Removing malicious subscription

Question

How do I remove malicious subscriptions from my RSS feed? When I look for instructions, they do not match what I see on my screen.

Instructions say:

Remove Malicious Subscriptions (Outlook): Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings > RSS Feeds and remove any suspicious feeds.

However, I do not have these two options for Account Settings in my Outlook.

Answer 1

Hi Kia Chatmon

I understand you are having problem with removing malicious RSS subscriptions in Classic Outlook for Windows and the UI you see does not match the “Account Settings > RSS Feeds” instructions. I am happy to help.

Could you please share:

1. Which Classic Outlook version are you using (Microsoft 365 subscription, Outlook 2021/2024, etc.) and does File > Options exist on your Outlook?
2. In the left folder pane, do you see RSS Feeds (or RSS Subscriptions) and do the suspicious feeds appear as subfolders there?
3. When you delete the suspicious RSS subfolder(s), do they reappear later ?
4. Are you also subscribed to those same feeds in Windows/another RSS reader (for example, the old Windows/Internet Explorer feed list), or only inside Outlook?

I would love to hear from you soon. Have a nice day!

Answer 2

In classic Outlook for Windows, malicious or unwanted RSS subscriptions can be removed either directly from the RSS folders or from the RSS account settings, depending on what is available in the UI.

Use both of these checks:

1. Remove RSS feeds from the Folder Pane
   1. In Mail, in the Folder Pane, expand the RSS Subscriptions (or similarly named) folder.
   2. Right-click each suspicious RSS folder and choose Delete, or select the folder and press Delete.
   3. When prompted to confirm deletion, choose Yes.
   This both unsubscribes the feed and deletes its downloaded items.
2. Unsubscribe while keeping downloaded content (if the RSS Feeds tab is available)
   1. Select File > Account Settings > Account Settings.
   2. If an RSS Feeds tab is present, select it.
   3. Under Feed Name, select any suspicious RSS feed and choose Remove.
   4. Confirm with Yes when prompted.

If the RSS Feeds tab is not present in Account Settings in the current Outlook build, use method 1 (deleting from the RSS Subscriptions folder) to remove the malicious subscriptions.

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References:

• Change settings for RSS Feeds
• Unsubscribe from an RSS Feed