Focused Inbox feature was first rolled out for the Outlook app for smartphones. Thereafter, the service became a part of Outlook on the web, and then, it was rolled out for Microsoft 365, Microsoft Office, and the Outlook (new) app. The Focused Inbox is basically a filter, not a folder, that organizes all your emails into two categories – Focused and Others. Mails that matter to you most are displayed under the former, while the less important ones are pushed to the latter.
Although great, Focused Inbox has become a controversial feature because it uses a cloud-based service to sort your emails before jumping to your inbox. For security reasons, enterprises rarely support or encourage this functionality. So, if you have security concerns and do not want this feature to remain activated, you can disable it.
Enable or Disable Focused Inbox feature in new Outlook App
To enable or disable the Focused Inbox feature in Outlook (new) app:
- Launch Outlook (new) app
- Click on the Settings wheel to open its settings window
- Select the Layout section
- Locate the Focussed Inbox setting and select any one of these two as per your requirement:
- Sort messages into Focused and others
- Don’t sort my messages.
- Restart the new Outlook app to see the changes.
See this post if you want to know how to Turn On or Off the Focused Inbox feature in Outlook (classic).
Disable or Enable Focused Inbox in Windows Mail App
By default, the Focused Inbox feature is turned on. To disable it, do the following.
Launch the Windows Mail app by clicking the Windows Start button and scrolling down the apps list to locate ‘Mail App’.
If the Focused Inbox feature is available for your app, a message about it will be visible to you, as shown in the screenshot below.
Click on the hamburger icon, residing in the top left corner of the app window. Click the cogwheel (Settings) button at the bottom of the panel that slides out to open another panel on the right.
Next, chose the ‘Reading’ option. Scroll down and find the ‘Focused Inbox’ option.
Now, simply slide the bar to the ‘Off’ position.
How do I turn off the focused inbox in the Outlook iPhone app?
To turn off Focused Inbox in the Outlook iPhone app, open the app and go to Settings by tapping your profile icon. Scroll to the “Mail” section and select “Focused Inbox.” Toggle the switch to off. These steps will help you disable the Focused Inbox feature, consolidating all emails into a single view.
