How To Set Up Automatic Reply In Outlook?

Going on vacation and don't want to worry about your incoming emails while you're away. if you're an Outlook email user and want to set up an automatic reply in Outlook for when you're out of the office, this article is for you.

You can set up automatic reply in Outlook desktop app as well as in Outlook web version. I'm going to cover both the ways in this article.

I'm going to show you using outlook that comes as part of office 365 but if you have a previous version of Outlook let's say you're using 2019 / 2016 / 2013 / 2010 / 2007 any prior version of Outlook should be very similar to what I'm going to show you here so you should be able to do it.

In this article, you’ll find:

• Set up automatic reply in Outlook using Outlook Desktop App
• Set up automatic reply in Outlook using Outlook Web version
• Conclusion to set up automatic reply in Outlook

Let’s check it out!

Set up automatic reply in Outlook using Outlook Desktop App

Now, let's set up automatic reply in Outlook by following the below mentioned steps:

1. Open Microsoft Outlook desktop app

2. Click 'File' from menu bar

   By default you should be inside 'Info' tab.
   
   

3. Click 'Automatic Replies' button

   You should see the 'Automatic Replies' button. On click of it, a dialog should pop up to set up automatice reply in Outlook.
   
   

4. Select 'Send automatic replies' option

   You should see the checkbox of 'Only send during this time range'.
   
   As this is optional and if you don't want to set this information, then you need to manually turn off the automatic replies.
   
   You can check this checkbox and set your out of office time range by entering start time and end time, then automatic replies will be turned on and turned off automatically based on the set start and end time.
   
   

5. Add response under the tab 'Inside My Organization' tab

   Add the out of office message response that you want to send as automatic reply to the stakeholders who are part of your organization.
   
   Optionally under the tab 'Outside My Organization', you can add the out of office message response that you want to send as automatic reply to the stakeholders who are outside of your organization.
   
   

6. Click 'OK' to save your automatic reply settings

This simple way you will eliminate confusion and a zillion messages awaiting your action on your return. As you can imagine, the clearer you are, the fewer follow up emails you’ll receive and hopefully, a less congested inbox.

Modify automatic reply in Outlook using Outlook Desktop App

If you want to modify the setup of automatic reply in Outlook, use the steps mentioned in the above section to modify your settings.

Turn off an automatic reply in Outlook using Outlook Desktop App

If your Outlook is already setup to send automatic replies, you'll see a message under the top menu as shown in the below screenshot.

Click 'Turn off' button to stop automatic replies from Outlook.

Set up automatic reply in Outlook using Outlook web version

Now, let's set up automatic reply in Outlook web version by following the below mentioned steps:

1. Open Microsoft Outlook web version page and sign in to your Outlook account

2. Click 'Settings' icon from the top bar

   This 'Settings' icon can be found at the right top corner of the web page. On click of 'Settings' icon, sidebar of 'Settings' will open up.
   
   

3. Click 'View all Outlook settings' link

   This link can be found at the bottom of the 'Settings' sidebar.
   On click of 'View all Outlook settings' link, a 'Settings' dialog should pop up.
   Select 'Automatic replies' tab to set up automatice reply in Outlook web version.
   
   

4. Turn on the 'Automatic replies on' option

   You should see the checkbox of 'Only send during a time range'.
   
   As this is optional and if you don't want to set this information, then you need to manually turn off the automatic replies.
   
   You can check this checkbox and set your out of office time range by entering start time and end time, then automatic replies will be turned on and turned off automatically based on the set start and end time.
   
   

5. Add response in the 'Send automatic replies inside your organization' textarea

   Add the out of office message response that you want to send as automatic reply to the stakeholders who are part of your organization.
   
   Optionally under the tab 'Send replies outside your organization', you can add the out of office message response that you want to send as automatic reply to the stakeholders who are outside of your organization.
   
   

6. Click 'Save' to save your automatic reply settings

This simple way you will eliminate confusion and a zillion messages awaiting your action on your return. As you can imagine, the clearer you are, the fewer follow up emails you’ll receive and hopefully, a less congested inbox.

Modify automatic reply in Outlook using Outlook web version

If you want to modify the setup of automatic reply in Outlook web version, use the steps mentioned in the above section to modify your settings.

Turn off an automatic reply in Outlook using Outlook web version

If your Outlook is already setup to send automatic replies, you'll see a message right top corner of the web page as shown in the below screenshot.

Click 'Turn off' link to stop automatic replies from Outlook web version.

Final Thoughts to set up automatic reply in Outlook

Those are the two different ways how you set up automatic reply in Outlook on your desktop app and on the Outlook web version. Hopefully if you're setting it out of office you have some awesome vacation plans coming up.

Ok, this was the article to set up automatic reply in Outlook and to turn off an automatic replies.
I hope you found this article helpful.