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I would like to know how to completely remove account and all of its related data from Outlook 2016 for OS X.

The account can be removed from preferences of Outlook 2016.

But where are all data stored that should be deleted in order to be sure that there are nothing left? Where are stored on Mac OS X?

The other accounts in Outlook 2016 should be untouched.

Giacomo1968
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user1563721
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  • Have you added other email accounts ? As a new Identity using profile manager or as a different account from Outlook preferences > Accounts ? – clhy Jul 23 '15 at 16:40
  • Through Outlook preferences > Accounts. I have two accounts and I would like to remove one completelly – user1563721 Jul 23 '15 at 16:46
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    Outlook 2016 in Mac stores data in **~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile** but as all the email from all the accounts are dumped in various subfolders with some secret logic/algorithm, removing local database for a specific email is not possible. – clhy Jul 24 '15 at 08:47
  • Look at the structure of Outlook database http://i.stack.imgur.com/JQNOx.jpg – clhy Jul 24 '15 at 08:49
  • See how to remove a profile at: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Manage-profiles-or-identities-in-Outlook-for-Mac-fed2a955-74df-4a24-bef6-78a426958c4c – Jason Jul 01 '17 at 14:59

3 Answers3

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The only way (I think) to delete the data is to delete the whole profile, empty trash, then create a new profile and add back the email accounts you want. Fine for IMAP and Exchange but a pain for POP accounts.

To delete the profile, go to Finder > Applications > right-click / CTRL-click on Outlook > Show Package Contents > Contents > SharedSupport > Outlook Profile Manager > Select profile > Click the minus sign to remove. Then empty trash.

ajkgordon
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Outlook on Mac is implemented differently than on Windows. Outlook from Mac uses a single database which indexes smaller threads of data like contacts, and signatures stored in data records. If you have multiple accounts everything is stored within this one database.

This differs from Windows where each account generates an individual .pst file. When you unlink an account on Windows, the .pst with all the data for that account will persist and can be relinked to simply by adding it back to Outlook.

As OS X has all of the data residing in one database. Removing the account removes its data from the database and you shouldn't have to track down a .pst file as you would in the Windows implementation.

There is not even a way to archive and maintain the contents of an Outlook account in Outlook 2016 for Mac as there is in the Windows version.

enter image description here

Refer to this post on AskDifferent.

Note: I have deleted an account from Outlook for Mac 2016 before and it basically disappears from existence. I couldn't say if a computer forensic scientist could rebuild this information, but the average user won't be able to get at it as they can with the Windows version.

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AMR
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  • There are no .pst's in Outlook for Mac OSX. They create .olk files and .olm if they were archived. – clhy Jul 23 '15 at 16:02
  • That is what I said. Windows uses .pst and Mac uses a central database. – AMR Jul 23 '15 at 17:07
  • I said you shouldn't have to track down .pst as you would for the windows version of the software, because that isn't how it is stored. – AMR Jul 23 '15 at 17:12
  • I have edited your answer to be more specific about what OP's question was – clhy Jul 23 '15 at 19:24
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    @The_IT_Guy_You_Don't_Like you probably shouldn't have made such a massive edit to this answer. You've removed all originality of it. You should've created your own answer (which you did but then deleted). – James Mertz Jul 23 '15 at 19:39
  • @KronoS, I had the same answer as AMR so felt like adding missing details to it rather than adding a different answer which basically means the same thing. Also that answer was not 100% correct – clhy Jul 23 '15 at 19:46
  • @The_IT_Guy_You_Don't_Like edits like this should be limited to grammatical errors. You made quite a big change. Even though your edited answer is in essence the same, it's a different presentation that doesn't reflect the author's original intent. AMR may be ok with this, but other SU users will not be. Tread lightly. – James Mertz Jul 23 '15 at 19:50
  • @KronoS, now I wish AMR rejects my answer & I will do as you say – clhy Jul 23 '15 at 19:53
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On Outlook 16.36 (20041300), after deleting the account, the data is deleted silently. You may have to wait some time -about an hour in my case for ~10 GB- but it does get deleted, even after force quitting the app and reopening. App must be open for deletion to occur.

Jaime Santa Cruz
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