Edit Categories window does not show the same list as the drop down menu to assign a category to an email.

Question

Edit Categories window does not show the same list as the drop down menu to assign a category to an email. First image is the edit categories window and the second is the drop down menu. No matter how I edit the list the drop down menu doesn't update. I think it is "stuck" on a previous office version of the categories list. Looked for preferences related specifically to the categories and found several that were in multiple folders inside (see last image below), so I'm not certain if deleting these would damage Outlook or not, so I left them alone. Any ideas anyone?

 

Answer 1

Forgot to include other requested info:

Created a second profile, which initially didn't have these extra categories but the problem recreated as soon as I imported a PST from my old Windows machine.

AFAIK, I'm the only user who has encountered this issue.

I'm running Outlook for Mac 16.8 (171101).  The PSTs were created by Windows Outlook 2016.

I don't have the facilities to set up my account on a second mac, although given the profile test, I'm fairly certain the problem will replicate upon importing a PST, same as my current mac.

Thanks,

  Kyle

Answer 2

Don't know about Donny, but my Outlook has the same issue.  It seems to be related to importing a PST from Windows Outlook.  Upon doing so, the categories list for any folder in the "On My Computer" contains any category I ever used in my old Windows Outlook configuration, including many old categories I no longer use and no email is tagged with in the PST archive.

No matter if I'm in "On My Computer" or the Exchange server when I click "Edit Categories" I get only the category list for the Exchange server.  As a result, I'm unable to delete any of the defunct categories from the "On My Computer" list, nor get Outlook to realize that categories common between Exchange and "On My Computer" should be treated as the same category--for instance I wind up with two versions of "High Priority" -- one for Exchange (named "High Priority (<Exchange server's name>)", and one with a different color named "High Priority" for any email in the "On My Computer" section.

This also impacts searches: since most of Outlook doesn't seem to recognize the categories in "On My Computer" exist, they do not appear in the category search field--I cannot search for anything "High Priority" in "On My Computer"--as Outlook will only let me search for "High Priority (<exchange server>)", which is treated as a different category.  The best I can do is search for "Category Exists" and then scroll through to find all "High Priority" mail.

Is there any way to synchronize the two sets of categories?

Answer 3

Hi

You're using an Insider build. That's a different beast and a different support group. You posted to the general release forum. I moved your question to the insider forum.

Answer 4

Hi Donny,

Do you have an update?

Thanks,

Mouran

Answer 5

Hi Donny,

Try the following suggestions to see if any improvements can be made:

1. Create a new Outlook for Mac profile.
2. Update the Outlook for Mac client to the latest version.

If the issue persists, I’d like to collect some information to better understand the situation:

1. How many users encountered this issue?
2. The detailed versions of both the current Outlook for Mac client and previous one. To check it, please click Outlook > About Outlook.
3. What if you set up your Office 365 account onto the Outlook for Mac client of another Mac machine which doesn’t encounter this issue?
4. Enable logging in Outlook for Mac and send the log to us via the private message for further checking.

I’ve sent you a private message to collect the logs.

Thanks,

Mouran