Forum Discussion
MicrosoftUpdate on Focused Inbox rollout for Outlook 2016 for Windows users
Edited: Nov 10, 2017 with updated information.
Focused Inbox is coming to an Outlook near you! Here is an update on our status for Outlook 2016 for Windows. If you want to see our latest for other platforms, see our blog post, as these details haven’t changed.
Note: we have provided admins the ability to control the rollout of Focused Inbox in their organizations. For more details, read our blog post on admin controls.
Rollout status
As a reminder, there is a client and service side component required for Focused Inbox to appear in Outlook. The user’s mailbox in Office 365 & Outlook.com must receive a service side update to be Focused Inbox enabled. Secondly, the user must have a build of Outlook that includes the client-side updates necessary for Focused Inbox to appear.
Service side status:
We deployed to 100% of Office 365 (Exchange Online) and Outlook.com mailboxes. This is no longer a factor in availabilty.
Client side status:
There are a few client side requirements:
- Requires build 16.0.7967.2xxx+.
- This build began rolling out on April 21, 2017 to the Monthly (formerly Current) Channel for Office 365 ProPlus as Version 1703.
- Those using a Semi-Annual (formerly Deferred) Channel build will not have access to this feature right now, as those channels offer delayed access to builds. Semi-Annual Channel will get Focused Inbox in 2018.
- Currently, the feature requires Office 365 modern authentication be enabled.
- Starting with build 16.0.8730 Version 1711, this requirement will no longer apply
- If you are using a build prior to 1711, modern authentication must be enabled in Exchange Online. See Enable Exchange Online for modern authentication
- Review Using Office 365 modern authentication with Office clients before getting started
- Modern authentication is automatically on for Office 2016 client apps. However, it is possible to block this using a registry key. See How modern authentication works for Office 2016 client apps to ensure the Registry key is properly set.
- Previous use of Clutter
- To ensure a good experience for those who previously used Clutter, user may get Focused Inbox rolled out in a defaulted-off state. See the chart in the “Transition from Clutter” section of our blog post.
I'm going to take a wild guess that nobody had the smarts to create a registry key or group policy for us admins to disable focused inbox on a per computer or per user basis. No of course not that would be the competent thing to do.
No, As that would require us to configure this on every single portal past present and future as opposed to once in one central location during OSD
Hi, I have Outlook Version 1705 but unable to see Focus Inbox through View Tab or anyhow Can you please help on this?
Thanks
Ashu
You will need to upgrade Office 365 ProPlus, ideally to version 1711 or greater to have any chance of seeing the Focused Inbox. The means being on the Monthly Channel at which point you should have access to the Focused Inbox. This has a few more details - Update on Focused Inbox and our plans for Clutter, including upcoming channels other than the monthly channel that will also support the Focused Inbox.
We have 1803 rolling out now to our users, (Semi Annual Targetted). Focused Inbox does not appear to be present.
Based on the discussion and links you have sent, it should be active. Are we missing anything else that should make it available for our users?
We have some users on Monthly, and Focused Inbox works great, but when we downgrade to 1803 Semi Annual Targetted, it doesnt come back.
It FINALLY, AUTOMATICALLY showed up!!! That was a loooong wait but I'm glad it's finally here.
Allen,
Looks like I'm spitting into a hurricane regarding the feature, but the article's good. The point about version 1711 is key, as my client was advised by PSS to turn off modern auth in order to disable Focused Inbox completely. That's not a great trade-off, and irrelevant given the change at v1711. (Client is at 1702.)
This customer is 15000+ plus seats, so not huge, but not mom-&-pop either. FI doesn't fit the way they use email. The inability to disable the feature along with the Outlook prompt to turn it on will translate to calls to their help desk.
The client is pursuing other methods of delivering feedback to Microsoft, and I'd value your take on this. The rollout feels heavy-handed to this client; they believe that Microsoft could deliver the feature with a much lighter touch, if they were simply to provide a registry key (or keys) to disable FI itself and the user opt-in.
Cheers,
Dan
- AllenFilush
Hey Daniel,
You can manage Focused Inbox at the org level, and disable it for everyone. Detail can be found here: https://support.office.com/en-US/article/Configure-Focused-Inbox-for-everyone-in-your-organization-613a845c-4b71-41de-b331-acdcf5b6625d.
From there, there will not be a prompt to turn it on. Individual users can still manage to turn it on in Outlook themselves, if they so choose since they like the feature.
I finally got it to work but I had to enable modern auth even with v1711 installed. Very frustrating....
I don't understand. I have Outlook 2016 version 1711 and I have focused inbox enabled. It works fine in OWA but my local client does not have the option to enable focused inbox. I've looked at every tab including the view tab and nothing.
Can anyone help?
- Are you on Monthly channel? If not you won't have it.
yes I'm on a monthly channel
So I'm on version 1708 Semi Annual Targeted. I meet the Outlook version requirement, but it looks like you need to be on the Monthly channel to see the Focused Inbox.
At what point will Semi Annual or Semi Annual Targeted installs (which I imagine is a large percentage of Enterprise users) be enabled for the Focused inbox? And how does enabling Focused Inbox for the Office 365 tenant in Powershell affect us right now? Does it not matter unless we switched to Monthly Channel?
Thanks for any guidance you can provide.
- AllenFilushIt will come to Targeted in March of 2018, then Semi-Annual the next release after that. Those builds provide customer a slower update path from Monthly, which is why you haven't received the update yet.
Messing with FI won't effect the feature in Outlook 2016 until you are on Monthly channel or the feature comes to Semi-Annual. It will enable/disable the feature in the web, in Outlook for Mac, etc.Allen,
Just to make sure I understand correctly, even though build numbers matched for monthly and targeted channels in September, the functionality does not match? I was under the impression that the targeted channel caught up to feature sets in the monthly channel at that point and then they were locked for testing until Semi-Annual comes out.
If there is truly a difference, then the build numbers need to be different to reflect it.
Why is this only accessible on ProPlus, and not on the Office 365 Home edition of Outlook 2016?
When can we expect it for the Home edition?
- AllenFilushIt is available in Office 365 Home, and has been for a long time. It is just subject to all the other requirements discussed in the original post above. Linking it here again: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Outlook/Update-on-Focused-Inbox-rollout-for-Outlook-2016-for-Windows/td-p/66594
- AllenFilush
Hey Patrick - sorry for the confusion. It is available for all versions of Office 365 - ProPlus, Business, Home and Personal. I typically use ProPlus in this thread as this is a commercial customer forum, so that is what most people are familiar with.
Just remember, as noted in the original post here, that Focused Inbox is a service-side feature in addition to a client side feature. Meaning, you need to be using an Exchange Online mailbox in order for this to work.
We are in the process of enabling for Outlook.com mailboxes...those will work in 16.0.8730 Version 1711.
- Thanks for the response! Strange enough, I have Version 1710 (updated from 1709 yesterday), and I cannot get Focused Inbox to work/show, on two Office 365 business accounts nor Outlook.com
However the Mail app in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, as well as the web versions and the Mobile versions give me access to Focused Inbox.
Focused Outlook coming to an Outlook near me? It's not coming to my outlook so do I have to check in the businesses's nearby? Is this some sort of treasure hunt?
I am a partner but this brainless roll out of a "feature" is so typical and makes it hard to stay loyal(or see the worth of moving up the partner ladder). I am a very savvy problem solver and I am 2 hours deep and no closer to either turning clutter back on or getting "focused inbox" on in Outlook 2016.
Well at least they actively warned me that the change was coming....Oh wait they didn't do that at all, I have to wait for it to stop working and then stumble onto this article(which doesn't offer a working solution).
Thanks Bill! Way to leave me flat footed when my client CEO is bitching about his clutter not working. Makes me look so good talking them out of G Suite that I have to type in complex code to change basic settings. Really? Should I still be calling this clunker BPOS?
- AllenFilushThanks for your thoughtful and emotionless reply :). You can turn Clutter back on using the PowerShell script I provided above. Or if you aren't familiar with that, you can use the manual steps I also provided in this conversation (copied again below).
As for communications, the best place to stay up to date on Focused Inbox is to read the Office 365 Message Center. We post there each time we make a change to our service you need to be aware of. For FI, we posted when we first started rolling out to Outlook on the web, and again when we rolled out to Monthly Channel (this Feb/March). We will post again here shortly, as soon as we finalize removing the modern auth requirement explained in the initial post here.
Nothing about FI has changed since March...if your customer is complaining to you, they likely in-advertently turned on Focused Inbox in the web client, not understanding their Outlook for Windows client was not yet enabled. Turning on FI turns off Clutter (since they are the same thing, implemented differently.
__Manual steps__
1. Sign in to Outlook on the web with your boss's account. Note: You need to be using the regular version of Outlook on the web, not the 'light' version. If using Light, switch to full version by navigating to Options > General > Light version and clear the Use the light version of Outlook on the web check box.
Then:
2. In the upper-left corner of the page, choose App launcher > Outlook.
3. On the navigation bar, go to Settings > Mail > Layout > Focused Inbox. Choose Don’t sort messages. Click Save.
4. Return to inbox. Refresh the browser.
5. On the navigation bar, return to settings and the Clutter options should now be available. Settings > Mail > Automatic processing > Clutter.
6. Choose Separate items identified as Clutter > SaveSorry, but my client did not do anything to turn on FI. In fact both his clutter and my clutter stopped working at pretty much the exact same time last Thursday at 4 and we are on completely separate tenants. So, clearly it is some sort of multi-tenant update pushed out on the back end.
In any case I have turned clutter back on for both of us. I was trying to move forward with Focused inbox, but after trying every article I could find and spending a couple of hours with support last night it is just not working in Outlook 2016 on several machines.
I'm not going to apologize for being annoyed about this. When clutter was first rolled out we got e-mails explaining it. Now I guess we have to monitor a blog to find out about this stuff and even still it would not have warned me that it was going to be changed for me when it was.
I have the latest update of Outlook 2016, shouldn't I see this by know?
- AllenFilushNope. Just read the article at the top of this conversation, which explains why. Requires Exchange Online mailbox and modern auth.
I have Outlook.com which supports exchange so I should see it, so why don't I?
I have MS Office 365 for home/personal version 1708 and I still haven't received the Focused Inbox on my desktop Outlook 2016 -- it appears on outlook.com (although I don't import my active email accounts in to it - they are all IMAP and Exchange and I want to keep it that way)
I recently set up a new laptop with a fresh install of O365 and it doesn't show up either.
Focused inbox works fine the way it is on my android devices.
Is there a setting that I have to do on our computers to allow "Modern Authentication" or something. I have a small business - just me.
I really want to make this work - it will help keep me organized.
You're using an Outlook.com mailbox (consumer account)? Focused is not yet supported for Outlook.com in Outlook desktop; at this time, you need to have a mailbox on Office 365 business/enterprise. When they remove the modern auth requirement, it should work in the desktop.
Diane_Poremsky_MVP wrote:You're using an Outlook.com mailbox (consumer account)? Focused is not yet supported for Outlook.com in Outlook desktop; at this time, you need to have a mailbox on Office 365 business/enterprise. When they remove the modern auth requirement, it should work in the desktop.
Thank you - when do you think that might be - removing modern authorization I use Office 365 for personal. I do have an exchange account that i get free with my Comcast business internet. I am not sure that matters.
I wish Microsoft would explain this further. I can find Focused info on my Help in my build of Outlook.
