CATEGORIES does not work in Outlook

In order to get your categorize button back it appears that it has to be set up as an exchange and not an imap. Imap doesn't support the categorize feature.

I have not yet used the workarounds - it will take me some time to do so and revert with the results.

I moved to a Windows laptop in Oct 23. I found the Categories tab & function in Outlook very useful on my old laptop (MacBook) but it is not working on the new one.

Some troubleshooting methods were suggested by Microsoft in response to a similar query by another user. I have tried these steps but while the ribbon gets customised the tab is inactive. This is an important and useful feature - please help. Thanks.

For me, this issue is seems to happen with recurring events in Outlook 365, desktop. If I double-click on an event in a series, Categories is greyed out. However, if I single click an event, click edit, select either This and following events or All events in the series, then click More options in the lower right; now categories is selectable. Also, if I try to edit just a single event in a series, categories is still greyed out. IMO this behavior doesn't make any sense and should be remedied. I really don't care for the typical trouble shoot-step by step-read from a manual that techs do. It seems more often than not they'll have you reinstall to fix an issue that sometimes is simply the result a setting that is buried deep, and a reinstall will get you back to defaults rather than the tech actually performing real trouble shooting. In this case I believe it's a bug, or perhaps just something overlooked when the code was written, because the behavior is inconsistent. Either way Microsoft should address this. Saying Outlook 365 seems to be a work in progress, pretty much sums it up, lol. I hope my case will help other users.

Ciao

Hello! RajuGoa

Thank you for the reply!

Oh please take your time, just let me know if you need further assistance with your issue.

However, if the issue does fall under feature/design please do not hesitate to submit your feedback through the feedback hub app: How do I give feedback on Microsoft 365? - Microsoft Support

You can also check other development here in this link: Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365

I hope it helps!

Sincerely,

Vince

Microsoft Community Moderator

Hello! RajuGoa

Thank you for the reply!

Yes please do try the other recommendations. Thank you as well for giving the results for using the workaround, I know this is not an ideal solution to your issue, however if the issue is related to the feature/design we will have no power when it comes to this as this is handled by the developers of the program. So we have come up with a workaround if this will happen.

However, if the issue does fall under feature/design please do not hesitate to submit your feedback through the feedback hub app: How do I give feedback on Microsoft 365? - Microsoft Support

You can also check other development here in this link: Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365

Best regards,

Vince

Microsoft Community Moderator