Volume 31 Issue 18

Issue Date: September 17, 2026 « Previous Issue | Next Issue »

The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on September 17, 2026.

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Today's Highlights »

Moving from a Business or Education Account to a Personal Account
Copilot Mail Summaries
Managing Outlook Rules
Outlook Theme for New Outlook Update

Moving from a Business or Education Account to a Personal Account

A user wanted to know how to transfer email, OneDrive files, and OneNote notebooks from a business or education account to a personal account.

The process is straightforward but may take time because you must export your email and download your OneDrive and OneNote content.

Complete these steps before the account is closed, using the desktop apps. If the account has already been closed, you may still recover most content if email is cached in classic Outlook, all OneDrive files are stored locally, and all OneNote notebooks are fully synced, provided the administrator only removed the account and did not erase data from the computer.

Export your email to a PST file. If you do not have classic Outlook, sync the mailbox with eM Client and export it there. With an active Microsoft Office subscription, you can also export the mailbox from new Outlook. Then add your personal account to the mail app and import the exported mail. Classic Outlook works best, but new Outlook and eM Client also support importing mail.

Set the OneDrive app to keep all files on the computer, then move or drag them to your personal OneDrive folder. If you do not use personal OneDrive, move the files to a local folder instead.

In the OneNote desktop app, confirm that all notebooks are fully synced, then export them from File > Export. Open each exported notebook and, under File > Info, use the Settings menu to sync it with OneNote.com.

Copilot Mail Summaries

I’m not a big fan of AI, but I unlike a lot of users, I like Copilot summaries in the new Outlook. The “Morning Briefing” highlights messages that arrived that day, helping me spot important emails among ads and bulk mail. I rarely use the “Wrap Up Your Day” summary, even though it often catches messages I missed, so I should use it more often.

Although it’s less prominent in classic Outlook, Copilot can identify important messages and those that may require an urgent reply.

Managing Outlook Rules

A user asked whether one rule could sort messages from the same sender into different folders based on the subject line.

All versions of Outlook can handle this with two rules: “Move messages from ABC with subject 123 to Folder 123,” and “Move messages from ABC with subject 456 to Folder 456.”

A single rule cannot move messages to two different folders unless you use classic Outlook with a macro. To do that, enable the “Run a Script” option and include every action in the rule. The rule would read: “Message from ABC, run a script.”

Using two rules is simpler and works in classic Outlook, new Outlook for Windows or Mac, and Outlook on the web. If you prefer a macro, see Outlook's Rules and Alerts: Run a Script. I don't have a sample for this exact scenario, but the macro could use an array or a Select Case statement to match each subject to its folder.

Outlook Theme for New Outlook Update

Users in the targeted release channel should have the option to enable the classic Outlook theme now, and everyone else should have the option to use it with 2 - 3 weeks.

I recommend checking it out. Microsoft is going to fix the folder list font, which is the only real negative in the theme. My main reason for using it is the better-looking icons.