Outlook for Windows: How to Enable or Disable Offline Mode

This article explains enabling or disabling offline mode in Outlook for Windows.

The new Outlook app in Windows 11 is a redesigned and updated version of the popular email and calendar management software. It has a modern user interface, and new features make it easier to stay on top of your emails and appointments.

The app has many features, including support for sharing a calendar, changing language, date, and time format, public a calendar, showing week numbers in Outlook calendar, deleting your search history, exporting your search history, adding or removing events from emails to your Calendar, switching to dark mode, link preview, sound alerts for notifications, turn on or off notifications when Outlook is closed, turn on or off incoming email alert sounds, customizing Calendar alerts, sharing your work hours and location, and more.

In Outlook you can make Outlook work online or offline with your mail server. By enabling offline access, you can use the new Outlook for Windows even when you’re not connected to the internet.

When turned on, the new Outlook for Windows saves a copy of your emails, calendar events, and people to your device, providing access to these items when you’re offline and improved performance when you’re online. 

Turn on or off Offline mode in Outlook for Windows

As mentioned, the new Outlook for Windows lets you use offline mode to complete everyday tasks when you’re not connected to the internet.

Here’s how to do it.

First, open the Outlook app by clicking on its icon in the Start menu or searching for it in the taskbar search box.

Once Outlook is open, click on the Settings gear icon at the top right of the menu bar.

Select General from the left menu in the Settings pane, and click Offline on the side panel.

Then, toggle the button next to “Enable offline email, calendar, and people” to the On or Off position to enable or disable this feature.

Once enabled, you can choose the folders to save locally as well as the number of days of emails to save on your local computer.

When you’re done, click the Save button.

What can you do when offline? 

Most actions you perform online are also available when you’re offline. These include, but aren’t limited to:

Read, manage, and view Outlook items: 

• Read emails
• Create and save new email drafts 
• Send new messages to Outbox 
• Rename folders 
• View your calendars and events 
• View your people (previously contacts)  

Perform actions on emails: 

• Archive
• Categorize
• Delete
• Flag / Unflag Ignore
• Mark as Read / Unread
• Move to Focused / Other
• Move to folder
• Pin
• Report Junk / Not Junk
• Report Phishing
• Snooze

View and update your settings: 

• About Outlook
• Automatic replies
• Categories
• Email accounts
• People view

If you try to do something that’s not available offline, you’ll get an error message, or the changes you made will revert to what was previously saved.

That should do it!

Frequently Asked Questions