Outlook 365 Desktop Classic not showing older emails

Hi Drcardd,

Gosh, now I feel stupid.

Your question about whether my account was Exchange or MAPI caused me to prowl around in the account settings to check.

I found a setting for which emails should be synced, which was set to one year (which I guess is the default, as I don't recall ever seeing it before).

I have now extended that setting from one year to "sync all".

That appears to have solved the problem.

Apologies to MS for calling them arbitrary.

Also apologies to you for taking so much of your time.

(Although you DID prompt my discovery, I wouldn't have figured it out otherwise)

Thanks again, all the best, and sheepishly yours :-)

I think you are correct that there are problems with the sync, but that's not a complete explanation, since there is a message at the bottom of the email list saying that "there are more emails on the server, click here to view".

So that to me implies that the classic desktop MS Outlook is deliberately set up to eliminate older emails from the view.

This occurs in ALL of my email folders in the desktop app, and yes, they are all properly set up to sync. The account is an Exchange account.

The problem also happens regardless of how many emails there are in the folder - so right now, I only have 2 current emails in my Inbox, but about 3 or 4 older ones which don't show up.

What I don't understand is why this apparently deliberately policy exists, for the desktop app to simply impose an aribitary cut-off date and not show anything older. Especially when the mobile app doesn't do that. That is the issue I was hoping to solve.

I was hoping that there was a setting somewhere that would cause the program to just show everything no matter how old. But I guess there isn't?

But I think you're right that a secondary issue is that there's a sync problem when I DO have to click on the link to see the older emails. That's when I get the hanging and crashes.

I actually live in East Africa, a part of the world where internet is very often slow and unreliable (which is a major reason why I really want everything to just show up). Any sync issue is probably due to that rather than any sync problem on my computer. I do often get sync error messages in the special folder for them, but I just empty it regularly without looking at them, because I believe that the errors are due to the internet service level, which I can't do anything about.

Thanks for your reply - and if there is a setting which can eliminate the arbitrary cut off date policy in the program, please do let me know.

Many thanks :-)

The delays are due to syncing those emails shown in Outlook with those emails on the server. There are many causes for such delays, but the solution is basically the same.... move the old emails to your PC and delete the emails to prevent the need to sync.

There are two different ways to handle this...Export or Archive. Both an Export or an Archive will create a .pst file that will store your emails on your computer allowing you to delete those emails in Outlook and/or the server resulting in no need to sync those emails.

Here are the basic steps for Exporting the emails:

1. In Outlook File>Open & Export>Import/Export to open the Import and Export Wizard.
2. Select Export to a file and click Next
3. Select Outlook Data File (.pst) and click Next
4. Select your email address as the folder to Export from and that Include subfolders is checked. Click Next.
5. Select a location on your PC to store this Outlook Data File and remember where you put it.

How to add those saved emails to show in Outlook:

1. In Outlook select File>Account Settings and select Account Settings from the list to open Account Settings window.
2. Select the Data Files tab and click the Add button
3. Browse to the Outlook Data File you created and saved above and select it.
4. This will add that file with all your folders and emails that you exported.

Return to the folders and emails in the account above and delete them and delete from your Deleted Items/Trash folder to delete those emails and folders. This will not delete the copies of those emails kept on the server, but will prevent Outlook needing to sync those emails with the server. Deleting those emails and folders from the server is different depending upon the mail server you use such as Gmail or Yahoo.

You can move emails you want to keep to folders in that Outlook Data File from the account's Inbox and that email will no longer need to be synced, thus keeping you syncing down to a minimum and no delays or crashes.

Please ask if you need further info.

The hanging and crashes appear to be syncing problems. Have you looked at the Sync folder for errors? To see Sync folder: click the three dots at the bottom of the left navigation pane and select Folders. Any errors and what do the errors say?

Also, are the folders you keep these old emails in subscribed to sync? Trying to sync a folder not subscribed to can cause hangs and sometimes subscribed links get jumbled. Is this an IMAP or Exchange account?

Hi Drcard, thanks so much for your reply.

Given the way I wish to use Outlook, however, it doesn't solve my problem.

I already know about and use the solution you describe. All of my emails from about 2010 onwards are removed from my active Outlook and backed up in data files resident on my PC (and backed up in the cloud). If and when I need to access them, I go through the process you describe to have the data files show up in my local PC Outlook. So that's no problem.

My problem is that the older emails in my active Outlook are there for a reason - as a rememberance of someone, or a reminder to do something when the time is right, or as a reference that I know I may need in a year's time. I want to keep them in my active Outlook for that reason, and not to hide them away in a separate data file. And I would like them to be always visible, without the hanging and crashing problems i described whenever I want to view them.

I don't know if there's any way to esnure that ALL the emails stored on the server show up on my desktop?

If there isn't, then I find that really odd, because as I mentioned, this is not a problem at all with the mobile app.

Thanks so much for your reply, and if you can help further, that would be great :-)