Where does Microsoft create the Outlook Temporary folder (better known as the OLK folder)??? Or, where does Microsoft store temporary data such as attachments? Where the heck is that PESKY OLK folder??
Answer:
Depending on the operating system, version of Outlook AND user logged in, the OLK temporary folder will be created in a different spot. To find where it’s been created, open the Windows registry using regedit.exe and look for the Registry key OutlookSecureTempFolder using the MAP below:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Outlook 97: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Outlook\Security Outlook 98: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.5\Outlook\Security Outlook 2000: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Security Outlook 2002/XP: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security Outlook 2003: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security Outlook 2007: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security Outlook 2010: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Security
Windows XP Box with Office 2003 VS. Windows 7 PC with Office 2010:
On my install, (I’m running Windows Vista & Microsoft Office 2007) I found the OLK temp folder at:
1
C:\users\MrGroove\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\XLCYUT3R
….. phew!
Background:
When you open file attachments that are considered safe, Outlook places these attachments in a subdirectory under the your Temporary Internet Files directory as an extra precaution. When Outlook first tries to use a temporary file, it examines the registry to determine whether or not the TEMP OLK folder has already been created. If yes, it uses the folder. If no, it creates a random folder then stores the path in the registry location mentioned above.
For example:
Let’s say your running Windows XP and Outlook 2003. When you open your first attachment your computer will create the following sub-folder to temporary store the attachment:
1
C:\Documents and Settings\<var>username</var>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK<var>xxx</var>
In this example, username is the user name that is used by the person who is currently logged on to the computer. xxx is a randomly generated sequence of letters and numbers.
This information can be very useful and potentially dangerous. For instance, let’s say you open an attachment, make a bunch of changes then forget to save it…. Chance are, you can probably find the OLK folder and recover the document (if you have autosave on).
Now the bad news, let’s say you open an attachment which contains sensitive or confidential information. While reading the document, Outlook unexpectedly closes. In this scenario, the attachment will remain in the Outlook Temporary folder indefinitely because Outlook cannot remove the temporary file while it’s open. Now let’s say your PC is stolen…… Yup, all your documents are just sitting there for anyone to open. Believe me? Just go look. If you’ve been using your computer for any length of time I bet you will find 1-2 dozen files sitting there for anyone to open and read.
At work, I use Outlook ALL DAY. When I upgraded my PC to Microsoft Vista and Office 2007, I immediately began looking for the EVER important OUTLOOK TEMPORARY FOLDER in order to 1: Encrypt it using EFS and 2: Find a document which I wrote and somehow lost. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! I found the document AND encrypted it without an issue.
In a later article, I’ll explain how to use the built-in EFS encryption features of Windows XP and VISTA to protect sensitive files and folders.
Tags: client, encryption, howto, microsoft office, olk, outlook 2003, outlook 2007, security, temporary folder, outlook 2010
About the author
Based in Seattle, Steve Krause is the founder and chief of groovyPost.com. Email Steve at Steve@groovyPost.com.
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76 Responses to “Find the Microsoft Outlook Temporary OLK folder”
Exactly what I was looking for! Thank you very much. Keep the articles coming!
This worked a treat.
I opened regedit, did a search for OutlookSecureTempFolder, when found, right-clicked and selected modify, copied the path to the folder, pasted that into windows explorer, hit the enter button – takes you straight into folder.
You have just saved someone from having to re-do a 2000 word doc.
Many thanks for the tip
THANK YOU for posting this information. Each system upgrade has provided it’s challenges on getting back to temporary files. This very helpful information has saved me hours of work to recreate a document that others are waiting to receive.
I had heart-stopping panic until I found this! Thank you so much for posting it!
Thanks for the feedback! I had to look for it a bit so I figured others would appreciate it. There’s also a little trick you can do to make the olk folder show up in Explorer. Just delete all the text in the desktop.ini file in the IE temp folder. Makes it easy to find later. I’ll post that How To one shortly.
There’s also a problem associated with this that we ran into recently. We had a user who wasn’t able to open a certain attachment and upon investigation I learned of this OLK temp folder. What had happened was there were 99 files already named like that and Outlook didn’t know what to do about it. Basically what happens is if you open a file that has the same name as another file in the OLK folder, it increments a number in parenthesis.
IE.
OutlookAttachement.doc
OutlookAttachement.doc (1)
…
Outlook Attchement.doc (99)
The problem occurs when 99 files get there, after that it won’t create anymore and gives an error that can be painful to decipher, basically you need to delete everything in that folder every now and again.
The error was something about the outlook temp folder and some rights issues.
Welcome to the site Lizaoreo.
Thanks for the additional information as well!
Lizaoreo, FYI – Based off your comment, I just wrote a new article on this very topic: http://www.groovypost.com/howto/microsoft/outlook/fix-outlook-cant-create-file-attachment-error/
I’m fairly certain this is what you were referring to.?
This is great information. Is there a way automate the deletion of this directory or a registry setting that limits the max size of this directory and after that it cleans itself up?
Thanks for your help. I found this months before and I opened an attachment yesterday but saved it without specifying a file location. I looked for the file that I changed, did a file search, reopened the attachment, but all my changes were gone. I found your website and found this hidden location and found my modified file. Thanks for your help.
Welcome to the site John!
I’m glad the article was helpful!
I have been having the same problem, but the issue is – that I cannot find the OLK folder to delete the contents…. Windows has hidden this pretty well. I can view other “hidden” folders – but can’t find this one…..
Any suggestions??
-Paul
Hello Paul!
Did you follow the map in the above post? Open RegEdit and follow the map and it should show you exactly where your OLK folder is hidden. Once you have that just Click “Start” -> “Run” and paste in the folder path and you shoudl have your OLK folder on the screen with all the files inside of it. If you still can’t find it, start a new discussion in our Forum and I can continue to help you troubleshoot the issue with screenshots etc… here:
http://www.groovypost.com/forum/
hiya – i’m almost in tears because I”m in a the same situation with Outlook 2007. The problem is, I’m not quite as technically savvy as you guys, and I don’t know how to “open the windows registry using regedit32.exe and use the map’…. *sniff* can anyone explain it to me in lay terms?
Hey all
Just to follow up from my last post, I wanted to share a different way to solve this problem.
So, to recap for those just tuning in, when you open an attached file from an email in Outlook 2007 and then “save” it (thinking its going into a designated location on your hard drive – but its not), it does not save to the temporary OLK directory the same way that it did in Outlook 2003. After the initial panic when you realize it seems almost impossible to find the Outlook 2007 temporary file location, here is a super quick and very easy way to locate the file:
1) Open Google Desktop and search for “content.outlook” on your desktop
2) If you don’t have Google Desktop, install it from here: http://desktop.google.com/
3) Once your search results come up, click on “Open Folder” underneath any email that comes up
3) Casually view all of the files contained in the hidden temporary folder to find the file you thought you’d lost
4) Listen to the angels singing “alleliuah” and smile knowing all is well in the world
Good luck to everyone who experiences the initial terror of this glitch… know that there is hope!
kk
@KrazyKuppy
Hey there KK. Thank you for the post and WELCOME to the site!
To answer your first question, just Click the typical “Start” -> “Run” in XP (or Click the Windows Start Button in Vista) and type in: “Regedit32″. This will open the registry. From there it should be easy to navigate to the proper registry location using the Map above in the article.
That being said, I really “love” your suggestion above for Outlook 2007! Being that content.outlook is in the path of the hidden OLK folder, using google desktop search, windows desktop search or even Vista Search (As I did), once you pull up the content.outlook folder the hidden temporary folder should be staring you in the eyes. For instance, my folder is located here:
C:\Users\mrGroove.groovypost\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\XLCYUT3R
Thank you for the post and helping add to the community here at groovyPost.com!
Hey MrGroove – I’m glad you liked that google search idea. It comes in quite handy sometimes!
kk
There is another way to view where the OLK file is located. Open the attachment and do a “save file as.” It will show the path to the OLK folder before you save it. Click on the down arrow next to save in…viola!
Rob Nanney
Verizon Help Desk Technician (in the trenches)
I just used this to find a “lost” paper that Outlook decided to save to that OLK no man’s land, this article saved me and my project group several hours of work! Not to mention huge demoralization. Thanks a lot!
I have a workstation running Outlook 2003 in XP that would not display embedded images in email, but they would show up when you forwarded or replied it. For anyone else who has that problem, finding and deleting the contents of this folder will most likely fix it.
However, I could not find it using the registry editor. Rob’s (post #15) method worked great to find the folder. Once I deleted everything inside of it; embedded images were once again visible!
My boss (no matter how many times I have told her) opened and worked on a word document through Outlook 2007. I could never find where those documents were being saved. I knew where to look in previous versions to find the temp files, but was pulling my hair out trying to find this one. I found this post and found her files. I am also putting this site in my favorites. I learned a lot today. Thank you very much.
@Dave & Julie
First, Welcome to the site! I’m always really glad to hear when people enjoy the articles! Thank you for the feedback!
easy batch file:
REM This file opens the Outlook Temporary Folder.
cd “%userprofile%\local settings\temporary internet files\”
cd olk*
explorer .
Great thread. I consider myself generally tech savvy and have never had a problem locating the temp folder for Outlook attachments before (in Windows XP, but now I have Vista!). Before looking up this post, I was able to locate the folder by using the “save as” method and manually typing in the location. The question I still don’t see an answer to is why this folder does not show up even with the show hidden files option being chosen. I do not like the idea that there are folders which may contain sensitive data on my computer that I cannot see. It, of course, raises the specter of what other information is being hidden on my computer. I was at least aware that somewhere there had to be an Outlook temp folder. Is there any way to make these “double secret” hidden folders viewable? Has anyone tried to determine what information is being “hidden” in this manner. I don’t want to sound too paranoid but it upset me that Microsoft made this folder essentially unviewable except to those “in the know”.
Thanks for this – really helpful
Thanks a lot for the info. Here comes another problem I’ve been trying to resolve. I have Outlook 2007 on my PC and when I create new mail and attach photo file like .jpg or .tif, I just can’t open it to make sure I am attaching the right file before I send it. It shows error saying something like the file can’t be opened and also displays the whole string of the OLK folder. If anyone had run into this problem and successfully solved it, please help.
Thanks a lot..
Is there a way to get the olk temp files to automatically delete instead of trying to manuelly delete them using the method mentions in this article?
db
Hi,
Hope you can help. I use XP SP2 and office 2003. Each time I download or want to open a file in jpeg I get the error c:\windows\temporary internet file\olk12d Not a jpeg file.
Do you know how to fix this as I cannot open any jpeg files
thanks in adv
Oliver
@Oliver – Hi Oliver, that is a very odd error. Are you not able to open any .jpeg files or do you have problems only when opening inside outlook? The first thing I would try either way is to delete the outlook OLK folder.
If you take a look in your registry as explained above, you should be able to find your OLK folder. First close everything, delete the OLK folder then reboot. Hopefully this clears it up. If not, please post further questions in the FORUM.
Thanks!
Dude, You just solved a BIG BIG problem for me. I had lost my ppt file on which I was workin for 2 days and then I found it in the secured Outlook folder! Thanks a lot guys!! Hats off too you!!
Ohhh I’m so greatful for this tutorial. Litterally a whole days worth of work saved and went missing and now have found it. Lovely work!
Very useful, thank you very much…
Thanks a lot, you are my hero.
Thank you so much, after reading several other websites for hours I finally came upon your solution. Saved me redoing a whole day of work.
OMG, my head nearly exploded when I realized I had been working all day with a temp file. You just saved me from having to work until midnight. THANK YOU
Thank you so much. This is an excellent info. on recovering the work done on excel file opened from outlook.
Thanks a lot for this info… This is very useful…
Thanks so much for these posts ….
am glad this was the need for the day. Infact will be nice if gmail/yahoo’s word/ppt attachments are opened and changed but got closed without being saved on the hard disk. Is there a way to recover those documents also ?????
Will be great if you can help on that.
Many thanks ……..
Hi Aarti – I’m glad the how-to helped you out! In regards to GMAIL/Yahoo…. You should go back to GMAIL, re-open an attachment, click File-Save and see where it’s saving the files. Your old files just might be sitting there and you’ll learn the location so you can open them manually later.
You should open a different attachment however than the ones you forgot to save just in case they get overwritten the 2nd time you open them.
The temporary storage location is RANDOMLY generated, so a batch file with a static location will not work between machines. I wrote this script to automate the clean-up process.
@echo offecho.&echo Outlook Temporary File Cleaner v2.0 by Giovanni Heward&echo.
for /f "tokens=5 delims=\" %%v in ('reg query hkcu\software\microsoft\office^|findstr "[0-9][0-9][.][0-9]"') do (
for /f "skip=2 tokens=2 delims=:" %%f in ('reg query hkcu\software\microsoft\office\%%v\outlook\security /v outlooksecuretempfolder') do (
set f=%systemdrive%%%f
if exist "%f%" (
echo Folder: %f%
echo Found: v%%v
set /p x = Cleaning...<nul
rd "%f%" /s /q||set /p x=Failed!<nul
set /p x = OK!<nul
md "%f%"
cd "%f%"
) else (
echo Folder %f% found in registry does not exist, skipping.
)
)
)
Hi All,
I have a similar problem with not being able to find attached files that I have been updating, but I am using Microsoft Live Mail.
Any ideas.
Russ.
Thanks a million. Saved a lot of rework for me.
Hi there MrGroove, fellow tech here. Hoping you know more than me. I know all about the secure temp folder and how to get to it. I have a unique situation though in that i need to get into a different users olk then the one i am logged on as. I can’t go to hkey current user because the current user is not what i need. It is not possible anymore to log on as that user. Any ideas? any hope? thanks a bunch!
Thank you, thank you.
YOU! saving my life with this post. Thanks
@Shihab – Awesome! I’ve not saved many lives with my writing so thank you for the feedback!
Excellent, many thanks. Just saved me a lot of hassle having to call someone in.
You just saved me SO MANY hours of frustration!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
You saved my day!!!! Thanks!!!
How wonderful! This is a great article!
It drives me a little bonkers when Microsoft rearranges and changes things like this. I would have never thought of typing “Content.Outlook”.
Thanks Again!!
THANK YOU. You just saved me a full day of work! T_T
Thanks dude, it worked for me too
thank you !!!!!!!!!
I opened my thesis, that I sent to myself, from aol. I did some additonal typing on it and save it but not as ‘save as’ to a word document. Now I cannot retrieve it. I have tried what you’ve directed, the only document that keeps coming up is the original one from AOL but not the one that I typed or updated. How can you help me?
You are a lifesaver! I collaborated on a document with a coworker without realizing I was making my changes in the Outlook email attachment. Was able to recover the temporary document using your instructions. You saved me hours of extra work – thank you!!!!!
@Belinda – Awesome! I’m glad I could help.
In Win 7 Outlook 2010 I found the OLK file by double clicking on a JPG file attachment, I then right clicked on the opened image and choose open file location. The OLK file opened with all its contents.
This could be a safer way to find the OLK file if you are helping someone over the phone as there is no risk of them inadvertently damaging the registry.
Sounds easy but it didn’t work for me
I tried it on a few of our win 7 computers running outlook 2010 and it works on all those.
Are you opening the jpeg attachment in windows photo viewer?
Double click the jpeg attachment to open it in windows photo viewer. In Windows photo viewer, right click the photo that is displayed and choose “open file location”.
It opens the OLK folder showing you all the files it contains.
I also created a shortcut to the OLK folder like this.
From within the OLK folder, press alt + up arrow to move up one folder. Then you can right click the folder and drag and drop it onto your desktop. Mine gave a message saying “These files might be harmful to your computer”. Click “OK” then choose create shortcut.
From now on you are just a double click away from seeing what’s in that OLK folder.
Yes it does work when I open the jpeg attachment…. Originally I was right clicking the attachment instead of opening it first.
This site is so groovy I have added it as one of my home tabs
@Johnjo – Hey thanks! I’m glad you like the site and my tips. Welcome to the community!
and thanks for the shortcut tip mega useful
Mr. Groove,
This is great information – actually something I have known about for a while as I ran into the issue someone else did of multiple same-name temp files.
But, what I can’t seem to find: is there any way to change the default location? I have a user that, no matter how hard I try, will NOT save her files before opening them. She opens, does the File Save As, and always forgets to change the folder. I am usually called up to her office at least 1x – 2x every week to retrieve the files. So, I want to change the location it goes to by default. Is there a way to do this?
Thank you again for the information, and for all the other tips and tricks from everyone else!
Update to my own question – I found a solution for changing the default Save As path. Of course, the answer was more/less right here all along:
In the registry, go to the HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\(version#)\Outlook\Security entry. Double click on OutlookSecureTempFolder entry. Change this to the path you want the files to Save As to as default.
For my user, I changed it to her Network Share location: O:\username
Now, if she opens an attachment, works on it, and clicks on Save As, the location that opens is her network share.
Hope this helps others that might have the same issue.
Great point @Bryan – I probably should have noted in the article that you can change the path if needed. Good point.
THIS WORKED!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Hi Sara – I’m glad it helped you out! Getting feedback like this is why I write this stuff! For more Outlook How-To articles and tips — Check out http://www.groovypost.com/tags/outlook-2010/
I could just kiss you! I just spent the last 4 late-night hours working on this excel doc and had no idea that I didn’t save it locally.
You are a lifesaver!
@Kevin – You’re very welcome however a Thank you is probably good enough.
I’m glad my site helped you out. The best way to say thanks is to share the site with friends however.
Thank you!
-Steve
You’re getting a virtual bear hug from me. YOU THE MAN DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU. THANK YOU.
You should add the bit about copying and pasting the file path into explorer.
@Paul – Thanks for the feedback! I work hard on the site and I appreciate all the feedback. Welcome to the groovy Community!
Thanks, this info saved my backside!
I spent all day working (and saving) a version of a file opened from an Outlook attachment. It completely disappeared when I closed it.
Thought I was hosed.
Hi @Allan!
My pleasure. I’ve been there before and actually LOST all that work until I figured out this little tip…. I’m glad I was able to save you some time!
Welcome to the site! I hope to see you around the comments of some of my other articles!
-Steve
Thank you very much. Without this info, I should have lost my saved file, which is in the temporary folder.
Ny company’s IT guy does not know about this when I need this help from him. He just simply said that use the “search” function (Windows 7), and if no search result, that means the file had been lost. Fortunately, I did not believe him and Googling for this, and found this page.
Hi Panasan!
It was very much my pleasure to help you get up and running again. I’m glad the tip bailed you out!
Perhaps you should have your IT guy subscribe to groovyPost!
Hey there, thanks for saving my ass. I lost data through Outlook that I’d spent three hours working on and was able to retrieve it using these tips.
Hi Tag!
This is a tip I wrote back in 2007 however it’s one of those tips one really shouldn’t be without!
Thank you very much for the feedback! This article receives about 2000 views a day so it’s rare for someone to stop and say thank you for the free tips.
Thanks,
-Steve