How to get rid of “often unread”

Hello gm321,

Thanks for using Microsoft products and posting in the community.  

Based on your description, it seems like you’re talking about ads in outlook.com. However, it’s a bit different from what I understand. Ads in outlook.com usually appear at the top of some inboxes, not under individual email, and there doesn’t seem to be an unsubscribe button. If possible, could you provide a screenshot?

Generally speaking, ad messages will have a clear “Ad” label. Outlook.com is a free email service which contains ads. If you want to remove ads in Outlook.com, Microsoft offers premium Outlook features with Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

Here is some information about ads in outlook.com.

About ads in Outlook - Microsoft Support

Remove ads in Outlook.com - Microsoft Support

I fully understand that this may bring a bad user experience, and I also hate ads. But unfortunately, this is how Microsoft has designed it at present.

By the way, if you go to Settings > Mail > Layout and select Sort messages into Focus and Other, you currently won’t see ad messages in Focus.

Please feel free to let me know if you need any further assistance. 

Best Regards, 

Zachary.W - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Hi Zachary W!

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

The info you share about ads is handy to have. The issue I am encountering this time is a little different. It was tricky to explain but here’s a screenshot which illustrates the problem. Any thoughts/advice very welcome!

Thanks for your reply.

It seems like your mailbox has been taken over by spam.

According to the picture you provided, the problem you mentioned seems to come from third-party spam emails. Generally speaking, receiving information or advertisements from third parties may be because you have subscribed to their related push notifications. If you click to unsubscribe, you will no longer receive push emails from them.

For plenty of third-party spam emails, you can long press this email to enter the selection mode. After selecting all the emails you don’t need, select the block button in the lower right corner. This will send these emails to the spam folder and block the sender. In the future, their emails will automatically go into the spam folder instead of the inbox

For individual spam emails, you can also open them and find the block function at the three dots (…) at the top of the screen.

It’s important to note that you should not select normal emails, as this will affect the receipt of emails

Please feel free to let me know if you need any further assistance. 

Best Regards, 

Zachary.W - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Hi Zachary W, I have the same issue but it is not the emails I would like to remove, it is to stop the outlook message about often unread messages and option to unsubscribe that has started to appear. Regards Dave

Hi again…

Yes… sorry… I probably wasn’t very clear… my issue is the same as Daves

ie. I want to stop or get rid of the “often unread” messages that appear under the emails, not the actual emails. I’m ok receiving the emails & want to decide for myself whether to read them, delete them or unsubscribe from them without the intrusive & unhelpful prompts.

Thanks!

Hi Zachary,

Same as the others in this thread, I'm not interested in removing the messages or blocking the sender, I just want to remove the gray "often unread" banners. Microsoft adds this banner to way too many messages, including messages from senders or campaigns that I often read and engage with.

If there isn't a setting to disable this, is there at least a good place to submit feedback about this new feature?

Hi Zachary,

Same as the others in this thread, I'm not interested in removing the messages or blocking the sender, I just want to remove the gray "often unread" banners. Microsoft adds this banner to way too many messages, including messages from senders or campaigns that I often read and engage with.

If there isn't a setting to disable this, is there at least a good place to submit feedback about this new feature?

I agree. Absolutely hate this new feature, so intrusive and up to us when and if we read messages. Besides (I suspect an AI feature) isn't getting it right anyway as often they are not unread. PLEASE MICROSOFT REMOVE THIS FEATURE ASAP AS IT REALLY IS HAVING A DETRIMENTAL IMPACT ON THE USE OF MY EMAIL ACCOUNT. Thank you.

How are you a Microsoft agent but don't know this is a Microsoft "feature"?

This is terrible UX. Who on earth green-lit this?

How are you a Microsoft agent but don't know this is a Microsoft "feature"?

This is terrible UX. Who on earth green-lit this?

Agreed! Please tell us how to disable this 'feature'. It has nothing to do with spam nor advertising, very disappointing that a Microsoft agent seems not understand the problem. Please Zachary find someone in Microsoft who understands the problem and tell us how to fix it, thank you

Hi, gm321

Thanks for reporting this issue in Microsoft Answers.

We are sorry to hear that you have experienced a bad user experience when using Outlook.

Initially, our team created this feature to enable users to swiftly unsubscribe from infrequently read marketing emails, thereby mitigating the issue of user experience deterioration due to the influx of such high-frequency communications.

These information banners with often unread and unsubscribe can be disappeared by simply clicking on the email or clicking unsubscribe but this feature cannot be disabled currently.

Your feedback has been heard, and your experience has been conveyed to the appropriate teams. We hope our developers will identify an improved solution promptly. Meanwhile, we encourage users to utilize the feedback feature in Outlook to submit their suggestions directly to Microsoft. This collaborative effort will contribute to enhancing the overall experience. I hope my answer can be helpful, I appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

Best Regards,

Schale.P-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist