How to Turn Off Focused Inbox in Outlook (New, Classic, Mac)

Focused Inbox splits your mailbox into two tabs, Focused and Other, and decides for you which messages belong in each. Plenty of people like it. Plenty of others discover it by finding an important message three days late in a tab they never check.

Turning it off restores a single inbox with everything in it. The steps differ by which Outlook you are using, and the setting lives in a different place in each one, which is why this takes longer to find than it does to change.

Quick answer. In the new Outlook, go to View, then View settings, then Mail, then Layout, then Don't sort my messages, then Save. In classic Outlook, go to the View tab and switch off Show Focused Inbox. In Outlook for Mac, go to View, then Turn off Focused Inbox. Each version is covered in full below.

What Focused Inbox does before you turn it off

Focused Inbox is a sorting layer, not a folder. It looks at who you communicate with, how you have handled similar messages, and the type of content, then places each new message under Focused or Other.

Two things are worth knowing before you change anything. Nothing is deleted and nothing is moved out of your Inbox; the tabs are two views of the same folder, so turning the feature off cannot lose you mail. And Focused Inbox is the replacement for the older Clutter feature, so if you remember Clutter, this is where it went.

How to turn off Focused Inbox in the new Outlook for Windows

The setting sits in the mail layout options.

1. Open the new Outlook.
2. Select View, then View settings. You can also reach the same place by selecting the gear icon in the top right corner.
3. Select Mail, then Layout.
4. Find the Focused Inbox section.
5. Select Don't sort my messages.
6. Select Save.

The Focused and Other tabs disappear immediately and every message appears in a single list.

If you have more than one account in the app, check whether the setting applies to the account you actually meant. The layout options are set per account.

How to turn off Focused Inbox in classic Outlook for Windows

Classic Outlook puts this on the ribbon rather than in settings, which is why people who move between the two versions cannot find it.

1. Open classic Outlook.
2. Select the View tab on the ribbon.
3. Select Show Focused Inbox so that it is no longer highlighted.

That is the whole procedure. The Focused and Other tabs disappear and your Inbox returns to one list. Selecting the same button again turns the split back on.

If Show Focused Inbox is missing from the View tab, the feature has been disabled for your mailbox at the organization level, and there is nothing to switch off on your machine.

How to turn off Focused Inbox in Outlook on the web

The web version follows the same path as the new desktop app, which is unsurprising given they share a codebase.

1. Sign in to Outlook on the web.
2. Select the gear icon at the top of the page.
3. Select Mail, then Layout.
4. Under Focused Inbox, select Don't sort my messages.
5. Select Save.

How to turn off Focused Inbox in Outlook for Mac

Mac has its own path, and it changed between versions, so check which one you are running.

In the newer Outlook for Mac, go to the View tab and select Turn off Focused Inbox. The Focused and Other tabs disappear immediately.

In Legacy Outlook for Mac, the control sits on the Organize tab instead. Select Focused Inbox there to switch it off.

If you would rather keep the split but fix where a particular sender lands, select a message, open the Message menu, and choose Always Move to Focused or Always Move to Other. That trains the sorting rather than turning it off.

How to turn off Focused Inbox on the Outlook mobile app

The mobile setting is separate again, and it is the one most people forget.

1. Open the Outlook app and tap the icon in the top left corner of the message list, or your account avatar.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Under General, tap Mail, then Focused Inbox.
4. Turn the switch off.

Why Focused Inbox comes back after you turn it off

This is the part that sends people looking for a bug, and it is not one.

Focused Inbox is set per client, not per mailbox. Turning it off in classic Outlook on your desktop does nothing to the Outlook app on your phone, and turning it off on your phone does nothing to Outlook on the web. If you use three Outlook clients, you have three switches, and every one of them has to be turned off before the split is genuinely gone from your day.

So when Focused Inbox appears to come back, the usual explanation is that it came back on a different device. If you want to get rid of Focused Inbox everywhere and return to one list for good, work through the list above once for each place you read your mail and it stays off.

A faster way to find settings that moved

Focused Inbox is a small example of a general problem: Microsoft moves settings between versions, and the guide you find online was usually written for the version you are not running. Instead of hunting through menus that no longer match, Guidy reads the Outlook window you have open and points at the actual control on your screen, which sidesteps the whole question of which build you are on. It works the same way across the rest of the software you use, which is covered on our AI assistant for work page.

Key takeaways

• Turning off Focused Inbox never deletes or moves mail. The tabs are two views of one Inbox.
• New Outlook and Outlook on the web: View, then View settings, then Mail, then Layout, then Don't sort my messages, then Save.
• Classic Outlook for Windows: the View tab on the ribbon, then Show Focused Inbox to toggle it off.
• Outlook mobile: Settings, then General, then Mail, then Focused Inbox, then turn the switch off.
• The setting is per client. Every Outlook app you use has its own switch, which is why it appears to come back.

FAQs

Does turning off Focused Inbox delete any email?

No. Focused and Other are two tabs showing one Inbox, so no message is held in a separate place and nothing is removed. Turning the feature off merges the view back into a single list and every message you already had is still there.

Why is my inbox split into Focused and Other?

Because Focused Inbox is switched on, and it is on by default in most Outlook versions. It sorts incoming mail into two tabs based on who you interact with and how you have handled similar messages. It replaced the older Clutter feature, which moved low-priority mail into a separate folder instead of a tab, so if you remember Clutter, this is where it went.

How do I stop emails from going to Other instead of Focused?

You do not have to turn the feature off to fix this. Select a message from the sender, open the Message menu or right-click it, and choose Always Move to Focused. That teaches the sorting to keep that sender in Focused from then on, and the reverse option exists for senders you want out of the way. Worth trying before switching the whole thing off, if the split mostly works and one or two senders keep landing wrong.

Why can I not find Show Focused Inbox on the View tab?

Two likely reasons. You may be in the new Outlook rather than classic, where the setting is under View settings instead of on the ribbon. Or Focused Inbox has been switched off for your whole organization by an administrator, in which case the button does not appear because there is nothing for it to control.

Can an administrator turn Focused Inbox off for everyone?

Yes. Focused Inbox can be configured for an entire organization through Exchange Online rather than machine by machine, and users see the change after they close and reopen Outlook. If you manage a tenant and are fielding this question repeatedly, that is the route to look at rather than talking people through their own menus.