How can I get back my local folders and contents when switching back to Legacy Outlook for Mac.

Gary Bryant 25 Reputation points
2025-11-23T07:20:46.72+00:00

I decided to switch back to Legacy Outlook for Mac but the emails in folders on my computer are no longer visible. How do retrieve them to add them back into Legacy outlook?

I think I may have deleted the legacy content when I originally switched.

I've tried a few things:

Archived the emails in new outlook, but there is no archive folder in legacy outlook On My Computer.

The export option on the file menu remains greyed out so there appears to be no way to save the folders to my hard drive and import them later.

Outlook | MacOS | New Outlook for Mac | For home

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Romin_007 300 Reputation points
2025-11-23T09:06:02.3633333+00:00

If your old “On My Computer” emails disappeared after switching back to Legacy Outlook, it’s because the old Outlook profile was removed. Those emails only live in that local database.

You can get them back only if the old database still exists on your Mac.

Check this folder:

~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/

If you see your old Main Profile there, Legacy Outlook can load your emails again. If that folder is gone or was deleted when you switched → the local emails are permanently lost. New Outlook can’t export them, which is why the export button is greyed out.

So your recovery depends entirely on whether that old profile folder still exists.

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  1. Francisco Montilla 30,710 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-11-23T08:46:36.68+00:00

    Hi Gary,

    This is usually one of two things in Legacy Outlook for Mac. Either you are not opening the old Legacy profile, or the On My Computer area is hidden.

    First make sure you are actually in Legacy Outlook. Turn off the New Outlook toggle at the top right and let Outlook relaunch.

    Close Outlook completely. Open Outlook Profile Manager to point Outlook at your old local data. In Finder open Applications. Control click Microsoft Outlook, choose Show Package Contents, open Contents, then SharedSupport, then open Outlook Profile Manager. Look for a profile named Main Profile or any older profile with a larger size and recent modified date. Select it, click Set the default, then close Profile Manager and start Outlook again.

    In Legacy Outlook open Outlook menu > Preferences > General and uncheck Hide On My Computer folders. Return to the sidebar and look for the On My Computer section. If your local folders were still present in that profile, they will reappear now. Once you see them, create a safety backup right away using File > Export and save an .olm file.

    A quick note on what you saw earlier:

    In New Outlook, Archive moves mail to the server's Archive folder, not to On My Computer, and Export can be unavailable, which is why it looked greyed out.

    If after selecting the older profile and unhiding On My Computer you still do not see the folders, tell me whether you have a Time Machine backup. I will give you the exact restore steps to bring back the old Legacy profile from backup.

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    2 people found this answer helpful.