The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on March 9, 2023.
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New Outlook for Mac: Free
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that Outlook for Mac is now a free app. Mac users can download it from the Mac app store or direct from Microsoft at Microsoft Outlook for Mac | Microsoft 365
While it is free, it has some limitations, the following are the differences I've found so far between the licensed version and the download from Microsoft. I'm sure there are more.
- The free version is New Outlook only. You cannot switch to the legacy version of Outlook for Mac.
- Some features do not work, such as Email Templates. You can save a messages as a template but the File > New > From Email Template menu is missing and opening the template from the file system opens it as a received message, not in the compose message window.
- While you can enable the Insider builds (in the auto updates dialog), you won't get all of the new features. For example, while the free version has On My Computer folders enabled, you cannot import into the On My Computer folders, which is possible in the licensed version.
If you have a Microsoft 365 license and add that email account to the free Outlook, it will be licensed. Most of the missing features will be enabled in Outlook, including the ability to switch to legacy Outlook.
Microsoft's announcement: Outlook Mac for All - Microsoft Community Hub
Microsoft's article on the New Outlook for Mac features
Drafts Date: None
Users will often ask why their draft messages don't have a date, or why some drafts have a date and some say "None".
Drafts created on the computer will show none for the date, because they haven't synced to the server (or because you are looking at the locally cached copy). Drafts created on other computers, in other profiles, or when using a different data file, will show a date when they sync down to Outlook.
If you have a mix of drafts with a date and None, it can be difficult to find the draft.
The solution: remove the Sent Date field and add the Created or Modified date in its place then sort by that field.
While in the Drafts folder:
- Click on view tab > View Settings to open the View Settings dialog.
- Click on Columns button.
- Select Date / Time fields in the Select available columns from menu.
- Select Modified then click Add.
- Move it up or down so it's beside Sent.
- Select Sent and remove it.
To avoid accidently resetting the view, on the Change View menu, choose Save Current View As a New View... and save the view using a new name. Apply the new View to the Drafts folder.
OneDrive & Outlook.com Quotas
A few months ago, Microsoft announced that changes in how the mailbox and file storage were calculated would be coming to OneDrive and Outlook.com.
After February 1, 2023, Microsoft would start including Outlook.com attachments data and OneDrive data in cloud storage quota. If you have a lot of email attachments or embedded images, the attachments would eat into your OneDrive storage space.
This change reduces how much cloud storage you have available in OneDrive, and if you hit the cloud storage quota, you will not be able to send and receive emails in Outlook.com
It's generally not a problem for Microsoft 365 subscribers with 1TB OneDrive and 50 GB mailbox, but it is proving to be a major problem for a lot of free accounts.
One would expect that if the attachments are counted in OneDrive storage, they would not be counted in your mailbox size, but it appears they are counted in both.
It would definitely be better (and a lot less confusing) if Microsoft combined mailbox storage with OneDrive and you could use the resulting 20GB any way you want. Google and Yahoo do this, its time Microsoft does the same.
If your account hits the limit, you either need to delete messages with large attachments, archive them using Outlook desktop software or purchase a subscription.
The new Microsoft 365 Basic has 50 GB mailbox and 100 GB OneDrive, for $20 US per years. Oh, and no ads in Outlook on the web. (It does not include Office desktop software but has the premium versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint online.)
Cloud Storage Pricing and Plans
The original announcement is here: Changes to Microsoft 365 email features and storage
New & Updated Microsoft 365 & Exchange Server Support Articles
New & Updated Outlook Support Articles
"Blocked on this device by your administrator" error in Outlook for iOS or Android - Microsoft Support
Resolves the "Blocked on this device by your administrator" error message in Outlook for iOS or Outlook for Android.
Outlook unexpectedly opens a browser window if OWA is disabled
Problems syncing shared calendars when enabling "Can view title and location" permissions
Outlook errors “Cannot send this item.” replying to an email
Known issues with Outlook Desktop Shared Calendar Improvements
Other Resources
Fix the Outlook Folder Type after Exporting an IMAP Account
Now with a PowerShell script to change the folder type.
How to Hide or Delete Outlook's Default Folders
Now includes a PowerShell script to show or hide folders.
Change Appointment Reminder Sounds
Did you ever wonder if you could assign different reminders to different types of Microsoft Outlook appointments? Yes, you can! You can also change the reminder sound for tasks and flags.
Change Password or Pin Complexity after removing from Intune
After my account and computer was removed from Intune policies and the account was removed from Windows Settings > Accounts > Access work or school, I wanted to revert to a simple 4-digit password but could not revert to a simple pin code.