Forum Discussion
Outlook 365 "forced categories" in FROM field
Outlook 365 got new "feature" that marks random e-mail with "forced category" named "Promotion" (on screenshot "Propagacne akcie"). On attached screenshot you can see fairly important e-mail about delivery of big packet I'm waiting for. Definitely this is not related to any promotion or advertising.
This new "forced categories" do not exists in normal categories. They can not be deleted, changed, or hidden from view. Please note that what you normally understand as category is displayed in SUBJECT ("Predmet" on screenshot) field, but these "forced categories" are displayed in the FROM ("Od" on screenshot) field.
This feature was implemented cca 1 or 2 weeks ago.
Has anyone experienced situation like this? How to get rid of these "forced categories"?
What I tried:
1. Checked categories in settings - category like this does not exists
2. Checked categories in settings - suggested categories switch does not exists
3. Tried to create rule to remove the "forced category", but rules ignore these "forced categories", they work only with standard categories (in the subject field)
4. Searched view menu if it can be changed to not display "forced categories", but there is no single switch about it.
5. Tried all available conversation view options
6. Disabled copilot
3 Replies
I would recommend checking whether Focused Inbox or other automatic email classification features are enabled. Disabling Focused Inbox in Outlook Desktop or Outlook on the Web may help determine whether these labels are related to Microsoft's automatic message organization features.
I am using mu Outlook Portuguese Brazil Languange.
But In englishh the option are- Settings→ Email→ Layout or Message List
Settings → Mail → Layout → Focused Inbox (disable the option).
If you are using Outlook Desktop go to - View - Focused Inbox (disable the option)Thank you for this idea, have tested it and has no impact.
More precisely: In focused inbox the mentined e-mail is not visible at all. In normal inbox the e-mail is visible as on screenhot of my first post.
Edit: and when I was testing added one more test from my coleague "Add the sender to trusted senders" - unfortunatelly also without any change, still getting the "Promotios" displayed.
The screenshot shows “Promotion” inline before the sender, while the message has no matching item in your Categories list. That distinguishes it from Outlook’s user-managed color categories, which can be renamed or removed through Categorize. It appears to be a service-generated classification in the Outlook web interface, and Microsoft’s published category and view settings do not document a control for hiding that inline label. Rules, Sweep, or deleting a color category will not remove a presentation label. Compare the mailbox in classic Outlook; if the label is absent there, you have confirmed a web-client feature or rollout rather than mailbox data. Send the screenshot and one affected message’s headers through Help > Feedback, and ask your administrator to open a Microsoft 365 support case. Until Microsoft exposes a setting, classic Outlook or a different supported message-list view is the safest workaround; avoid modifying mail-flow rules merely to hide the display.
