How to Use (or Turn Off) Focused Inbox in Outlook
If your Outlook inbox has two tabs — Focused and Other — that's Focused Inbox. It sorts important emails into Focused and puts newsletters, notifications and automated emails into Other. Some people love it. Others miss important emails because they never check Other.
How Focused Inbox works
• Focused — emails from people you talk to often and things Outlook thinks matter.
• Other — marketing emails, newsletters, notifications, automated messages.
• Other — marketing emails, newsletters, notifications, automated messages.
Outlook learns from what you open, reply to and move. You still get notified about Other emails, depending on your settings, but they're out of the way.
Teach it what goes where
If an email is in the wrong tab:
1. Right-click the email.
2. Choose Move to Focused (or Move to Other) to move just that one, or
3. Choose Always move to Focused (or Always move to Other) to move every future email from that sender.
2. Choose Move to Focused (or Move to Other) to move just that one, or
3. Choose Always move to Focused (or Always move to Other) to move every future email from that sender.
After a few corrections, Focused Inbox gets much more accurate.
Turn Focused Inbox off
New Outlook and Outlook on the web
1. Click Settings (the cog icon).
2. Go to Mail > Layout.
3. Under Focused Inbox, choose Don't sort my messages.
4. Click Save.
2. Go to Mail > Layout.
3. Under Focused Inbox, choose Don't sort my messages.
4. Click Save.
Classic Outlook for Windows
1. Go to the View tab.
2. Click Show Focused Inbox to turn it off (click again to turn it back on).
2. Click Show Focused Inbox to turn it off (click again to turn it back on).
Outlook on iPhone and Android
1. Tap your profile picture (or the Settings cog).
2. Find Focused Inbox and switch it off.
2. Find Focused Inbox and switch it off.
Outlook for Mac
Go to Organize (or View) and untick Focused Inbox.
"Emails are missing!" — check Other
If someone says they sent you something and you can't see it, the first place to look is the Other tab. It's the most common reason for "missing" emails in Outlook.
Prefer your own system?
Instead of Focused Inbox, some people turn it off and use rules to move newsletters into a "Read Later" folder. That way you decide exactly what goes where.
Wrapping up
Use Always move to Focused and Always move to Other to train it — or switch it off in Settings > Mail > Layout (new Outlook) or View > Show Focused Inbox (classic). Whatever you choose, check Other before assuming an email is lost.
