How To Create A New Email Profile In Outlook 2010

› Outlook › How to Create a New Profile

Last reviewed on October 16, 2020 45 Comments

Applies to: Outlook 365 (Win), Outlook 2019 (Win), Outlook 2016 (Win), Outlook 2013, Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007

The following tutorial shows you how to create a new profile in Microsoft Outlook. The second part of the tutorial shows how to use an existing personal store (pst) with a newly created profile. For best results, always add the *.pst to the new profile before you open the new profile in Outlook.

With Outlook 2016 and newer, you can access the dialog to create a new profile from within Outlook or using the Control panel.
Click Show Profiles
Click Add. After you create the profile, select the option to Prompt for profile to be used. Outlook 2016 and newer can switch profiles from within Outlook, using File > Account Settings > Change Profile dialog.
Type a name for your profile.
In most cases, you'll want to use Auto discover, allowing Outlook to set up your email account automatically. Enter your name, email address and password and Outlook will try to set up the profile. If you need to add the account manually, such as if you want to set the account up as POP, you'll need to choose the option for Manual setup or additional server types, then choose POP or IMAP and enter the server information.
After the auto account setup completes, click Manually configure account settings to verify the alternate ports are correct or change outgoing server authentication.
If auto account setup fails, you want to use POP, or if you know your ISP doesn't support it, check the option to create the profile manually. You'll need to enter your account information, account type, and email server names. If you are unsure, check your ISP's support site.
After the account information is entered, press the Test Account button. If it fails, correct the problem and try again.
While you can click Next and exit the wizard after entering the account information, many ISPs require authentication to send outgoing email, so you'll want to click More Settings.
More Settings dialog allows you to set a reply to address, configure outgoing server authentication, and connection information. The Advanced tab is used to set custom server ports, time outs, and whether to leave mail on the server.
When you are finished, you can either close the Profiles dialog then double click on the Outlook icon to run Outlook, or add another personal folder (or more accounts) to the profile.

Using an existing Personal folders (*.pst)

If you need to set up Microsoft Outlook to use another personal folder (*.pst) do so before you open the profile in Outlook.

When you are in the Mail dialog, select the profile and click Properties.
You can choose either Email Accounts or Data files, both open the same dialog but to different tabs.
Click Add on the Data tab.
Select the type of PST you are adding. If you aren't sure, choose the Outlook data type.
Select the PST you want to add.
Select the PST and set it as Default.
Finish the wizard and close the Mail dialog.

Now you are ready to start Outlook.

While this tutorial was recorded using Outlook 2007, the steps are similar for all versions.

Create a new profile in Outlook 2010 (and newer) Video Tutorial

This video tutorial shows how to remove a corrupt profile and create a new profile, using Windows 7 and Outlook 2010 or newer. The steps are identical for Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2016. On Windows 8 and 10, search for Mail in the Control panel.

If your profile is not corrupt, you do not need to delete it; you can have more than one profile in Outlook.

More Information

In the video, drag the slider to jump to the following segments:

More Settings Dialog - Leave mail on server segment begins at 0:49
How to add a PST to the profile segment begins at 1:15.
Profile Selector - How to choose which profile segment begins at 1:53.

If you are told to make a new profile because your profile is corrupt, do not copy an existing profile. Make a new one totally "from scratch" as described above.

A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999, Diane is the author of several books, including Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginners Book. She also created video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.