How to turn off “Out of Office”
Follow our simple steps to turn off automatic notifications in Outlook Microsoft Outlook enables your mailbox to send automatic notifications to any...
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Follow our simple guide to turning on automatic notifications in Outlook
One of Microsoft Outlook's most useful features is the ability to automatically reply to emails when you are out of the office. You can even send different messages to people inside and outside your organisation.
If you want to let people know you're not around to deal with their message then follow the steps below to turn on your "out-of-office".
The steps differ for how to turn on your out-of-office depending on which version of Outlook you use.
- Turn on out of office in the New Outlook Desktop App
- Turn on out of office in Classic Outlook Desktop App (Old Outlook)
- Turn on out of office in Outlook for the Web
- Turn on out of office in Outlook for iOS
- Turn on out of office in Outlook for Android
If you are unsure which version of the desktop Outlook app you have there is an easy way to tell. If you see a cog icon at the top right of your Outlook window like the image below then you are using the New Outlook. If not, you are using the old version.
Turn on out of office in the New Outlook Desktop App
To schedule your out-of-office in New Outlook
- Click the settings icon (the cog) at the top right of Outlook
- Select "Automatic Replies".
- Switch the toggle to "Turn on automatic replies"
- Tick the box to "Send replies only during a time period"
- Set the start and finished date and time
- Craft your internal message
- If you want to send automatic replies to people outside your organisation too, be sure to tick the appropriate box below your first message and complete that box too.
Note: Your out-of-office won't activate until you hit Save, regardless of whether you have scheduled it or not.
If you don't set a fixed time for your out-of-office message then follow our guide to turning off out-of-office.
Turn on out of office in Classic Outlook desktop App (Old Outlook)
To schedule your out-of-office in Old Outlook
- Click File at the top left of Outlook
- Select "Automatic Replies"
- Select the "Send automatic replies" toggle
- Tick the "Only send during this time range" box.
- Complete the dates and times you’re away,
- Write your internal messages
- If you want to send a message to external recipients too, select the tab for "Outside My Organisation"
- Tick the box for Auto-reply to people outside my organisation
- Write your message
- Press OK.
If you don't set a fixed period for your out-of-office message then follow our guide to turning off out-of-office.
Turn on out of office in Outlook for the Web
In your web browser go to www.microsoft365.com and sign using your Microsoft 365 username and password.
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Click the 9 dots at the top left of the screen and select Outlook from the App launcher.
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Once Outlook has opened, select the settings icon (the cog) at the top right of the screen
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The settings menu will open. Under the Account section on the far left, you will find the menu for “Automatic Replies”.
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From the Automatic replies menu, click the toggle to “Turn on Automatic replies”.
- If you only want to send replies for a fixed period of time, tick the "Only send during this time range" box.
- Complete the dates and times you’re away
- Write your internal messages
- If you want to send automatic replies to people outside your organisation too then be sure to tick the "Send replies outside your organisation" box below your first message and complete that box too.
- Press Save
If you don't set a fixed period for your out-of-office message then follow our guide to turning off out-of-office.
- Open the Outlook app
- Swipe from the left-hand side of the screen to the right
- Click the cog icon at the bottom left of the screen
- Tap “Automatic Replies”.
- Toggle the switch to turn on Automatic Reply.
- If you want to only reply within a fixed time range, click "Reply Within a Time Range" and turn on the toggle. Select your dates and whether you want to block out your calendar or not. (You can also opt to automatically decline all meetings while your out-of-office is on) Press the back button (<) at the top left.
- Choose whether to reply to "Only people within your organisation" or "everyone", and whether everyone gets the same message or whether you want to write two separate ones. Press the back button (<)
- Write your message(s) by clicking on each option
- Press the tick at the top right to save and enable everything you've just completed.
If you don't set a fixed period for your out-of-office message then follow our guide to turning off out-of-office.
- Open the Outlook mobile app.
- Click your initials or picture at the top left.
- In the bottom left, click the “Settings” (gear) icon.
- Select "Automatic replies"
- Click the slider to enable "Automatic replies".
- If you want to only reply within a fixed time range, click "Reply during a time period" and turn on the toggle. Select your dates and whether you want to block out your calendar or not. (You can also opt to automatically decline all meetings while your out-of-office is on)
- Choose whether to reply to "Only people within your organisation" or "everyone", and whether everyone gets the same message or whether you want to write two separate ones.
- Write your message(s) by clicking on each option
- Press the tick at the top right to save and enable everything you've just completed.
If you don't set a fixed period for your out-of-office message then follow our guide to turning off out-of-office.
Next Steps...
IT Foundations can manage services like this for you on your behalf. If you need us to help look after your Microsoft 365 apps then contact us today.
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