook, contrary to what the Microsoft message promised...

After "migration" there is NOTHING in On My Computer...not even the email I had saved there before! Where did it go? How can I get it back? I have Time Machine backups.