How to Set Out of Office in Outlook (and Away Messages)

Quick answer: on a Microsoft 365 or Exchange account, set out of office by turning on Automatic Replies. In new Outlook and on the web go to Settings, then Accounts, then Automatic replies; in classic Outlook for Windows go to File, then Automatic Replies. Write your message, optionally set a date range, and turn it on.

“Out of office,” “OOO,” and “away message” all describe the same Outlook feature. Microsoft calls it Automatic Replies.

Last checked against Microsoft support documentation on June 5, 2026.

What Automatic Replies actually is

Automatic Replies is the true out-of-office feature. On Exchange and Microsoft 365, it runs on the server, so it replies to incoming mail even while your computer is off, your phone is in a drawer, and Outlook is closed.

That server-side behavior is the whole point. It is more reliable than any rule you run on your own machine. If your account supports it, use it.

It only works on Microsoft 365, Exchange, and Outlook.com accounts. If you are on a POP or IMAP account, the feature does not appear and you need the rules-based fallback covered later.

Turn on out of office in new Outlook and on the web

The steps are nearly identical in new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web.

Open Settings (the gear icon).

Go to Accounts, then Automatic replies.

Toggle Automatic replies on.

Type the message you want senders to receive.

To set it to end on its own, turn on Send replies only during a time period and pick a start and end date and time.

Optionally turn on Send replies outside your organization and write a separate external message. You can choose to send it to anyone, or only to your contacts.

Save.

That is it. Replies start going out and stop at the end date if you set one.

Turn on out of office in classic Outlook for Windows

Open classic Outlook.

Go to File.

Click Automatic Replies (Out of Office).

Select Send automatic replies.

To schedule it, check Only send during this time range and set the start and end times.

On the Inside My Organization tab, type the message coworkers will see.

On the Outside My Organization tab, choose whether to reply to external senders, limit it to your contacts, and type that message.

Click OK.

If you do not see Automatic Replies under File, your account is not Exchange or Microsoft 365. Skip to the rules-based fallback.

Internal vs external messages

The two-message setup is worth using deliberately. People inside your company and people outside it usually need different information.

Audience	What to include	What to leave out
Inside your organization	Return date, who to contact internally, where to escalate	Personal details, anything you would not tell the whole company
Outside your organization	Return date, a general backup contact, alternate channel	Internal names, project codenames, the reason you are away

For external replies, “send to my contacts only” cuts down on auto-replies leaking to spam senders and mailing lists. It is a small privacy and noise win.

Add an out-of-office calendar event and away status

An automatic reply handles email. It does not stop people from booking your time. Block the calendar too.

Create a calendar event covering your time away.

Set the Show as status to Out of Office rather than Busy. Out of Office is a stronger signal and can change your presence indicator.

Make it an all-day event spanning the dates if you will be gone for full days.

If your organization uses it, the Out of Office status can also flag you as away in Teams and across Microsoft 365.

This combination, an automatic reply plus an Out-of-Office calendar block, is what actually protects your time. The reply tells people you are away; the calendar block keeps them from scheduling over your absence.

When Automatic Replies is not available

If you are on a POP or IMAP account, Automatic Replies will not show up. The workaround is a rule that replies with a saved template, which means Outlook has to stay open and connected the whole time you are away. That is fragile, but it works.

The full walkthrough lives in how to create an autoresponder in Outlook. If you only ever need a calendar-side away signal and not an email reply, the equivalent concept in Google’s world is covered in out of office in Google Calendar.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
No Automatic Replies option	POP/IMAP account, not Exchange/M365	Use the rules-based autoresponder, or switch accounts.
Replies did not turn off	No end date was set	Edit Automatic Replies and set a time range, or turn it off manually.
External senders got nothing	External replies were off or limited to contacts	Enable Send replies outside your organization and choose anyone if needed.
Each sender got many replies	Rare with Automatic Replies; common with rules	Automatic Replies sends once per sender; if you used a rule, that is the cause.
People still booked my time	Calendar was not blocked	Add an Out of Office calendar event for the dates.
Message sent the wrong dates	Time zone or range was misread	Recheck the start and end time and the event time zone.

Step away without your day piling up

Setting out of office is the easy part. The hard part is coming back to a wall of mail and a calendar that filled up while you were gone. A clean OOO plus a blocked calendar reduces both, but the deeper issue is workload.

LifeLoad’s view is that your calendar and inbox should show the truth about your day, including the load you carry going into and out of a break. Meeting density and constant context-switching are what drive burnout, and time off only helps if you are not walking straight back into the same overload. We quantify workload and recovery the way Whoop and Oura quantify strain and sleep, but for knowledge work. Out of office buys you the gap. What you do with the rest of your calendar decides whether the rest actually sticks.

Sources

• Microsoft Support: send automatic out of office replies from Outlook
• Microsoft Support: use rules to create an out of office message