Find out the location of Outlook email signatures and how to back them up

[Update] This article was first published on July 09, 2013. It begged for a major update, so we did it.

The Outlook email signature location depends on which Outlook you’re dealing with. In this article, I’ll list the possible locations of Outlook signatures and show you how to back up and restore them.

Outlook email signature location

The exact location of email signatures depends on the type of Outlook and the OS you’re using.

Outlook for Windows

’Classic’ Outlook for Windows stores signatures in the following locations:

For any Windows after Vista (Windows 11, Windows 10 included): C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures

If, for some reason, you forgot to keep up with technology, the location for Windows XP is as follows: C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures

NOTE: If your Windows language setting is other than English, the path will be your language equivalent of the above, e.g. (Dutch): C:\Gebruikers\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Handtekeningen

You can access the signatures’ location either by pasting the appropriate path into the Windows File Explorer address bar (marked orange below):

You can also go to the File tab on the program’s ribbon > Options > Mail. Then, hold CTRL and click the Signatures button, which will take you directly to the signature folder location:

In case of the new Outlook for Windows or the classic Outlook for Windows with signature cloud settings on, signatures are no longer stored locally. They are saved in mailbox settings, ’in the cloud.’ The path to their settings is:

The new Outlook for Windows: Settings > Mail > Compose and reply

Outlook on the web

Just like with the new Outlook for Windows, the path is Settings > Mail > Compose and reply:

Outlook for Mac

To access the physical location of your Outlook signatures on Mac, launch Finder, go to Go > Go to folder and enter the following path:

~/library/mail

Then choose the folder with the version (V9, for example) and go to Signatures. That’s where your HTML email signatures are stored.

Back up and restore Outlook signatures

To back up your Outlook for Windows or Outlook for Mac email signatures, simply copy all the contents from their location to another place.

It’s a bit more complicated if you try to back up Outlook signatures that have no local copy, like in the new Outlook for Windows, Outlook on the web (OWA), Outlook with roaming signatures turned on. In this case, you need to get those signatures into HTML files.

One way to do that is to send yourself an email with a signature included and save it in the HTML format. Then you can delete the message body and save the signature as an HTML file. The problem is, most email clients add some invisible formatting information to the HTML code. This information might be invisible but can manifest itself in some unexpected ways. For example, when you later try to set your backed-up signature up in your email client’s settings. That’s why it might be a good idea to start using the free email signature generator. This way, you can create as many email signature designs as you need and back them up. To restore one of your backed-up email signatures, open its HTML file in a web browser, copy the signature and paste it into your email client’s signature settings. For more detailed guides on setting up your email signatures, check out our how-to articles.