Export your emails from Outlook for Mac

Making the archive in Outlook for Mac

Outlook for Mac exports to its own archive format, .olm. The menus have moved between versions, so look for these:

1. In Outlook for Mac, open Tools > Export. In some versions it’s under File > Export.
2. Choose what to include: mail, contacts, calendar, tasks and notes, or only some categories.
3. Pick where to save the file. Outlook writes one .olm file, which can take a long time for a big mailbox.

If you use the new Outlook for Mac and can’t find Export, check Microsoft’s current help for your version. Switching back to the classic (“legacy”) Outlook from the Outlook menu has been the way to reach Export in some releases.

What ends up in it

An .olm holds the folders you chose, every message in them with its attachments, and your contacts and calendars if you included them. Messages in accounts that sync with a server (Microsoft 365, Exchange, Outlook.com, IMAP) are only included if Outlook had downloaded them. Large attachments that were never opened on the Mac are sometimes missing; the viewer here tells you when a message lists an attachment that isn’t in the archive.

Reading it on any computer

Only Outlook for Mac imports .olm files. To read one somewhere else, on a Windows PC, a Linux machine, a Chromebook or a Mac without Outlook, drop it on this page. Folders and messages are listed, and every message opens with its attachments. The archive stays on your computer. More about the viewer.

Turning it into files other programs read

With the £6 unlock, the page exports the archive, or one folder of it:

• .mbox, one file per folder. Apple Mail imports these with File > Import Mailboxes, Thunderbird with the ImportExportTools NG add-on, and most other mail programs have an mbox import.
• .eml, one file per message, in the same folders. Nearly every mail program opens these, and they’re handy for keeping records or handing over specific messages.
• PDF, one per message with its attachments beside it, for printing or filing.
• Contacts as vCard files and an Outlook-style CSV, and the calendar as an .ics file.

Moving to Outlook for Windows takes an extra step, because it doesn’t import .mbox: the honest routes from .olm to Outlook for Windows.

Leaving Outlook altogether

If you’re moving to Apple Mail, Thunderbird or another program, the .mbox export is the one to use: it keeps the folder structure, dates, senders and attachments, and imports in one go.