Attachments in Tasks

Question

Attached emails are no longer showing in my tasks/to do. Nor can I move an email to tasks and have the email show up as an attachment. This has eliminated the usefulness of the Tasks program for me!

Answer 1

Hi @Mike Wright 

It looks like this issue began after a recent update, and several users have reported experiencing the same issue since yesterday. 

As this is a user-to-user support forum, moderators, contributors, and external Microsoft employees cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features. Our role is limited to sharing technical guidance based on publicly available resources and personal experience. For that reason, I cannot confirm whether this is an intentional change introduced by the update or a genuine issue with the feature.  

If you have an active Microsoft 365 subscription and hold the Global Admin role, you can submit a support request directly through the Microsoft 365 admin center. Otherwise, please contact your IT administrator to raise a support ticket on your behalf. 

You can read more at: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn.    

In the meantime, you may want to try the workaround described in this discussion: within my task folders the attachments are not visible - Microsoft Q&A. Although the interface is a bit tricky, it should allow you to continue using the features. 

Since the issue appeared after an update, you might also consider temporarily rolling back to a previous version to check if the behavior changes.  

Reference: How to revert to an earlier version of Office - Microsoft Support.  

Thank you for your understanding. 

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Answer 2

In Outlook and Microsoft To Do, emails are no longer added or shown as file-style “attachments” on tasks. Instead, Outlook/To Do now integrate emails with tasks in two supported ways:

1. Dragging an email to create a task (classic Outlook on Windows)
   • In classic Outlook, drag the email to the navigation pane and drop it on the Outlook Tasks icon.
   • This creates a new task containing the content of the email in Outlook Tasks.
   • Because Microsoft To Do automatically syncs with Outlook Tasks, the new task appears in Microsoft To Do.
   • The email itself is not stored as a separate attachment; the task contains the email content.
2. Using flagged email as tasks in Microsoft To Do
   • In Microsoft To Do (web or Windows app) signed in with a work or school account, enable the Flagged Email list (Show list → enable flagged email as tasks).
   • Once enabled, up to 10 flagged emails from the last 2 weeks appear as tasks, and all newly flagged emails will also flow into To Do as tasks.
   • These are fully editable tasks (rename, due dates, reminders, add to My Day, mark Important), and the original email can be opened via Open in Outlook from the task detail view.
3. File attachments on tasks
   • Microsoft To Do supports adding files directly to tasks (images, documents, etc.), up to 25 MB per task.
   • Files added in Outlook Tasks remain accessible in Microsoft To Do.
   • Files are currently supported only in personal lists (not shared lists).

Given this behavior, the previous pattern of seeing the original email as a traditional attachment on the task is not supported in the current integration model. To keep email context with tasks:

• Use flagged emails so they appear as tasks and open the original email via Open in Outlook from the task details.
• Or continue to drag emails to the Tasks icon in classic Outlook so the email content is captured in the task body and synced to To Do.

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References:

• Adding an email as a task in Outlook on Windows
• What's new in Microsoft To Do
• Manage tasks with To Do in Outlook
• Manage your tasks with My Tasks and My Day