Solved Relocate Outlook storage folder

Hello,

My C: partition is too small, I want Microsoft Outlook to put its mailbox data files elsewhere.

I cannot seem to be able to change this path, or even to set the default to be on the D: drive.

I found several tutorials on the internet but none of them seem to work. I am using the latest version of outlook as part of Microsoft 365.

Can you please help me ?

Your default Outlook 365 mail folder is in "C:\Users\admin\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook". It is an .ost file.

That said, I'm not sure whether you can move that folder or not as I've just left it where it is. However, you can create a .pst data file to hold whatever files and folders you want. You can even use it as a master data file as I do. The beauty of the .pst file is you can put it anywhere, even in OneDrive. For me, I keep it in my "Documents" folder, but I've got plenty of drive space so it's not an issue.

Thank you for your prompt reply!

I was able to do it using your description and learnt a lot! Also this article:
3 Effective ways to Change location of Outlook data file (OST and PST) - Info | Remo Software

was helpful too. I now understand the difference between OST and PST.
Actually PST files are the large ones (that contain mailbox data) and those needed to be moved. I could do this by creating the registry entry and then adding account manually from the old-fashioned 'manage accounts' menu.
It is important to point out that were I to add it with the new, neat and convenient wizard-like GUI, it would not work. It would simply put it to C: and would even tell me that "adding an exchange account had overwritten my storage location path"

So all in all, it is extremely painful, confusing and not user friendly to change mailbox path in Outlook. It is much more difficult than it was in previous versions, like XP Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail. Those were annoying as hell, too, but this one is beyond comprehension.

Also, off topic but I just observed that when an image isn't found, or not loaded, it displays the "red x on a sheet of paper" icon, which is reminiscent of Internet Explorer. Could it be possible, that, after all these years, Outlook is using Internet Explorer to render web content? That seems to be very bizarre as Internet Explorer is no longer supported and not the best at rendering anyway.

I believe I might soon migrate away to Thunderbird which is much more user friendly.

ish4d0w said:

Also, off topic but I just observed that when an image isn't found, or not loaded, it displays the "red x on a sheet of paper" icon, which is reminiscent of Internet Explorer. Could it be possible, that, after all these years, Outlook is using Internet Explorer to render web content? That seems to be very bizarre as Internet Explorer is no longer supported and not the best at rendering anyway.

Click to expand...

Have a look at your Trust Center settings in Options. You may have automatic download of pictures set to disabled.

Yes, that did the trick, thanks ! However it still deeply concerns me that now multiple signs are pointing to that Internet Explorer may be the embedded HTML rendering engine inside the email client...

ish4d0w said:

Yes, that did the trick, thanks ! However it still deeply concerns me that now multiple signs are pointing to that Internet Explorer may be the embedded HTML rendering engine inside the email client...

Click to expand...

IE is not present on W11. Instead there's an iexplore.exe that, if invoked, goes to Edge.