How to Set an Out of Office Reply in Outlook
new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web; classic Outlook differences noted · Last checked · Suggest an edit
https://instructions.wiki/outlook/set-an-out-of-office-reply-in-outlook
Vacation starts tomorrow and mail keeps arriving with no one to answer it. The setting is not in the Mail section where most people look for it; automatic replies live under Accounts, because the reply is sent by the mail server rather than by the app on the desk.
Open automatic replies
Click the gear icon for Settings, then Accounts, then Automatic replies. If several accounts are connected, pick the right one at the top of the panel first.
Turn automatic replies on
Switch the Turn on automatic replies toggle to on. Nothing sends until the message is saved at the end.
Set a time period
Tick Send replies only during a time period and choose a start and end date and time. Outlook stops replying on its own at the end time, which avoids the classic problem of replies still going out a week after the return.
Write the internal message
Type the reply that colleagues inside the organization should get. Keep it short: the dates away, and who to contact meanwhile.
Send replies outside the organization
Tick Send replies outside your organization and write a second message in the box below it. Choose whether it goes to every outside sender or only to contacts. Leave this unticked if clients and vendors should hear nothing.
Save the settings
Click Save. The panel confirms automatic replies are on, and a banner appears at the top of the mailbox while they are running. Click Turn off in that banner to stop early.
In classic Outlook for Windows. Go to File, then Automatic Replies (Out of Office), and the same two tabs appear for inside and outside senders. An account without Exchange or Microsoft 365 behind it has no Automatic Replies button at all; for a personal POP or IMAP account the substitute is a rule that replies using a message template, and the app has to stay open and connected for that rule to fire.
Each sender hears once. Automatic replies go out once per sender for the length of the period, not once per message, so nobody gets a flood. If no end time was set, the replies run until they are turned off by hand.