The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on January 16, 2025.
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Today's Highlights »
- Grammarly: Outlook message list ‘jumps around’
- Moving Email Accounts to a New Computer
- Legacy Outlook for Mac Support Ending Oct 2025
- Smart Lookup: Retired
Grammarly: Outlook message list ‘jumps around’
A client has complained for weeks that when he selected a message, the mouse would jump to a new message farther down the list. When switching folders, the last selected message was never remembered, instead a random message in the middle of the message list would be selected.
When it first started, it was an occasional nuisance and never misbehaved when I’d look at it in Zoom, until recently when it started acting up constantly and made Outlook unusable.
We tried all the common fixes: restart Outlook, install updates for Office and Windows, try a different keyboard and mouse, reset the views using the cleanviews switch. He used an IMAP account, so we tried renaming the old data file. No change.
I looked over the list of installed apps in Windows Settings. The only app that interacted with Outlook was Grammarly for Windows. The user uninstalled it and Outlook works properly again.
It turns out to be a problem with the new version of Grammarly. When Grammarly has problems opening the Outlook message, Grammarly fails and skips to a different (random) message in the message list.
Moving Email Accounts to a New Computer
Did you get a new computer and need to move the accounts and PST files?
Moving accounts is easy, as long as you know your passwords. Enter the email address in the account setup dialog and enter your password when asked. This will add the account as IMAP by default (if it is not Outlook.com or Microsoft business account).
You should add the accounts within Outlook, either when you first start Outlook or from the File > Add account menu after the profile is set up. Don’t use Control Panel > Mail as it does not support oAuth2 and you won’t be able to add Outlook.com, Microsoft 365 Work or School accounts, Gmail, and Yahoo using the Control Panel.
If you want to add an account as POP instead of IMAP, you need to click the Advanced options link under the address field and choose manual setup then select POP3 on the next screen. In many cases, Outlook will find the correct server names and you’ll only need to enter your password, if not, you'll need to enter the server information.
Note: if you use IMAP and are using calendar and contacts (and tasks) folders named “(This computer only)" on the old computer, you’ll need to export those folders to either a CSV or PST and import them into the IMAP account on the new computer.
iCloud email and AOL require app passwords to add the account to Outlook, not your real password. Yahoo and Gmail require app passwords if you are adding the account as POP3.
If you use an archive PST or use a PST for calendar and contacts, you can copy the PST file from the old computer and open it in Outlook. If you have a POP account that uses the PST, set it as the delivery location for the account. In most cases, Outlook will not redownload old mail still on the server if you reuse the PST.
IMAP and outlook.com data files do not need to be moved to the new computer, the mail on the server will sync down, and for outlook.com, calendar and contacts will also sync.
Legacy Outlook for Mac Support Ending Oct 2025
The legacy version of Outlook for Mac will stop working with Microsoft accounts or Microsoft 365 Work of School accounts as of October 2025. Users will need to switch to the new Outlook for Mac or use another email app, such as eM client or Thunderbird.
While the new Outlook for Mac is missing features that are in Legacy Outlook, it is more secure when connecting to Outlook.com and Microsoft 365 mailboxes.
One reason many users didn’t switch was because they could not move the On My Computer folders from legacy to new Outlook but Microsoft added the ability to import the On My Computer folders months ago. Outlook should ask if you want to import them when switch to new Outlook, but if not, you can do it manually from the File menu.
Note that Legacy Outlook is only available in office subscriptions. It is not included in the single purchase Office suites or in the free Outlook available in the Apple store.
More information: End of support for legacy Outlook for Mac
Smart Lookup: Retired
The “smart lookup” feature in Outlook and Word was retired January 1. With smart lookup, you could right click on a word to search for the definition or more information about the word. While you can still get synonyms (and view a thesaurus), definitions and more information are no longer available.
The Smart lookup search wasn’t a feature I used often, but it was handy when I needed it. It was easier to use than copy and pasting into a browser to search.
More information: Get insights into what you're working on with Smart Lookup
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