All key information related to email accounts used by a user is maintained in an Outlook profile. The two other primary components that are of most interest are the data files configured in the profile along with the sort order used to present contact data info in the Outlook AddressBook.
This article is primarily for those new to Outlook and those who never really paid attention to an Outlook profile unless a problem is encountered or are migrating Outlook from one machine to another. Even those experienced using Outlook have some misconceptions. The focus will be on 3 components of the profile
- Email Account info
- Data File info
- Outlook AddressBook
Accessing Outlook profile(s)
There are two ways to access Outlook profiles.
The first is from within Outlook itself but this method will only allow access the profile that is currently being used by Outlook as shown in the screenshot under the heading <Email Account Information>
- From within OL’2010 and later, from the OL menu –> File –> Account Settings
- From within OL’2007, from OL menu –> Tools –> Account Settings
The second method would be via the Control Panel <Mail> app which allows you to select which profile you want to look at or make changes to in addition to creating/copying a new profile via the following
- Show the email accounts associated with the default Outlook profile
- Shows the data files configured in the default Outlook profile
- Shows all profiles currently configured
Highlighting a specific profile and clicking on the <Properties> button leads to the following (only going to focus on the 3 tabs that are of the most interest/importance for most users).
One very important item to remember is to change the profile that Outlook will use the next time it’s opened. Frequently people forget to do that after creating a new profile which results in the old profile being used making it appear that the newly created profile doesn’t work.
Email Account information
The Account Settings <Email> tab will show all current email accounts for that specific profile along with what protocol is in use for a given email account (i.e. POP3, Imap, Exchange etc) – for more protocol background info see Understanding Email Protocols (POP, Imap, MAPI, EAS, Exchange
- shows the email address of the account
- shows the protocol used for the account
- something specific for POP accounts, this where you would change the email delivery location (PST file) for the account. This does not apply to any other email account type
When multiple accounts are configured, there will be one that is designated as the “default” for the profile. This is the email account that will be used for the <From> address when composing new emails.
Data File Information
Every email account has at least one data file associated with it.
OL’2010 and earlier
- POP3 accounts – one PST file
- IMAP Accounts – two PST files. One for the email folders and the other is the default data file configured for the account which is where the <default> contact/calendar folders are located
- Outlook.com/Exchange – one .ost file
You cannot set an IMAP PST file for email folders as the default data file for the profile
OL’2013+
- POP3 accounts – one PST file
- IMAP & Outlook.com/Exchange accounts – one OST file
The default contact/calendar folders will ALWAYS be located in the data file designated as the default for the profile
AddressBook Information
The most important for most users is the sort order in which contacts are displayed when opening the AddressBook. This is controlled by highlighting the “Outlook AddressBook” entry in the list (there may be various entries that appear but this is the one of interest) –> click <Change> at which point you can choose to either show contacts via their First/Last Name or based on the value contained in each contact’s <FileAs> field
Clicking on <Change> results in the following
Trouble-shooting a problematic/corrupted profile
Frequently when unexplained errors start to occur, one of the first things that might be suggested is to create a <New> Outlook profile. In these instances, it’s important to actually create a new profile from scratch and not make changes to a <Copy> of the original since that may result in carrying over whatever existing problem may exist.