How to Troubleshoot Outlook Roaming Signatures - Missing or Duplicate Signatures

Scenario

Fig. 1. Your signatures cannot be used for new messages and replies/forwards.

Resolution

The above-listed issues are most likely related to the rollout of the Outlook roaming signatures (signature cloud settings) feature by Microsoft in your Microsoft 365 (Office 365) environment. This directly affects the signature settings in your Outlook for Windows.

To solve the problems and restore missing email signatures, use one of the methods listed below:

• Disable the Outlook roaming signatures feature
• Recreate missing email signatures by copying their contents

Disable the Outlook Roaming Signatures Feature

The new feature can be disabled by modifying the Windows registry:

• If you’re an IT admin, you can remotely & centrally modify the registry on your users’ PCs with a Global Policy Object (GPO).
• If you're a non-admin user, you can quickly modify the registry on your own PC.

For instructions on disabling the Outlook roaming feature, refer to this article and go to the section that fits your scenario. Once the feature has been disabled, Outlook for Windows needs to be restarted to restore missing email signatures. Proceed to the next step.

Recreate Missing Email Signatures by Copying Their Contents

Recreating missing signatures can be done by accessing files via File Explorer:

1. In Outlook for Windows, go to File > Options

2. In the Outlook Options window, go to the Mail tab and click the Signatures button (Fig. 2.) while holding the Ctrl key – the folder with your signatures will open in File Explorer

Fig. 2. Accessing the folder storing email signatures in Outlook for Windows.

3. Open either the RTF or HTML file with one of your email signatures (Fig. 3.) – whichever you choose is OK.

Fig. 3. Accessing files storing your missing email signatures.

4. In the newly opened file, highlight all of the signature content (Ctrl + A) and copy it (Ctrl + C).

5. Go back to Outlook for Windows and click the Signatures button once again - do not hold the Ctrl key this time.

6. Choose your email account (if you use multiple accounts in Outlook), click New, name your email signature, and click OK (Fig. 4.). Keep in mind that you cannot use the same name for two signatures, so name your ‘new’ signature differently from the ‘old’ (missing) one.

Fig. 4. Creating a new email signature.

7. In the Edit signature box, paste the signature contents you copied in step 4 (Ctrl + V) and click Save just below the box (Fig. 5.).

Fig. 5. Pasting, saving, and setting your signature as the default for new messages.

8. Set the signature as the default for new messages, replies/forwards, or both according to your preferences (see the bottom portion of Fig. 5.).

9. Repeat steps 3-8 to recreate your other missing email signatures.

10 Finally, click OK to close the Signatures and Stationery window and apply your changes,

From now on, you should be able to use your email signature as usual – just like you did before the release of the Outlook roaming signatures feature.