I am having trouble reorganizing my folders in the NEW Outlook Preview for Windows

Question

I have switched to using the NEW Outlook for Windows. Everything was fine until I tried to reorganize my folders. I want to put them in specific order but when I try to move them I cannot move main folders to a new main position. It will only let me put them into another main folder. I have an order with main folders, sub folders, and sub sub folders, etc. When I switched to the NEW Outlook it alphabetized my folders which put them out of my order. I went to drag them into their proper place but it will only let me put them into other main folders. I cannot seem to figure out how to put main folders in between other main folders. It used to show a little gray box when I was about to insert a folder into another folder and a line when I was going to drag it in between other folders. Now it is only the little box that makes it go into the other folder.

Answer 1

I stopped using the New Outlook Preview for this issue. I just switched today and immediately realized this issue, googled, found this and your reply has turned me back to the old version. This is a primary function of folder management and you will have major issues with all users if you continue to promote this preview strongly and if you roll out the new version without the ability to organize our primary folders however we see best fit for our needs. I don't need Microsoft telling me how to organize my folders. It's sad because I really like the visual aspects and options of the New version but this is a hard pass for me not being able to get to and organize my work like I have for the last 12 years I've used outlook at my employer and built a system that works best for me.

Answer 2

I for one would terminate use of outlook on this basis alone. Folder management is crucial to the way I do business and refuse to function without such a basic tool. But the beauty of capitalism is if you take it away, and enough people want it, it will be released in some other companies app and I will use that one. Or be forced to seek alternate mail software now. Either way, I will get what I need.

Answer 3

Just tired this as of 8/24/23, you can move folders into other folders as sub folders, but you cannot click and drag to reorder. The two workarounds I discovered were that renaming a folder will force that folder to display alphabetically, so putting numbers before folder names will reorder them, and dragging a folder into a different folder and then back into the original folder will drop it at the top of the list.

I'm glad that Microsoft is refreshing Outlook, especially the part where the current Outlook requires cached exchange mode to view O635 groups, but something as simple as folder management missing is a joke.

Answer 4

Dear diesel 86,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

Based on your description, I understand that you have a query "having trouble reorganizing folders in the NEW Outlook Preview for Windows".

After thorough research and consulting, it has been determined that there is currently no function in New Outlook Preview to move folder to different place, you explanations are very clear, when trying to move a folder you don't get a line where you can drop off the folder, it just showing the grayed highlight box which shows cleary that the folder is going to be ended up inside other folder.

As the New Outlook is currently in Preview, and the platform/foundation of the application itself is still under development. Luckily, at this stage of development, installing updates and restarting the client is a fast process. Alternately, you can revert back to "Classic" Outlook by disabling New Outlook toggle or close outlook and open outlook by using outlook.exe instead of olk.exe.

Moreover, thank you for bringing this to our attention. I believe your suggestion could make New Outlook even better. We'll bring your issues to our Product Development Team as New Outlook for Windows is still under development. We suggest posting your complaint as an idea to our Outlook in-app feedback by going to Help > Feedback. Refer to Contact support and provide feedback within the new Outlook for Windows - Microsoft Support

Note the Feedback will not be available if you disable the Optional connected experience. To enable Feedback, go to Settings > View all Outlook settings > General > Privacy and data > Privacy settings and turn on the Optional connected experience.

Our Product Development Team are committed to enhancing the customer experience by continually examining suggestions to include in the design and development of future product upgrades based on your suggestions. Hopefully, your suggestion will help many users in the future. I will update here if I get any useful update on this feature. Thank you for your understanding and support.

For other concerns, please do not hesitate to add you post in the Microsoft Community Team.

Sincerely,

De Paul | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 5

Yes, please allow the flexibility to organize the folders non-alphabetically. In addition, when you add a folder to Favorites, allow the capability to bring the sub-folders along with it. Thanks!