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Isaac B Smith

Outlook Folders Keep Changing

I'm using outlook.com through my university. When I move an email thread to a folder, I want it to stay in that folder, but if I reply, then it gets put in the sent folder and removed from the folder I want it in. This is really a bad situation for searching.

Example:

I receive an email from my department chair. I respond and then move it to "department issues." If the chair asks me a followup question it stays in "department issues", but if I answer his followup question, the email thread is moved to sent.

This creates a painful situation in which I have to move emails from sent back to where I want them - where I can find them when I'm searching for past emails. But then they aren't also in my sent folder.

Is there a good way to have it in both places or for the email to stay in my "department issues" folder?

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Replies (7)

Diane Poremsky [ M365 MVP ]

Independent Advisor

Hello Isaac

I'm Diane, a Microsoft 365 Apps & Services MVP and I'll try to help you today.

Is the thread actually moved or do you just see all the messages together?

When you enable conversation view and use the option to show messages from other folders, you'll see the thread in both folders.

-- Diane

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Diane Poremsky
M365 MVP, specializing in Outlook, Exchange, and Microsoft 365 apps.

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Isaac B Smith

Diane,

Thanks for responding. I'm using outlook online, so my menu looks different from that.

I looked at things again, and the email thread shows up in two places if I am sure to move it back into the proper folder from my inbox. If I simply hit the "archive" button, then it is moved into the archive folder and doesn't stay in the folder where I want it. This hurts productivity because it takes time to scroll through my elaborate folder structure to find the right folder - and I do this hundreds of times per day.

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Diane Poremsky [ M365 MVP ]

Independent Advisor

Yeah, if you use the archive button and move it to the special Archive folder, the message is moved - but if you use conversation view and show mail from all folders, you should see all messages in the thread regardless of where they are. Outlook on the web doesn't have an option to not show messages from other folders - so you should just need to enable conversation view.

This is a thread in my Outlook on the web mailbox with conversation view - if I expect the thread in the sent folder, I can see all messages in it - and the folder where the message is.