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Andrew van Renen's avatar
Andrew van Renen
Brass Contributor
Nov 12, 2018

Focused Inbox keeps disappearing

Hi - I gotten used to Focused Inbox and quite like it.  However, it keeps disappearing on me.

 

On first load in the morning, Outlook shows Focused Inbox.  After processing the first morning's set of emails, I switch focus to other apps.  When I switch back to Outlook, the Focus Inbox has disappeared.  In addition, the option in the View menu to turn it on also disappears.

 

If I close and restart Outlook, it comes back, but will again disappear after while. 

 

Has anyone else seen this behaviour?  I guess something is crashing, but I don't know how to trouble shoot this.

 

I am running Office Pro Plus Version 1810 (Build 11001.10060 Click-to-Run), 16.0.11001.20054.

  • Andrew van Renen 

     

    This issue drove me NUTS for weeks. I think I finally found the solution and was able to fix it.

     

    What worked for me was creating a new Outlook profile and just starting to use that instead of the existing one. Once you create a new profile, it's not that difficult to hook up your email address(es) to the new one. Takes a few minutes to an hour (depending on the size and number of your mailboxes). For me, this was Well worth the trouble to do it.

     

    In case you need it, here are some results of how to create a new Outlook profile. Good luck!

    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=new+outlook+profile

     

     

  • Bill Pennock's avatar
    Bill Pennock
    Copper Contributor
    April 2022 and it's still happening. I have not found a way to recover the focused inbox except shutdown outlook and restart. How can it take 5 years to make this feature stable?
    • Todd Walker's avatar
      Todd Walker
      Copper Contributor

      Bill Pennock because of this issue, and because what was and wasn't showing up in the focused view was constantly changing, I gave up on focused inbox and turned it off long ago in Outlook for the desktop. It seems to work much better on mobile devices though.

      • Bill Pennock's avatar
        Bill Pennock
        Copper Contributor

        Todd Walker Thanks.  Too bad it's a super useful feature and when I first started using it I didn't have the problem.  now it is all the time.  sigh.

    • DPugh1000's avatar
      DPugh1000
      Copper Contributor

      Bill Pennock 

      My workaround is to open a separate window for any Outlook view other than the inbox. So, for example, I open my calendar in a new window to look at it. That way my inbox window always keeps the Focused and Other choices. Shouldn't be necessary, but . . . .

      • Bill Pennock's avatar
        Bill Pennock
        Copper Contributor

        DPugh1000 That's a great idea. once you get the other window open you can use that to go between contacts and calendar I suppose as well. Thanks

  • Chuck Blackford's avatar
    Chuck Blackford
    Copper Contributor

    Andrew van Renen I'm not sure what caused this to start working for us, but we haven't had this issue in probably 6 months or longer at my firm.  On outlook version 2202 Build 14931.20132 (Click to run)

    Windows 10 Version 21h2 Build 19044.1586  Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4170.0

     

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