Update on Focused Inbox rollout for Outlook 2016 for Windows users

Microsoft

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.
  • 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.

 

186 Replies
Jeff

Allen seems to say that it will only be available on outlook.com, exchange accounts from Microsoft, and eventually gmail -- but can't explain why I can't use it for my IMAP accounts on Outlook 2016 desktop when my little Android running Outlook doesn't care what kind of email account I have. They say it will when Modern Authorization isn't required it will work on all accounts but then they contradict themselves and say it won't. I am as confused as you.

Simply put -- FI , in theory, should work on all devices regardless of email account type -- especially if it works on an Android version of Outlook with those same accounts. No one has explained that to me either.

I wonder if there is a 3rd party app for Outlook 2016 desktop that will do the same thing and help you prioritize email better.
(I have 12,000 items in each of multiple mailboxes and have problems getting through the clutter).


>> eventually gmail 

When the "Microsoft cloud" is supported in outlook desktop, then it will work in gmail... because the ms cloud is outlook.com on the backend syncing with gmail and the account is added as exchange. At this time, other imap servers are not expected to be supported (they are using the gmail api to sync to the 'microsoft cloud'). 

 

I understand the process on the apps for separating focused that aren't on exchange is a bit different than it is for exchange accounts - basically bulk or not bulk. Could outlook desktop do this? Sure... but they need to update Outlook to add filters for it.  It's easier to add the process to the server and tweak the algorithm as needed for millions of accounts at once, instead of adding the sorting process client side and pushing out updates to everyone.  

 

If enough people request it, they might add it to a future version - https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/322590-outlook-2016-for-windows/suggestions/31892239-focused-in...

 

 

Hey Jeff - Targeted Semi annual will get the update in March. That is a slower channel, Monthly channel got the update first and it is then coming to monthly in March. It would them come to Semi Annual channel (normal) 3 months after Targeted.

You need to provide a way to flip this feature on faster for deferred channel. You killed our users ability to use clutter without providing a replacement for the service. This has caused a lot of disruption in our org. Clutter never should have been disabled for ANY user that was not on focused inbox already. When I asked about this in august you said it would hit first release for deferred in October, then I guess backed out on that date. This rollout has been a joke.  

Is there any place we can see the schedule for each of these updates. We know that new features are coming, but not when. One year without clutter would have been good to know ahead of time.
Hi Robert. Your users can still use Clutter. We didn't disable Clutter, it is still working for existing users (and will continue to work for several years) until Focused Inbox is available to all users. However, user can turn it off themselves. I'm guessing several of your users did this using Outlook on the web at some point and turned on Focused Inbox, not knowing that turning on FI would turn off Clutter.

To get back to clutter, you can turn it back on with PowerShell. Example: Turn on Clutter for a single user named Allie Bellew. Set-Clutter -Identity “Allie Bellew” -Enable $true

If you need the non-powershell way to do this, let me know.

Alternatively, you could consider moving to Monthly Channel.
We will send updates directly in the Office 365 Message Center when we are coming closer to rollout of the Modern Auth requirement removal and the release to Semi-Annual, so that you are aware.

Allen,

If one of our admins ran the powershell commands to enable Focused at the tenant level, would that turn off clutter for the end users?

 

Set-OrganizationConfig -FocusedInboxOn $True

 

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Configure-Focused-Inbox-for-everyone-in-your-organization-6...

 

 

That is correct. You can turn it back off and Clutter will be re-enabled. This only sets the default state - users control the setting themselves in their UI.
Well that is a bummer, web version is still fine but little surprised it is not available yet after all this time. I bet I was using a beta version a couple months ago, if I remember correctly.
I'm sure someone else has asked them same question but what I don't get is why Focus inbox is available for my Android app and not Outlook 2016, seems pretty goofy.
Allen, Clutter stopped working widely across our organization late last week with no warning. Are you sure Microsoft didn't roll out a mass update to deactivate Clutter prior to Focused Inbox being ready for all clients?

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?


@Ricky Thomas wrote:
I'm sure someone else has asked them same question but what I don't get is why Focus inbox is available for my Android app and not Outlook 2016, seems pretty goofy.

Focused vs Other has been in the mobile apps for a long time, before it started rolling out to EXO mailboxes. That said, if you're seeing Focused inbox in OWA (web, not mobile) but not your desktop then you should check that your desktop client is fully updated.

Thanks 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 > Save

Ricky - I think your question is specific to IMAP, right? As we discussed earlier in the thread, it is available for Outlook for Windows (subject to the requirements that you have Modern Auth enabled, on Monthly Channel and using an Exchange Online account).

For IMAP accounts, the answer is too expansive to explain in detail here. But it has to do with how Outlook for iOS/Android is architected, specifically how they cache a portion of your mailbox in our Outlook cloud service. This enables some features that aren't possible without this middle tier. That architecture isn't something we plan to enable for all of Outlook right now, as it is quite expensive from a time and server storage perspective.
Hey Scott - we didn't have anything programmatic across Office 365, but we did see reports from a few customers similar to yours. Check your Office365 Service Health Dashboard and see if you have a post from last Friday. That will have more details to share.

Sorry, 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.

Allen, thank you for your response. My frustration level is beginning to approach Reef's on this one, though.

Checking the Office365 Message Center had nothing about Focused Inbox or Clutter in the last month. Office365 Service Health did mention a Clutter issue, but it just started 10/27 according to the message. Also, our ticket and our support "Ambassador" haven't mentioned anything about a resolution. Our "Ambassador" has been encouraging us to go to Focused Inbox as they stated Clutter is on a limited timeframe.

As a result, I decided to try it myself before I open Pandora's box for the rest of our domain. I immediately have to stop using my mobile email app (Touchdown) since it only supports Outlook for Android. Outlook for Android lacks some pretty significant features (no snoozing of reminders, no tasks, Android Wear inability to "Mark Read" or "Move to Other", etc.) that other mail apps have and I use regularly. Additionally, as mentioned above by other users, I cannot get Focused Inbox working on my Outlook 2016 desktop on either my new Surface or my legacy desktop.

I'd like to say I'm surprised that Microsoft would be so cavalier about recommendations when handling a ticket like this, but more than anything I feel like I've been burned for trusting Microsoft support advice once again. I'm still waiting to hear what impact rolling out Modern Authentication will have, as assuming that basic, elementary things that should be in place to support these actions has not been a winning strategy thus far.

Does anyone have an idea when Clutter will go away for good? I'd like to start planning on this far earlier than later, as there will need to be testing and training to ensure it rolls out smoothly for our users.

Thanks and don't mean to be a Debbie Downer but this is really infuriating when no one seems to know what is going on.



For years it's been the same.

  1. Roll out new feature, don't publish info, or put on some obscure blog.
  2. Admins complain.
  3. Microsoft Program Managers pinky swear they won't do it again.
  4. Go back to step 1.

My feeling is that ANYTHING that is going to happen to my tenant should be appearing in the Message Center in my tenant's Admin Center. That should be the sole source of information for my tenant. I shouldn't have to hunt down the information in a dozen or more different places.