How do I delete subfolders from my Inbox?

TWO SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM OF BEING UNABLE TO DELETE FOLDERS OR SUBFOLDERS IN OUTLOOK:-

1) This FIRST SOLUTION is for when you discover that the reason you are unable to delete a subfolder is because it is "Subscribed" - I had exactly the same problem you are all referring to in your posts i.e. Whenever I tried to delete this particular Subfolder, it moved to my Trash folder but then when I deleted it from there it just re-appeared linked to my inbox again!!, sometimes I tried dragging it to the Trash folder repeatedly but it just ended up with several copies there, showing 2,3,4 whatever in brackets at the end of it, I deleted them all and it reappeared back in the inbox again!!

I finally found the solution and it's really simple!! - It is always caused by the Folder being "Subscribed" to the folder on the local machine and you simply have to Unsubscribe it, which then finally allows you to go back and you can then delete it successfully!! - it will not keep reappearing!!:-

1. Right click the "Inbox" Heading - i.e. Right click on the word "Inbox" itself, don't right click on the list of emails which are in that inbox, as that will bring you up the wrong list of options.
2. Left click IMAP Folders option
3. Click on the Subscribed tab
4. Left click Query in the options on the right, this will bring up a list of folders including the offending subfolder!!
5. Left click the subfolder(s) you are trying to delete so it is highlighted
6. Left click Unsubscribe
7. Left click OK
8. You can now go back to the offending folder and actually delete it correctly into the Trash folder where you can delete it permanently, and it will not reappear!!

2) With this SECOND SOLUTION, you should be able to delete any folder or subfolders, so I presume it should also work in the case of the subfolder problem I had above:-

So, lucky me!!, apart from the above subfolder problem I also had the problem of a ghost/phantom/completely blank folder with no name next to it at all, and it had nothing in it, which just sat, on its own, underneath my Trash folder but it wasn't a subfolder of it, it was just a completely independent folder sitting there completely in its own right, and the option to delete it when I right clicked it was completely greyed out. I just found the solution to that as well, it is the "Use MFCMAPI Tool" section of Eleni's answer, on this link Ghost/ phantom IMAP folder that I cannot delete? - Microsoft Community EXCEPT, you do NOT click the "Hard delete" box like she tells you to, if you do, you will get exactly the same error message as that quoted by the person who posted immediately below her answer, who tried it, and that error message they quote is the same one I got when it did not work for me either, but, luckily, I then decided to try it without the hard delete, and it completely deleted the folder successfully instantly!!

Incidentally, my computer skills are ultra basic so if anyone is as ignorant as me and wants to know exactly how to download the MFCMAPI Tool Eleni talks about, read on! - **** So, when I clicked her link onto GitHub it took me ages to work out how to download it and even then I was kind of guessing, so just in case you are as clueless as me, I signed into Github (although you might not even need to sign in) then clicked on the link on GitHub itself that her link took me to, then on the second page that then comes up, I still couldn't work out how to download it, but I went down the page and under "Assets", that was where I downloaded it. I just chose the one nearest the top with X64 on it - why they call them "Assets" and not "Downloads", or just say something really clear and obvious like "Downloads here" as well as "Assets", or put something similar to that, is totally beyond me! (would make life far too easy for us non-computer programmers I guess! 😀). Once downloaded my computer offered to open it for me using WinRAR, which I have had on my computer for a couple of years (whenever I use it now, it tells me my free period has expired but you simply close that message and it still works perfectly! 😁). Then I tried to work out how to find the Outlook section, and ended up with this:-

then I clicked on the arrow to the left of "Root - Mailbox" which then opened a subtree below it, and I just guessed to click on the other two little arrows that appeared next to two other options below it in the subtree, which then further expanded the subtree, and it was when I clicked on the second of those arrows, expanding "IPM Subtree" when I finally saw all the familiar Outlook headings:-

I immediately saw the folder that I couldn't delete, it was underneath Trash, I think it was showing as "Unnamed" (obviously because it had no title! 🤣), then I right clicked that folder and selected "Delete folder", but WITHOUT ticking the "Hard delete" box which Eleni tells you to do, and it disappeared immediately!!😀😀😀, Job Done!!! Anyway, hope this extra section helps anyone as computer illiterate as me!😀.

P.S. If anyone wants to copy and paste the above solutions to any other threads, please do! As I wasted so much time looking through countless threads, all from people who are unable to delete folders, and 90% of them with either no solution , or completely incorrect suggestions/attempts at solutions, before I finally found the correct solutions above, and it would be great to save other people all that wasted time.

Hey! How are you doing? My name is Brandon, I'm not a Microsoft employee but I am an expert who will be happy to assist you today.

To delete subfolders from your Inbox in Outlook from Microsoft 365, you can follow these steps:

Open Outlook and navigate to the folder containing the subfolders you want to delete (in this case, your Inbox).

On the left-hand side panel, locate the list of folders and expand the Inbox folder to display its subfolders.

Right-click on the subfolder you want to delete. A context menu will appear.

From the context menu, select the "Delete Folder" or "Delete" option. The exact wording may vary depending on your Outlook version.

A confirmation prompt will appear asking if you want to permanently delete the folder and its contents. If you are sure you want to delete the subfolder, click "Yes" to proceed.

Repeat these steps for each subfolder you want to delete.

Sorry, but I don't understand how my browser (Edge) can be affecting the Inbox subfolders in Outlook.

Can you explain please?

In this instance I would recommend giving your browser cookies and cache a full reset and trying to sign in again. You can normally do this by going to the upper right hand corner --> three dots --> settings --> privacy/security --> clear cookies/cache

Looking forward to your response :)

Hi Brandon,

Thanks for your input but it's not working. When I ask Outlook to delete the (by now empty sub-folder it asks do I want to move the sub-folder to the Deleted Items folder. If I say yes nothing happens, if I say no nothing happens.

Other people have looked at this and can't explain what's going on.

Thanks anyway.

AlfonsoW