PROBLEM
If you upgraded to Office 365 or Outlook 365, but you want to go back to Mac Outlook 2016 and access your old emails, you likely cannot recover your Outlook 2016 database.
Error when opening Outlook 2016: "You'll need the latest version of Outlook to use this database."
SOLUTION
- You unfortunately will not be able to recover your previous 2016 Outlook profile settings or emails.
- You will have to start from scratch and add your email to Outlook as if it's new.
- Hopefully your emails are backed up on a server somewhere so they re-sync when you re-setup your Outlook, otherwise you're out of luck.
STEPS - To get Outlook 2016 again:
1. Delete Outlook 365 from your Applications folder
2. Re-Download Mac Outlook 2016
3. When opening Outlook 2016 again, you will get the error above.
STEPS - To open Outlook 2016 again:
1. Quit Outlook application.
2. Go to ‘Applications’ > right click on Outlook app > Then click on ‘Show Package Contents’
3. Expand ‘Contents > click on SharedSupport > Open ‘Outlook Profile Manager.app
- Note: I had to close Outlook and Finder multiple times before I could see this "Outlook Profile Manager"
- IF you still don't see this "Outlook Profile Manager" file, then you may have to download/install this first: https://www.systoolsgroup.com/mac/outlook-recovery/
- IF there's a Java error... after downloading SysTools, you get a JavaRunTime Environment error, and Java.com doesn't load, you also may have to download Java Runtime Environment for Mac: https://mac.filehorse.com/download-java-runtime/
4.Click on ‘+’ sign to create new profile > After naming your profile Click the 'gear' icon and set the newly created profile as the default profile. Screenshot below.
5. Open Outlook 2016, and it should work!
- You'll unfortunately have to add your email account again by going to Outlook > Preferences > Accounts > Add Account.
Reference: