How to Move Settings From Classic Outlook to New Outlook

What settings transfer from classic Outlook to new Outlook?#

One rule explains almost every outcome when you transfer settings from classic Outlook to new Outlook: settings stored on the mailbox come with you, and settings stored on your PC do not. Classic Outlook keeps much of your setup in local files. New Outlook for Windows is a web-architected client, so it only sees what lives in the cloud mailbox.

That gives three buckets. Things that arrive on their own, things you rebuild by hand, and a short list with no equivalent at all — which is where a switch actually gets blocked. Your mail is not in any of them, because mail was never in the client: it lives on the Microsoft 365 or Exchange server, so you do not lose emails by switching.

So this is not a migration. It is a capture-then-rebuild exercise, and the order matters more than the effort. Doing it in the wrong order is what turns a Friday switch into a Monday morning problem.

What migrates automatically#

Everything below is stored on the mailbox rather than in the client, so it follows your account into new Outlook without you doing anything. Let the first sync finish before you decide something is missing from this group.

What you have to rebuild by hand#

This is the real work, and it is smaller than it looks — most people rebuild three or four things and find the rest was dead weight in classic too. Signatures are the row that causes the most argument, so here is the honest verdict: plan to rebuild. Some Microsoft 365 mailboxes use cloud-stored signatures that do appear in new Outlook, but a signature stored locally has nowhere to travel, and images and tracked links break even when the text arrives.

What has no equivalent at all#

These are not waiting-for-a-release gaps. They are consequences of new Outlook being a web client, and they are the only items that should change your decision about whether to switch at all.

Capture this before you flip the toggle#

Do this in classic Outlook while it is still the client you open every morning. It takes 20 to 40 minutes, and screenshots are fine — you are capturing intent, not data.

1. 1

   Photograph your rules

   File, Manage Rules and Alerts. Screenshot the list, then open each rule and screenshot its conditions. Note every rule marked as running on this computer only — those are the ones that will not follow you.

2. 2

   Save your signatures twice

   Copy the whole %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Signatures folder somewhere safe, and separately paste each signature into a document. The folder preserves the image files; the document gives you something to paste when the folder version will not render.

3. 3

   Screenshot every Quick Step, expanded

   Home, Quick Steps, then Manage Quick Steps. Open each one so its action list is visible. The action chain is the part nobody reconstructs from memory.

4. 4

   Write down your Search Folders and their criteria

   Right-click each Search Folder and choose Customize This Search Folder, then copy the criteria into your notes.

5. 5

   Record your conditional formatting rules

   View, View Settings, Conditional Formatting. Note each rule name, its condition and the colour. This is the setting people forget until mail stops being colour-coded.

6. 6

   Note delegates and permission levels

   File, Account Settings, Delegate Access, plus the permissions on any folder you shared individually. Capture who has what level on which folder — you will need this list in classic, not in new Outlook.

7. 7

   Inventory your add-ins

   File, Options, Add-ins. Screenshot the list including the type column. Anything listed as a COM add-in needs a web equivalent or it does not come with you.

8. 8

   Export anything that lives only in a local file

   PST archives, POP contacts, .oft templates. Export or copy them now, while the client that reads them is still your default.

Delegation is split across two clients#

This is the one that catches teams, and almost every guide written before 2026 gets it wrong. Delegation does not migrate as a unit — half of it works in new Outlook and half of it does not.

Calendar delegation works. You can grant someone access to your calendar from Settings, Calendar, Shared calendars, and a delegate can manage it from new Outlook. Mail-folder delegate permissions are the other half: as of July 2026 you still have to assign those from classic Outlook or Outlook on the web.

Using a mailbox someone has already delegated to you is fine in new Outlook. Granting that access is where you get stuck, which produces an ordering rule — grant every mail-folder permission you know you need before you switch, and keep classic installed for the times you have to change one.

The Friday-to-Monday order#

Capture, switch, then rebuild in this order. It is not arbitrary — each step removes whatever is most likely to stop you working on Monday.

1. 1

   Grant any outstanding delegate permissions in classic

   Anything you already know you need. This is the only item on the list that gets harder after you switch.

2. 2

   Do the capture pass

   The eight items above. Half an hour here is the reason the rest of this is quick.

3. 3

   Switch, then leave it alone to sync

   Use the toggle in the top-right corner. Give the initial sync time before concluding anything is missing.

4. 4

   Rebuild your signature first

   It is what you need in the first message you send. Set the default for new messages and replies per account, then send one test to yourself and check images and links.

5. 5

   Check your rules, then convert the client-only ones

   Settings, Mail, Rules. Confirm the server-side ones are listed and on, recreate the client-only ones where the actions exist, and delete the rest.

6. 6

   Set the layout once

   Reading pane position, message density, conversation grouping, default compose font. Five minutes here removes most of the week-one feeling that something is wrong.

7. 7

   Rebuild only the Quick Steps and Search Folders you actually used

   Two or three each, from your screenshots. Rebuilding all of them is how a one-hour job becomes an afternoon.

8. 8

   Install and pin your web add-ins

   Apps, Get Add-ins. Run one real task with each rather than checking that a pane opens.

9. 9

   Keep classic installed for two weeks

   The toggle goes both ways. Two weeks covers the monthly things — the report you send, the folder permission you change — that a Friday test never surfaces.

Which client can do what#

Settings advice goes wrong when it forgets to say which client it applies to. This is the July 2026 summary for the three Windows-facing clients. Outlook for Mac follows new Outlook's model rather than classic's, and legacy Outlook for Mac retires for Exchange Online accounts in October 2026.

When something did not come across#

Post-switch surprises fall into four patterns, and only the last is a real loss.

• It has not finished syncing. Categories, folders and shared mailboxes can lag the first sync — wait, then look again before rebuilding anything.
• It exists under a different name. Search Folders became saved searches, client-only rules became server-side rules, conditional formatting became categories applied by a rule.
• It was local, and local things do not travel. Signatures, views, the auto-complete list, .oft templates. Your capture pass is the source of truth now.
• It has no equivalent. COM add-ins, macros, custom forms, voting buttons, .rwz import. Toggle back, or keep classic installed for that one job.

Signatures fail in a specific way worth knowing: the text arrives and the logo shows as a broken box. That happens when the image was pasted from the classic version rather than inserted. Insert the image file directly instead, and check the result in a test message before you send anything external.

Where AI Emaily fits, and where it does not#

Disclosure first: we build AI Emaily, so read this section as an interested party talking about its own product.

To be direct: this is a Microsoft-to-Microsoft procedure and we do not automate it. AI Emaily does not migrate Outlook settings, and nothing outside Microsoft's own clients can move a COM add-in or a local signature file for you.

What we do is connect Outlook and Microsoft 365 accounts alongside Gmail and IMAP in one client — the setup walkthrough is at /docs/connect-outlook. Drafts come from a Personal Context you write yourself and client profiles you control, not from reading your archive, and in Copilot mode nothing sends without your approval, with undo and an audit trail on every action. Our limits, stated once: no COM add-ins, no VBA, and we are not a substitute for classic Outlook's local features.

The short version#

Mailbox settings travel; client settings do not. Capture your rules, signatures, Quick Steps, Search Folders, conditional formatting, delegates and add-in list in classic Outlook before you switch, and export anything living in a local PST while you still can.

Then switch, rebuild the signature first, fix the rules, set the layout, and leave the rest until you miss it. Grant mail-folder delegate permissions from classic before you go, keep classic installed for a fortnight, and re-check the settings that blocked you against Microsoft's comparison page each quarter.