Have you ever wondered why Outlook suddenly starts lagging, crashing, or auto-filling an old email address? Well, you’re certainly not alone. A recent survey found that over 65% of office workers experience issues with Outlook lagging and crashing due to over-cached data. In the words of tech guru Chris Hoffman, “Clearing your cache is essentially the same as starting over with your app.” If you find that your Outlook is crashing or not working, a simple cache clearing may help – let us show you how.

What Is the Outlook Cache?

The Outlook cache is a temporary data file stored locally on your device. The cache allows the program to pull up things like your email, auto-fill suggestions, calendar events, etc., faster, because the cache is stored locally on your device; it does not require the program to pull everything from the server every time you use it. However, after continued use and time, the cached files can slow down functionality or are sometimes corrupted, leading to things like the following:

•   Autocomplete is not working properly in the To/CC fields
•   Receive the delay updates or calendar syncs
•   Frequent crashing and freezing
•   Illegal display glitches in calendar entries or in email threads

Clearing the Outlook cache will fix these issues without actually deleting your email or data from your account.

How to Clear the Cache in Outlook (Windows)

Follow these steps to manually clear the Outlook cache:

1. Close Outlook Completely
   Make sure Outlook is closed before making any changes.
2. Open the Cache Folder

• Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box.

Type:

%localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook

• Press Enter.

3. Delete the Cache Files
   In the Outlook folder, you’ll see .ost or .dat files and folders like RoamCache. You can safely delete the contents of the RoamCache folder. Don’t delete entire folders unless you know what you’re doing.
4. Restart Outlook
   Open Outlook again. It will rebuild the necessary cache automatically.

How to clear autocomplete cache in Outlook

The autocomplete list you depend on when typing email addresses can get messy very fast. Here’s to clearing it.

• Open Outlook
• Go to File > Options > Mail
• Scroll down to the Send Messages section
• Click Empty Auto-Complete List
• Click Yes to verify

This is very helpful if you have changes in your contact list to email addresses or if you find Outlook keeps suggesting outdated email.

How to clear the cache in Outlook (Mac)

• Quit Outlook
• Navigate to the following:

~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles

• Find your profile, then navigate to Data > Caches, and delete the contents
• Restart Outlook

This should clear your temporary files but not affect your emails or contacts; in fact, deleting the cache often improves performance. There was a 30% reduction of sync issues after cache clearance, documented on the MacRumors forums.

When Should You Clear Your Outlook Cache? 

At Datarecovee, we would like you to clear your cache when:

• You start noticing Outlook is running unusually slowly
• You start seeing errors in syncing or duplicate messages
• You have just recently updated your version of Outlook
• You are noticing that the autocomplete suggestions are inaccurate

 Final Thoughts from Datarecovee 

Knowing how to clear the cache in Outlook can definitely help to ensure a faster and smoother email experience for whichever use you have for Outlook, whether for business purposes or personal messages. Cache issues can definitely also affect productivity, as emails slow down, and you are losing time! A 2023 report by ITProPortal shows that organizations lose on average $1,200 per employee per year in productivity losses, which also includes slowdown due to cache.

If you still have performance issues after clearing your cache, please contact Datarecovee. We are experts in data recovery and purposefully optimizing email accounts for Outlook, as well as optimizing the performance of users on Outlook systems.

FAQs

Q1. If I clear the Outlook cache, will I lose my email or contacts?

A: You will not lose any email, contacts, or account information if you clear the Outlook cache. Clearing the Outlook cache will only remove temporary files that Outlook will rebuild automatically for you. This will help Outlook perform better.

Q2. How often should I clear my cache in Outlook?

A: It’s a good habit to clear the cache every few months, or whenever you notice Outlook has slowed down or is crashing, or is acting weird. Your cache is just temporary files, and the more routine you make clearing it, the less likely you will run into performance issues.

Q3. What is the general cache, and what is the autocomplete cache in Outlook?

A: General cache is simply a place where Outlook stores data temporarily for emails and calendar entries so that Outlook can load your email and calendar items faster. Autocomplete cache is the records of emails you have remembered in the To/CC fields. The use of cleaning each cache serves two different purposes, but they will both improve Outlook performance.

Q4. Is it ok to delete files from the RoamCache folder in Outlook?

A: Yes, it is okay to delete anything inside the RoamCache directory. However, you do not want to delete the directory or any system folders unless a tech person shows you how and when to do that.