Outlook 2013 Favorites - folders change order constantly

Wow! I can't believe this works.  But it does.  Just need to have two windows open whenever you close Outlook  When you restart the first window ordering will be incorrect, but the second one will be correct.  Maybe by the time it launches the second window all the resources are available..

Since writing the original post I've found you don't even have to have two windows open when you close - just right-click on mail (or any of the others really) and select "open in new window" as soon as the first window opens and you have a clean, correctly sorted window. You can then close the previous window with the sort issue and enjoy the rest of your Outlook session... 5 seconds work max.

Still irritating, but at least an easier workaround and more reliable than many posted. I personally have 9 items in my list so this is quite important to me...

Come on Microsoft - we've now narrowed it down to the initialisation code for the first window being at fault - how much more help do you need to fix this ancient bug???

Don't forget to upvote if this works for you, so that others can more easily find it.

I've also had the favorites sort order problem.  From another thread:

I am also having a similar problem, I have done some testing on my outlook...  

In my outlook I have setup several email accounts configured including exchange, Hotmail/outlook.com, Microsoft 365, POP, IMAP/SMTP types.

I added each inbox to the favorites one by one, moving them to the top of the favorites section, closing and opening Outlook between each one. I found that when I added the IMAP/SMTP folders to favorites (like gmail or yahoo) the problem starts. 

Furthermore I found that I can add the imap accounts to favorites but if I do NOT move them to the top of the favorites section, (keeping them toward the bottom of the favorites list like below sent items and deleted items) it does not cause the ordering problem.

One more thing found during testing, if you add the imap account and restart outlook to find the order has changed you can remove the imap account from favorites (be sure not to change the favorites order again) then close and open outlook again, the order will return correctly.

Hopefully this can provide some insight to resolve the problem.

I have also found that if I add my IMAP account to the end of the Favorites list (Gmail), then the sort order remains.  Once I move it up the list, the sort order becomes corrupted.