Replacely

· 4 min read

Mac text replacement not working in Outlook for Mac

New Outlook for Mac dropped its AutoCorrect list in 2025, and text replacements broke for many people. The fixes users report, which ones last, and other tools.

The short answer

In mid-2025 the new Outlook for Mac lost its AutoCorrect settings, including "Replace text as you type," and many people's shortcuts stopped expanding. The fix that most users confirmed is to put your shortcuts in macOS itself, under System Settings > Keyboard > Text Replacements, and make sure Edit > Substitutions > Text Replacement is checked in Outlook. If that doesn't work, people have had success switching off Outlook's New Editor, clearing Outlook's application data, or going back to Legacy Outlook. None of these work for everyone.

What changed

Most of what we know comes from one long Microsoft Q&A thread, "Autocorrect removed from New Outlook on MacOS". It opened on 25 June 2025. The first poster said the June 2025 update removed the AutoCorrect section from Outlook's settings, including "Replace text as you type," and that their text replacements stopped working in Outlook.

Microsoft never posted a clear explanation in that thread. In February 2026 a Microsoft MVP wrote that it was unknown whether the removal was intentional, and pointed people to Microsoft's feedback portal. Later that month another user reported that some settings had come back under Edit > Spelling and Grammar, but only as on/off toggles with no list you can edit.

So if you used Outlook's own AutoCorrect list for shortcuts, that list may simply be gone from the new Outlook. The fixes below are the ones users reported. I've noted which ones had mixed results.

Fix 1: use macOS Text Replacements and check the menu

This became the accepted answer in the thread on 31 July 2025, and two other users confirmed it worked, one of them on macOS 14.

  1. Open System Settings > Keyboard, then click Text Replacements.
  2. Click + and add your shortcut and the text it should become.
  3. In Outlook, start a new message and click into the body.
  4. Open Edit > Substitutions and make sure Text Replacement has a checkmark.

Apple documents the steps for adding text replacements and the per-app toggle. One user later said this didn't work for them, so if it fails, keep going.

Fix 2: switch off the New Editor

A Microsoft MVP in the same thread fixed it by switching from the New Editor, which was in preview, back to the standard editor. The toggle is at the bottom of the compose window. He repeated the advice a month later. This is the least disruptive thing to try after Fix 1.

Fix 3: clear Outlook's application data

This one is more involved, and results were mixed. A user on macOS Tahoe posted these steps in September 2025, and another user confirmed they worked on Outlook 16.101.2 with macOS 26.0.1:

  1. In Outlook, go to Edit > Spelling and Grammar > AutoCorrect and turn off Show Text Predictions.
  2. Go to Help > Clear Application Data.
  3. Select First run experience and Experimental features, then clear.

Be careful. One poster warned that clearing application data loses Copilot. Another said it switched them back to Legacy Outlook. A user on Outlook 16.103.2 with macOS 26.1 said the fix only lasted one session. Try Fix 1 and Fix 2 first.

Fix 4: go back to Legacy Outlook

Several people in the thread stayed on or returned to Legacy Outlook, which still had its AutoCorrect settings. It's a stopgap rather than a fix, since you're opting out of the version Microsoft is still changing.

Check that macOS isn't the problem

Before you spend an hour inside Outlook, type a shortcut in TextEdit or Notes. If it doesn't expand there, Outlook isn't the cause. Try adding a temporary text replacement in System Settings and deleting it. Both Guiding Tech and an Apple Community poster report that this wakes up the rest. Our guide to text replacements that stopped after a macOS update has the full list.

Options that don't depend on Outlook

The underlying problem is that Outlook keeps changing how it handles text input. A system-wide text expander inserts the text itself, so an Outlook update can't remove it the way it removed AutoCorrect.

If you have a long list in macOS already, export it first so you have a copy before you try anything that clears data.

Summary

  1. Add your shortcuts in System Settings and check Edit > Substitutions > Text Replacement in Outlook.
  2. If that fails, switch off the New Editor from the compose window.
  3. Clearing application data helped some people but may not last, and it can switch you to Legacy Outlook.
  4. For shortcuts that survive Outlook updates, use a system-wide expander.