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You are here: Home / Mac / How to find Outlook temp files on a Mac with macOS or Mac OS X
How to find Outlook temp files: Mac

How to find Outlook temp files on a Mac with macOS or Mac OS X

By SK 60 comments Last updated August 14, 2019

Accidentally saved an Outlook Attachment in the Temp Folder and can’t find or restore it? Do you want to retrieve documents from Outlook? Saved a file in your Outlook Temp folder and now can’t find that Outlook Temp Folder or your file? Tried using Finder with no result? Here is what to do to locate your Outlook Temp Files!


Contents

  • 1 Quick tips
    • 1.1 Related Articles
  • 2 What Are Outlook Temp files?
  • 3 Locate Outlook Temp files on Newer Outlook Versions
  • 4 Locate Outlook Temp on Older Outlook Versions
  • 5 Make Your Library Visible and Manually Search
  • 6 If You Still Can’t Find Your Outlook files
    • 6.1 Save the File to a New Location
    • 6.2 Open a File’s Properties in Outlook
    • 6.3 Use Terminal
  • 7 Reader Tips
    • 7.1 Follow reader John’s advice to open an attachment and try and save it
    • 7.2 Gary suggests opening up an attachment in outlook and looking at its properties to see the file location
    • 7.3 Related Posts:

Quick tips Quick Tips

Follow these quick tips to locate and recover your Outlook Temp files today!

  • Check your trash, just in case your deleted or removed the file
  • Look in your user’s folder’s cache for temporary items ~/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/Outlook Temp/
  • Open  /private/tmp/ and/private/var/folders and look inside these folders for com.microsoft.outlook or Outlook Temp files

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What Are Outlook Temp files?

Outlook Mac stores temporary files such as e-mail signatures, opened attachments like images, documents, PDF files, etc., and other e-mail content in the following location(s):

  • For Older Versions of Office: ~/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/Outlook Temp 
  • For Office 2016 and higher: /private/var/folders and look inside these folders for com.microsoft.outlook or Outlook Temp

Locate Outlook Temp files on Newer Outlook Versions

  • Open Finder
  • Go to the “GO” drop-down menu and select “Go to Folder…”
  • Enter /private/var/folders and click go
    • For /private/var/folders, you need to search within the folder for the com.microsoft.outlook or outlook temp–sometimes it’s inside the b6 or rz folders but often it’s elsewhere!
  • Search around through various folders after the path /private/var/folders to find Outlook Temp
    • Some readers find it here: /private/var/folders/b6/w46fh44s2wz53qqvcwhnrz440000gp/T/com.microsoft.Outlook/Outlook Temp
    • Others found it here: /private/var/folders/rz/2mcg5kq124bcngdy8fk8kk_n3w_jjw/T/com.microsoft.Outlook/TemporaryItems
  • If the file still isn’t found, repeat this process for the location /private/tmp/

Locate Outlook Temp on Older Outlook Versions

  • Open Finder
  • Go to the “GO” drop down menu and select “Go to Folder…”
  • Enter ~/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/Outlook Temp
  • And click go

How to find Outlook temp files: Mac

OR, alternatively

  • Open Finder
  • Go to the “GO” drop-down menu and hold down the option (alt) key
  • The “Library” option appears
  • Click on “Library” and then you find “Caches” and “TemporaryItems” and finally “Outlook Temp”
  • Now you locate your Outlook file

Make Your Library Visible and Manually Search

Find your Outlook Temp cache folder easily when your user Library folder is visible in macOS or Mac OS X! How-To Show Your User Library in macOS High Sierra and Sierra

For older Outlook versions

  • Open your User Folder
  • Click to open your Library folder
  • Search for the folder Caches
  • Inside the cache folder locate Temporary Items
    • And look for your Outlook Temp directory there
    • The full path is :  User Folder > Library > Caches > Temporary Items > Outlook Temp Directory

If You Still Can’t Find Your Outlook files

Save the File to a New Location

Use Outlook’s File > Save As option to save a copy of the temp outlook file to a location you can easily access and remember!

Open a File’s Properties in Outlook

  • Shift to the Mail view by clicking the Mail in the Navigation Pane
  • Open the email message attachment that you want to see
  • View the size, file location, and other properties
    • If you are using the Outlook 2007, click the Office Button > Properties
    • If you are using the Outlook 2010 and 2013, click File > Info
  • Write down or take note of the listed file location
  • Then follow the steps above under Locate Outlook Temp using that new location information

Use Terminal

  • Go to Applications > Utilities > Terminal
  • In the Terminal windows, type in the command open $TMPDIR and press enter
  • This Terminal command opens all your Temporary files folder
  • Select the folder named Temporaryitems
  • In Temporaryitems find your Outlook file and restore it
  • You may need to look into other folders and search within these folders for files listed with com.microsoft.outlook or outlook temp

Reader Tips

Follow reader John’s advice to open an attachment and try and save it

  • Find an email with an attachment, open it, and click on File, then choose Save As
  • When the Outlook Temp Folder pops up, you see all your documents saved to Outlook temp
  • Right-click to open a file you want to retrieve, and when a menu pops up, choose Move to Trash
  • Open your Trash to retrieve and save that file to another folder

John’s process avoids searching for your Library, temp folders and hunting thru its many subfolders.

Gary suggests opening up an attachment in outlook and looking at its properties to see the file location

  • To find that location, open an attachment in outlook
  • Then look at the properties which shows the file location
  • In finder, go to that folder and copy in that file location
sudz - apple
SK( Managing Editor )

Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.

Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.

In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.



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Reader Interactions

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Show 60 Comments

  1. Carolyn says

    November 5, 2019 at 8:01 AM

    Awesome. Thank you so much!! This was really helpful.

    Reply
  2. john haines says

    August 14, 2019 at 8:49 AM

    Having melted my brain trying to find Outlook temp folder on Mac Office 365 for hour+, found an elegant way to retrieve files. find an email with an attachment, Open it and click on File, then “Save As” when Outlook Temp Folder pops up. You can see all docs saved to Outlook temp.

    Right-click on file you want to retrieve, menu pops up then click on “Move to Trash”

    You can then go to Trash Can to retrieve and save to a normal folder.

    This avoids searching for Library, temp folders and hunting thru subfolders.

    Reply
    • Elizabeth Jones says

      August 14, 2019 at 9:49 AM

      Hi John,

      Great advice and thinking! We appreciate you paying it forward.

      Liz

      Reply
  3. Dewald says

    August 31, 2018 at 1:38 PM

    VERY helpful!! Thanks.

    Reply
  4. polly matzinger says

    June 14, 2018 at 5:47 AM

    thanks so much. i looked at lots of other suggestions for getting a file out of outlook temp but none worked. i think they were for windows users. i really appreciate the suggestion for mac. i followed your suggestion for the new version of outlook to go to” /private/var/folders” , found the list of folders and then typed “temp” into the search box. that worked immediately! saved me redoing the whole manuscript again!

    Reply
  5. Patrick Hammarström says

    May 18, 2018 at 3:59 PM

    Just lost 4 hours of work because i saved a Word file as a temporary outlook item. Closed Outlook and file was definitively gone. Spent another hour to find out how to eventually recup the file. No way. This brings me to the following: I was a die hard Mac fan for years, but now I can clearly see where the company’s priorities are – IPhone and ITunes. Apple’s computer OS and desktop/folder/file navigation philosophy are total crap. Microsoft is light years ahead. So my Retina will be the last Mac computer I will ever buy. Never ever again. A totally disappointed user. You have lost a client.

    Reply
    • Keith says

      December 13, 2018 at 8:21 AM

      Outlook is a Microsoft product not Apple. I blame Microsoft for making this folder so difficult to find.

      Reply
  6. Tim says

    September 30, 2017 at 1:30 PM

    I can find the Cache folder, but it does not contain a TemporaryItems sub folder. Does anyone know how to fix this?

    Reply
  7. Reanna says

    September 7, 2017 at 3:14 AM

    You are my actual favourite person right now!

    Reply
    • SK says

      September 7, 2017 at 10:30 AM

      Thanks Reanna, Glad We could assist!

      Reply
  8. Gary says

    June 1, 2017 at 12:40 PM

    This help does not work for all versions of software combination but it does provide some nice pointers. The key is that Apple tends to hide these files in different places for different versions. To find that location I opened an attachment in outlook. Then I looked at the properties which shows the file location. Then in finder I did what was described in terms of go to folder and copied in that file locations which worked fine.

    Reply
    • Chris says

      May 24, 2018 at 12:31 PM

      Gary’s advice is PERFECT. Spent forever wondering why I couldn’t find the Outlook Temp folder. Did what Gary suggested and found it in seconds!!!

      Reply
  9. IronRod says

    April 4, 2016 at 11:18 AM

    FYI: With Outlook 2016, images are not found in this cache. (Not sure if this was true of Outlook 2011.) When opening an image from an email the image is placed in /private/var/folders////com.microsoft.Outlook/Outlook Temp/

    In my particular case the token values were “jc”, “1k0p6pbd5g98n7qkdwgj2h305h682r”, and “T”. The easiest way to find a particular image was to use find:

    sudo find /private/var/folders -name

    Reply
  10. Adi Montas says

    March 24, 2016 at 3:02 PM

    Thank you!!!!

    Reply
  11. janiestan says

    February 18, 2016 at 5:19 AM

    Thank you that was really easy to follow and i feel proud i learned something new today!

    Reply
  12. Matt Miller says

    January 14, 2016 at 1:43 PM

    Thank you!!! I opened a powerpoint from outlook, and could not find it after saving it (and having spent an hour editing it). You saved me!

    Reply
  13. Nick says

    November 12, 2015 at 8:18 AM

    You are awesome and you saved me ++++

    Reply
  14. Chrristophe says

    November 4, 2015 at 9:36 PM

    After a long long search and help from my friends.
    I used the GoTo tool in Finder and typed ~/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/Outlook Temp.
    And it worked!
    But why, oh why make it difficult for users ? I will go off Apple products if they keep doing this to us!

    Reply
  15. Aneeta Brown says

    August 9, 2015 at 5:47 PM

    I very much appreciate the advice. iPhoto placed several photos of mine in a temp file instead of exporting them to the desktop. I looked for several minutes—-would NEVER have figured it out by myself. thank you!!!!

    Reply
  16. MitchM says

    June 24, 2015 at 11:25 AM

    Apple has made finding this temporary space much more difficult in one of the recent updates to either the Mac OS or Outlook. The Temp folder has moved and I am not sure that the OS does not change the Temp folder over time. Here is how I am able to find the files in the Temp folder:

    1. Open the originating document from Outlook and hit Save As. From this, you can find the full path to the temp folder holding subject file (along with the inadvertently saved version).

    2. This step requires another app that will allow you to view the hidden files and folders. (I use PathFinder but you also need to “turn on” viewing of hidden files and folders). You need access to the folder called private at the root of the MacHD.

    3. Once you have access to the private folder, you can then drill down to the subfolder show in the originating document.

    4. Drag the misplaced file to your Desktop and you are ready to go.

    Hope this helps.

    Reply
    • MitchM says

      June 24, 2015 at 11:34 AM

      One more point. You can “goto” the private folder in Finder. In my particular case (which I assume will not be the same for everyone), here is where the files were located:

      /private/var/folders/24/”a very long string starting with kfx…”/T/com.microsoft.Outlook/Outlook Temp

      If Apple/MS had intentionally tried to hide these files, they could not have done a better job. In classic Apple file, the rule is “my way or the highway.”

      Reply
  17. Rich says

    April 28, 2015 at 7:04 PM

    worked great, instructions were easy to follow, most importantly I found the file I thought was lost

    Reply
  18. Carolyn Rowland says

    April 21, 2015 at 9:36 PM

    Thank you so much, really helpful and easy.

    Reply
  19. Bethann says

    April 1, 2015 at 5:35 AM

    Thank you, you just saved my life.

    Reply
  20. Kay says

    March 23, 2015 at 3:44 PM

    Thank you! I feared I had lost work and would have to do it again. Much appreciated!

    Reply
  21. Karin says

    March 10, 2015 at 9:09 AM

    What a complicated way to find a file that should be readily accessible. It cost me a whole day of work. Yes, I too was close to having a fit because my file was lost.
    first time I tried it I also got the “file could not be found” message….until I added the little squiggly do-da in front of the /libarary

    Reply
  22. Cindi says

    March 3, 2015 at 6:24 PM

    Thanks for the short cut! Very easy.

    Reply
  23. E says

    March 2, 2015 at 4:36 AM

    Does anyone know how to stop Word from doing this in the future? Im using a Macbook Pro and constantly have this issue with files, I press ‘save as’ then hit return (I know, bad habit) and don’t realise it’s saved them as temp files not on the desktop.

    Reply
  24. gretchen says

    February 18, 2015 at 10:26 AM

    THANK YOU – this was SO easy and I was completely freaking out over my potentially 12 hours of lost information.

    Reply
  25. medeye says

    February 7, 2015 at 2:30 PM

    Hey Serhat, after having tried other help lines but in vain I could not believe that hitting the hidden ALT key would do THE magic thing. Great job and THANK YOU!

    Reply
  26. Amy says

    December 7, 2014 at 12:04 PM

    I echo the thanks above. I, too, almost had a heart attack and am now happy and calm, having pushed send on the document I was working on. Much appreciated!!

    Reply
  27. Nora says

    December 1, 2014 at 12:23 AM

    At 3:30 the morning before a presentation is due, I would just like to say I have never been more grateful for a website in my entire life. Thank you with all of my heart.

    Reply
  28. Trilive says

    November 22, 2014 at 7:30 AM

    You are a big lifesaver. I couldn’t figure out where it was. Thanks so much for sharing

    Reply
  29. Christina Lindberg says

    October 24, 2014 at 5:32 AM

    Thanks a lot! Very easy and quick fix.
    I tried Microsoft Office 365 support first but without success……. The answer I got was that there was no problem…….
    This was perfect!

    Reply
  30. Dev says

    October 17, 2014 at 5:59 AM

    Thank you. This was as easy as 1-2-3. Great Help…!! Thanks Again.

    Reply
  31. Amy says

    September 26, 2014 at 11:29 AM

    Awesome – thank you!
    I don’t know why other sites had much more complicated instructions I couldn’t understand – this was really clear and saved me from having to recreate my edits from scratch!

    Reply
  32. Nicki says

    August 3, 2014 at 4:35 PM

    Excellent directions. Easy to find. I tested the theory after discovering an empty folder today. It must be only very temporary as the document I worked on last night could not be found. I presume when I shut down it cleared all info. Wish I looked for your advice sooner but I’ll know for the future (if I save incorrectly again). Many thanks.

    Reply
  33. John Weygandt says

    July 22, 2014 at 1:22 AM

    Help!
    For a job interview, I was sent 10 questions in a Word doc. I opened it and created a Save as… with a slightly different name. I think it went into the Outlook Temp folder, but I don’t see it there.
    I spent too much time crafting my answers, late at night, and now they’re GONE!
    Please help.

    Reply
  34. Marilyn Parsons says

    July 3, 2014 at 11:20 AM

    Thank you so much. I had a really important file with a lot of work on it saved only to Outlook temp. The alternate option was the only one that worked, and I would never have figured this out on my own. Thanks so much!!!!

    Reply
  35. Jewels says

    June 26, 2014 at 9:36 AM

    Thank you so much!

    Reply
  36. Jay barton says

    May 27, 2014 at 7:54 PM

    I did this but see that I don’t have a TemporaryItems sub-folder. I can locate an Outlook Temp folder but it’s empty. If I go into outlook and open an attachment, then select “file save”, it opens an Outlook Temp folder that has lots of files in it. Do you have any idea what’s going on here?

    Reply
  37. Ivik says

    May 21, 2014 at 10:34 AM

    Thank you!!! I was about to throw my computer through the window… Found the files… Thank you… Thank you… :o)

    Reply
  38. Ayo says

    May 12, 2014 at 12:15 PM

    Oh.. my goodness!! thanks a lot!! was almost crying! 7 hours of work!! Thanks

    Reply
  39. Dennis says

    April 29, 2014 at 2:04 AM

    Excellent advice. Many thanks!!!!

    Reply
  40. Sam says

    April 6, 2014 at 4:32 PM

    Thank you so much for this article! For a horrible five minutes I thought my file had not been saved, until I realised it was in this hidden directory – having easy instructions to get there reduced my stress significantly.

    Reply
  41. Jef says

    November 13, 2013 at 9:34 AM

    Thank you, thank you. The OS X and Windows Office Documentation or lack thereof was pathetic.

    Reply
  42. jill says

    October 24, 2013 at 10:51 AM

    thank you!! you saved me hours of work

    Reply
  43. Vincet says

    September 12, 2013 at 1:46 PM

    THANK YOU ! Saved me much time and work !

    Reply
  44. RHONA says

    September 3, 2013 at 2:39 PM

    this worked – THANK YOU!!!!!!

    Reply
  45. mo says

    July 17, 2013 at 11:16 AM

    Thank you, thank you, thank you! Mwah!

    Reply
  46. Mark Yolton says

    June 24, 2013 at 8:44 PM

    Thank you! You saved me an hour of work plus an hour of trying to find the file I had worked on.

    Reply
  47. Callie says

    June 11, 2013 at 5:02 PM

    I did this and it says file cannot be found. Is there a way to set a preference so it doesn’t do this.

    Reply
  48. Phil says

    May 30, 2013 at 1:19 PM

    OK I found it – on my other screen at the top – I do not understand why its not kept on the same screen as Finder ….

    Reply
    • Ellen says

      June 5, 2013 at 10:49 PM

      Phil, I had the same problem as you, and I cannot find the go drop down menu, and I don’t know what other screen you are talking about. Where is that on a new macbook pro? So very frustrated!

      Reply
      • Deborah says

        March 25, 2015 at 9:37 AM

        I accidently removed all attachments from my email outlook and I dont know how to reverse this. Please help!!

        Reply
  49. Phil says

    May 30, 2013 at 1:05 PM

    I unfortunately do not have a GO drop down menu. Is there an equivalent on newer versions of Finder?

    Reply
  50. Trish says

    May 24, 2013 at 3:59 AM

    Fantastically easy – avoided a near heart attach – thanks

    Reply
  51. WOWThanks says

    April 25, 2013 at 2:45 PM

    You just saved the day. This post was a lifesaver. Thanks so much!

    Reply
  52. KeksYou says

    March 28, 2013 at 12:31 PM

    Thank you so much. realy nice 😀

    Reply
  53. stellasmommy says

    March 26, 2013 at 9:41 AM

    thank you this was so easy. i ‘ve been trying to follow more complicated instructions without success. i was able to do this in 3 seconds. 🙂 sigh.

    Reply

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