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Outlook 2016 Conversation View Grouping Unrelated Emails?

Anonymous
2019-03-18T21:49:27+00:00

I've been trying to solve this one on my own for the last couple days, but I'm at a loss. Ever since my work computer upgrade I have Outlook 2016, and one thing about how emails are sorted changed so dramatically it makes it nearly impossible to work anymore. I believe I had Outlook 2010 before the upgrade and I used conversation view to sort emails to show all replies to one email thread together. This is how I want Outlook 2016 sorted, unfortunately Outlook 2016 decides that ANY email with the same subject MUST be related and therefore groups all conversations by Subject.

I work in a sort of print shop on a University campus, and lets say the students aren't exactly clever or original with Subject lines when submitting print requests. When 200 different people email with the Subject Line "Print" I now have a grouped conversation that has 200 different patrons that, while yes they are all about printing, they aren't related. I'm worried about emailing the wrong person or missing a print request because it was buried by other emails with the same subject.  This is a major hit to productivity as I have to be very slow and careful with all these emails. Is there a way to get emails to sort the old default conversation way? I think it was using Thread ID to link emails into conversations. 

I have played with view settings and group settings and I've only been able to make things worse, somehow.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

This is windows 10 and Outlook 2016.

Thank you,

~Robert

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-03-20T01:33:00+00:00

    Hi Robert_K_599,

    Thanks for your posting, a conversation includes all messages in the same thread with the same subject line in current Outlook 2016. and messages are sorted with the newest message on top. The newest email will show all replies to one email thread together, if you want to get emails to sort the old default conversation way like Office 2010, I suggest you submit your idea via  Outlook UserVoice, since many features are upgraded based on customers’ feedback. You can post your idea with your detailed requirement there, there will be related engineer to review it. Your time and understanding will be highly appreciated.

    Regards,

    Bryan

    Hey Bryan,

    Firstly, thank you for taking the time to respond. That being said this answer is lacking. Why was the decision made to change conversation view to be based on Subject line instead of like, Thread ID or something? If a new conversation view was needed, why not add it as an additional option instead of making it a mandatory change? I say this knowing that it's kind of Microsoft's MO to remove features in newer versions.

    Thank you for recommending posting to User Voice, I made a post there too. But, even if that does lead to a fix, it could take months... Is there anything I can do now? Are there a certain set of custom view options I could set up to emulate the old way? Everything I tried to do in that menu lead to more issues though.

    I'm really at a loss. Imagine you just got a brand new computer "upgrade" at work only to find that while the computer is newer/faster, one of the major programs you use has slowed your productivity sooooo much that it might as well be a downgrade.

    Sorry if this comes off as too harsh, I know you are trying to help, I am just really frustrated and "That's just how it is. Suggest a change." is not a fix... and I was hoping for a fix.

    ~Robert

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-03-20T09:44:07+00:00

    Hi Robert_K_599,

    We definitely understand your concerns, , since conversation feature was designed to sort the messages in the same thread with the same subject line and the newest email will show all replies to one email thread together, it's not feasible to sort email based on thread ID or something,  add additional custom option or by change view settings, we know how you feel when you strongly need some feature. Submitting feedback is effective way to provide feature requests to Microsoft. We kindly appreciate for your understanding.

    Regards,

    Bryan

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-03-19T06:55:59+00:00

    Hi Robert_K_599,

    Thanks for your posting, a conversation includes all messages in the same thread with the same subject line in current Outlook 2016. and messages are sorted with the newest message on top. The newest email will show all replies to one email thread together, if you want to get emails to sort the old default conversation way like Office 2010, I suggest you submit your idea via  Outlook UserVoice, since many features are upgraded based on customers’ feedback. You can post your idea with your detailed requirement there, there will be related engineer to review it. Your time and understanding will be highly appreciated.

    Regards,

    Bryan

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