How to Turn On or Turn Off the Outlook.com Focused Inbox

Managing emails can be difficult when you receive a lot of promotional and junk emails in your inbox. Many email providers are switching to an inbox management system that will automatically categorize these emails into different sections. For example, Gmail uses one that will separate emails into different tabs. Outlook.com takes a slightly different approach with something called the Focused Inbox.

If you would like to try the Focused Inbox, or if you already have it and would prefer not to use it, then you can toggle that setting in the Outlook.com settings. Our tutorial below will show you where to find this option so that you can see which inbox view you prefer.

How to Enable or Disable the Focused Inbox on Outlook.com

The steps in this article were performed in the desktop version of the Google Chrome Web browser. Completing these steps will allow you to toggle the focused inbox for your Outlook.com email address when viewing in your Web browser.

Step 1: Sign into your Outlook email account at www.outlook.com.

Step 2: Click the Settings icon at the top-right corner of the window. It’s the one that looks like a gear.

switch inbox view for outlook.com

Step 3: Click the button to the right of Focused Inbox. The inbox view will change as soon as you make the change, so you will be able to see whether or not you like the change. If you don’t like it, simply click the Focused Inbox button again to return to the previous setting.

toggle the focused inbox in outlook.com email

If you elect to use the Focused Inbox in Outlook.com, there is a toggle at the top of the inbox that says Focused and Other. Emails that appear on the Focused tab are the ones that Outlook.com thinks are important. You can view the other emails by clicking the Other tab.

how turn off turn on focused inbox outlook

Now that you know how to turn the Outlook.com Focused Inbox on or off, you can control what of your emails are shown when you navigate to the inbox in the Web app.

Do you have an iPhone that you would like to read and send emails from your Outlook.com account? Find out how to set up an Outlook email on an iPhone and make managing your emails a lot more convenient.

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