Benefits of Attaching a File in Outlook

Before going to the steps for how to attach a file in Outlook, let’s talk about why attaching files in Outlook is so essential. Here are seven key reasons:

  • Professional Communication: Sending reports, contracts, or presentations directly through Outlook keeps everything organized and trackable.
  • Time-Saving: Instead of sharing files via external links or cloud services, attaching them directly speeds up the process.
  • Record Keeping: Emails with attachments serve as proof of submission, which is crucial for legal, academic, or business purposes.
  • Collaboration: Teams often share drafts, feedback, or updates via email attachments for quick reviews.
  • Large File Sharing: While Outlook has size limits, knowing how to attach a large file in Outlook (or work around restrictions) is a game-changer.

How to Attach a File in Outlook

In this part, you can see 3 solutions on how to attach a file to an email in Outlook, including the most common way, how to attach a large file, and the quickest way to attach via the desktop app.

Method 1: The Standard Attachment (For Small to Medium Files)

The simplest way to attach a file in Outlook email is by using the standard attachment button. This works perfectly for documents, images, or spreadsheets that are not too large.

Step 1. Open Outlook and click “New mail” to enter the email-editing page.

Click New Mail
Click New Mail

Step 2. Click the “Attach File” button (it looks like a paperclip) in the upper toolbar.

Step 3. Choose the source of the attached file. You can choose from the local, OneDrive, or a link.

How to Attach a File to an Email in Outlook
How to Attach a File to an Email in Outlook

Note: When uploading a file from OneDrive, you can choose “Attach” to attach the file directly, or “Share link” to attach the link of this file.

Step 4. Once selected, the file will appear in the attachment line below the subject field.

Pro Tip: If you frequently send the same files, consider saving them in OneDrive and inserting them as cloud attachments instead—this keeps your email lighter.

Method 2: Attaching Large Files (Using OneDrive or File Compression)

When you want to attach a video, you may wonder how to attach a large file in Outlook. Outlook caps attachments at 20 MB (for most accounts), so sending large files requires a workaround.

Step 1. Upload the desired file to OneDrive or another cloud storage. Instead of attaching directly, you can first upload the file to OneDrive.

Step 2. In Outlook, click the “Attach File” button and choose OneDrive.

Step 3. Select your file and click “Share link”. Outlook will insert the file as a link rather than a bulky attachment.

How to Attach a Large File in Outlook
How to Attach a Large File in Outlook

Note: Alternatively, compress (zip) the file before attaching to reduce its size.

Method 3: Drag-and-Drop (The Quickest Shortcut)

For those who love efficiency and have the Outlook app, dragging and dropping files into an email is the fastest way to attach a file in Outlook email. This method skips multiple clicks and works whether you are attaching a single file or multiple items.

Step 1. Open Outlook on your desktop.

Step 2. Click “New mail” to create a new email.

Step 3. Locate the file you want to attach on your computer.

Step 4. Drag the file and drop it into the email body part. Then, this file will be attached to this email.

How to Attach a File in Outlook Email
How to Attach a File in Outlook Email

Bonus Tip: How to Export Outlook Emails with Attachments in Bulk

For important emails, have you thought of backing them up to a local place or cloud drive? If so, how do you realize that? Let’s forget the troublesome downloading and uploading way and use a new and automatic one with MultCloud.

MultCloud is a professional cloud storage and email client manager. You can add your cloud and email accounts to it and trigger the migration between them. The function used for email-to-cloud migration is Email Migration. It can directly save emails from Outlook to OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, or other clouds without exporting them. Moreover, you can download multiple emails (up to 200 emails) to the local at once on MultCloud. The best thing is that whether you want to save the emails to the cloud or local, they can be automatically converted into PDF files.

Save Outlook Emails to the Cloud

Step 1. Create a MultCloud account on its website.

Step 2. Add Outlook to MultCloud by clicking “Add Email” and the Outlook logo.

Add Outlook to MultCloud
Add Outlook to MultCloud

Step 3. Add the cloud to MultCloud by clicking “Add Cloud” and the cloud logo.

Add Google Drive to MultCloud
Add Google Drive to MultCloud

Step 4. Select the “Email Migration” function and choose Outlook and the cloud in the boxes. Then, click “Migrate Now” to start this task.

Back Up Outlook Emails to Google Drive
Back Up Outlook Emails to Google Drive

Note: You can schedule the task to let it run daily, weekly, or monthly. Besides, you can filter the emails you do not want to migrate by sender, recipients, dates, with attachment or not, and is read or not.

Email Filter
Email Filter

Download Outlook Emails in Bulk

Step 1. Create a MultCloud account and add Outlook to it.

Step 2. Open Outlook on MultCloud and select the emails you want to download.

Step 3. Click the “Download” button in the upper taskbar.

Download All Outlook Emails
Download All Outlook Emails

Step 4. Name the email package, choose “Save Attachments” or not, and choose how to list the messages in the PDF file. Then, click “OK” to download.

Email Download Options
Email Download Options

Note: MultCloud allows users to convert 50 emails into PDF files for free every month. If you need more for email downloading or migration, you can upgrade your plan.

Conclusion

You can learn how to attach a file in Outlook in 3 easy ways in this post. If you often use the Outlook website, you can attach a file with the “Attach File” button which allows you to add even large files (upload from OneDrive). On the other hand, if you prefer the app, you can simply drag the file from your computer and drop it into the email.

Besides, if you want to download emails or save them to the cloud, MultCloud can be utilized. It supports exporting multiple emails at the same time and converting emails into PDF files.

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