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October 2026  ·  Folder Suggest

How to Set Up Out of Office in Outlook (and Clear the Pile When You’re Back)

Outlook calls it Automatic Replies, and every version of Outlook puts it somewhere different. Here is where to find it in each one, how to limit it to your dates and decide who gets it, what to do if your account doesn’t have it, a few messages you can copy, and a plan for the inbox that is waiting when you get back.

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In short: in the new Outlook for Windows, select View > View settings > Accounts > Automatic Replies, turn the toggle on and select Save. In classic Outlook, select File > Automatic Replies > Send automatic replies. In Outlook on the web and Outlook.com, select Settings > Account > Automatic replies. On a Mac, Tools > Automatic Replies. On a phone, Settings, tap your account, then Automatic Replies. Tick Send replies only during a time period so the replies stop by themselves. This works for Microsoft 365, Exchange and Outlook.com accounts; for Gmail, Yahoo and other IMAP or POP accounts, classic Outlook can reply with a rule and a template instead, but only while Outlook is running.

Before You Start: Which Kind of Account You Have

Whether you have Automatic Replies depends on the type of email account, not on the version of Outlook. Microsoft’s article How to set up out of office automatic replies in Outlook says Gmail, Yahoo and other POP or IMAP accounts don’t support it; its Mac and mobile versions name the accounts that do:

• Microsoft 365 (work or school), Exchange and Outlook.com accounts have Automatic Replies. Everything in the next sections applies.
• Gmail, Yahoo and other POP or IMAP accounts added to Outlook don’t support it. In classic Outlook for Windows you can get a similar result with a rule; see the rule-and-template method below. The webmail of those services usually has its own vacation reply, which is the better place to set it.

Microsoft also says an automatic reply goes out once to each person who writes to you while you’re away, so someone who sends you five emails gets one reply.

New Outlook for Windows

1. On the View tab, select View settings.
2. Select Accounts > Automatic Replies.
3. Turn on the Automatic replies toggle.
4. To limit it to your absence, select Send replies only during a time period and enter the start and end times.
5. Type your message. With a work or school account you also get Send replies outside your organization, and you can select Send replies only to contacts.
6. Select Save.

If these steps don’t match your screen, you are probably in classic Outlook, covered next.

Classic Outlook for Windows

Select File first. If you see an Automatic Replies button, your account supports the feature:

1. Select File > Automatic Replies.
2. In the Automatic Replies box, select Send automatic replies.
3. Optionally tick Only send during this time range and set the start and end. The replies then turn off at the end time; without it you turn them off yourself.
4. Type your message. With a work or school account there are two tabs, Inside My Organization and Outside My Organization, each with its own message.
5. Select OK.

While automatic replies are on, classic Outlook shows a bar under the ribbon saying so. Select Turn off there to stop them.

No Automatic Replies Button? Use a Rule and a Template

If File shows no Automatic Replies button, the account is most likely POP or IMAP. Microsoft’s workaround, in Use rules to create an out of office message, has two parts. First save your message as a template:

1. Create a new email and write the subject and text of your out-of-office message.
2. Select File > Save As.
3. Name it, and under Save as type choose Outlook Template (*.oft). Select Save.

Then create a rule that replies with it:

1. Select File > Manage Rules & Alerts, then New Rule on the E-mail Rules tab.
2. Under Start from a blank rule, select Apply rule on messages I receive and Next.
3. To answer every email, leave the conditions empty, select Next, and Yes when Outlook asks whether the rule should apply to every message.
4. Under Step 1: Select action(s), tick reply using a specific template.
5. Under Step 2, select the underlined a specific template, set Look In to User Templates in File System, pick your template and select Open.
6. Add any exceptions, give the rule a name such as “Out of office”, and select Finish. Untick Turn on this rule if you set it up days in advance, and tick it in Manage Rules & Alerts on the day you leave.

Two differences from real Automatic Replies matter. The rule runs only while classic Outlook is open on your computer, so the computer has to stay on and connected while you’re away. And it has no end date: turn the rule off yourself when you’re back.

Outlook on the Web and Outlook.com

1. Select Settings (the gear at the top right), then Account > Automatic replies.
2. Turn on the Automatic replies toggle.
3. Tick Send replies only during a time period and enter the start and end. Without a time period the reply stays on until you switch the toggle off.
4. Type your message in the box at the bottom. The formatting bar above it changes font and colour.
5. With a work or school account, tick Send replies outside your organization if external senders should get a reply.
6. Select Save.

Microsoft’s article for Outlook on the web also lists three calendar options on the same page: Block my calendar for this period, Automatically decline new invitations for events that occur during this period, and Decline and cancel my meetings during this period. The first one saves you creating a separate out-of-office event.

Outlook for Mac

Per Microsoft’s Mac article, this works for Exchange, Microsoft 365, Outlook.com and Hotmail accounts, not for Gmail, Yahoo or other POP and IMAP accounts.

1. In the navigation pane, select Mail.
2. Select the Tools menu, then Automatic Replies.
3. Choose the account in the drop-down and turn on the toggle next to Send Automatic Replies.
4. Write the reply under Message for inside your organization.
5. For dates, turn on Send replies during a specific time period and set the start and end.
6. For people outside your organization (if your Exchange administrator allows it), tick Message for outside your organization, choose Send only to my contacts or Send to everyone, and write that message.
7. Close the Automatic Replies window.

In legacy Outlook for Mac the same menu opens a dialog with Send automatic replies for account, Send replies only during this time period and Send replies outside my organization, closed with OK. Microsoft ends support for legacy Outlook for Mac in October 2026.

iPhone and Android

In Outlook for iOS and Android, Microsoft’s mobile article covers Microsoft 365, Exchange and Outlook.com accounts:

1. Tap Settings, tap your account, tap Automatic Replies, and turn the switch on.
2. Turn on Reply during a time period and set the start and end time.
3. Optionally turn on Block my calendar to add an out-of-office event, or use Clear my calendar to cancel or decline the meetings in that period.
4. Choose whether to reply to everyone or only to your organization, and write separate messages if you like.
5. Tap Save.

That makes the phone the quickest fix if you only remember on the way to the airport.

Dates, and People Inside vs Outside Your Organization

Two settings decide how much trouble an out-of-office reply can cause.

• Always set an end date. With a time period, the replies switch themselves off when it ends. Without one, they keep going until you remember, and colleagues will be told you’re away for days after you’re back.
• Be careful with replies outside your organization. Microsoft warns that sending replies to everyone outside your organization means replying to every email, including newsletters, advertisements and potentially junk email, which tells the sender your address is read. Its recommendation is to send outside replies to your contacts only.

Inside your organization you can say more: who is covering, which projects are paused, when you’re back. Outside it, keep the message short and generic. A stranger doesn’t need to know where you are or for how long.

Rules While You’re Away: Forwarding and Moving Mail

A reply tells people you’re gone; a rule decides what happens to their mail. Two are common before a holiday:

• Move mail from specific senders into a folder, so notifications, newsletters or one noisy system don’t bury the mail you’ll need first when you’re back.
• Forward mail from a client or about a project to the colleague who is covering.

In the new Outlook, Outlook on the web and Outlook.com, rules are under Settings > Mail > Rules > Add rule: give the rule a name, add a condition (such as who it is from), add an action such as Forward to, Redirect to or a move to a folder, and select Save. In classic Outlook they are under File > Manage Rules & Alerts. Microsoft’s forwarding article explains the difference: a forwarded message appears to come from you, and replies go back to you; a redirected one keeps the original sender, so your colleague can reply directly.

Classic Outlook with a Microsoft 365 or Exchange account also has a Rules button at the bottom of the Automatic Replies box. Rules created there run only while automatic replies are on, which makes them handy for holiday-only forwarding that switches off with the reply.

A caution about forwarding outside the company. Many Microsoft 365 organizations block automatic forwarding to external addresses. Microsoft changed its default in 2021 so that it is off for new organizations and for existing ones that weren’t already relying on it, and when it is blocked the sender gets a bounce reading “5.7.520 Access denied, Your organization does not allow external forwarding.” Even where it works, forwarding all your work mail to a personal address can breach your company’s rules and puts client data somewhere it shouldn’t be. Forward inside the organization only, to a colleague or a shared team address, and remember to turn the rule off when you’re back.

Out-of-Office Message Templates

Replace the parts in brackets. The shorter the external version, the better. To keep a message like these for other occasions, save it as an Outlook template: email templates in Outlook shows how in each version.

Standard, for everyone

Holiday, not reading email

Inside your organization

Outside your organization, short

Travelling or at an event

Back From Holiday: A Plan for the Backlog

A week away can leave hundreds of emails. Reading them oldest to newest is the slowest way through, because half of them are settled by a later message. Work in this order instead:

1. Turn off the automatic reply and the holiday rules, if you didn’t give them an end date.
2. Sort by sender. In each Outlook the sort options are under Filter at the top of the message list. Newsletters, notifications and automated reports then sit together, so you can select a block and delete or archive it at once. Sweep in the new Outlook and on the web does the same for one sender, and can clear their future mail too. Archive, Sweep and Clean Up explains which to use.
3. Read by conversation. Grouped as conversations, a thread of twenty replies is one line, and the latest message usually tells you how it ended. Read that, not every step.
4. Answer what was sent to you directly. Mail where you are in the To line, or that mentions you by name, usually needs you. Mail you were only copied on usually doesn’t. If Focused Inbox is on, start with the Focused tab.
5. File what you need to keep into your folders, and archive the rest, so the inbox ends up holding only what still needs action.

The last step is the slow one after a long absence: a few hundred emails, each needing a decision about which client or project folder it belongs in. Folder Suggest is an Outlook add-in that suggests a folder for each email from the ones you already have, so you can file it with a click when the suggestion fits, one email or a whole list at a time. It has a free plan.

For setting up the folders themselves, see how to organize emails in Outlook.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do I turn on out of office in Outlook?
New Outlook: View > View settings > Accounts > Automatic Replies, turn the toggle on, Save. Classic Outlook: File > Automatic Replies > Send automatic replies, OK. Outlook on the web and Outlook.com: Settings > Account > Automatic replies, turn the toggle on, Save. Mac: Tools > Automatic Replies. iOS and Android: Settings, tap your account, Automatic Replies.

Why don’t I see Automatic Replies in Outlook?
Automatic Replies is available for Microsoft 365, Exchange and Outlook.com accounts. Gmail, Yahoo and other POP or IMAP accounts don’t support it. In classic Outlook for Windows you can use a rule that replies with a saved template instead, which works only while Outlook is running.

Does Outlook send the automatic reply to every email?
No. Microsoft says an automatic reply is sent once to each person who emails you while you’re away. With a work or school account you choose whether people outside your organization get a reply, and whether only your contacts get it.

How do I turn off out of office in Outlook?
If you set a time period, the replies stop at the end time on their own. Otherwise turn off the Automatic replies toggle where you turned it on. In classic Outlook, select Turn off in the bar under the ribbon.

Can I send a different message to people outside my organization?
Yes, with a work or school account. Classic Outlook has an Inside My Organization tab and an Outside My Organization tab, and Outlook for Mac and the mobile apps also let you write separate messages. Microsoft recommends sending outside replies to your contacts only.

What is the fastest way to clear my inbox after a holiday?
Sort the inbox by sender or view it by conversation, delete or archive the newsletters and notifications in bulk, read the threads that are now settled from their latest message, answer what was sent to you directly, and file what you need to keep into folders.

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Related reading: Outlook’s Archive, Sweep and Clean Up explained, Focused Inbox in Outlook, inbox zero in Outlook, and how to automatically file emails in Outlook. To let colleagues see when you’re away, see how to share your calendar in Outlook. To send all your mail to another address, see how to forward emails automatically in Outlook.