Outlook - defaults to All/unread , won't change to focused/other

Hi @anthony bates 

To help narrow down the issue, please provide more details:

-Do you have any IMAP accounts configured?  

-In Outlook on the web, does Focused Inbox appear and stay enabled after refreshing?  

If the option on the View tab to turn on or off the Focused Inbox also disappears, you may need to refer to the Focused Inbox disappears when you switch folders in Outlook - Outlook | Microsoft Learn. 

If that doesn’t match your situation, try these steps: 

1.Reset all views 

Close classic Outlook completely > press Windows + R > copy and paste the outlook.exe /cleanviews > OK.  

Please note that this restores default views and removes any custom views you’ve created.  

2.Test in Safe Mode  

-Close Outlook completely.      

-Press Win + R, type: outlook.exe /safe > Press Enter.      

If Outlook opens normally in Safe Mode, the issue is likely caused by an add-in.     

Go to File > Options > Add-ins > COM Add-ins > Go > Disable all add-ins, then re-enable them one by one to identify the problematic add-in.     

Reference: Open Outlook in safe mode - Microsoft Support.     

3.Create a new Outlook profile 

Control Panel > Mail > Show Profiles > Add > create a new profile > add your account > set as default > restart Outlook.     

Reference: Create an Outlook profile - Microsoft Support.   

Please know that while our initial response might not resolve the issue right away, your input is incredibly valuable. With a bit more detail, we’ll work together to find the best solution for you.      

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.   

The behavior matches a known issue where Outlook intermittently loses the Focused Inbox view and falls back to All/Unread because the account is being treated as a non–Microsoft 365 account.

Use these steps to fix it:

1. Verify the account type and Focused Inbox setting
   • In Classic Outlook, go to View and check that Show Focused Inbox is enabled when it appears.
   • If it disappears again after switching folders, continue with the Autodiscover check below.
2. Test Autodiscover for the mailbox
   • Run the Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer and choose the Outlook Autodiscover test.
   • After the test completes, search the results for the string IMAP.
   • If IMAP settings appear in the Autodiscover response, a third‑party web server for the domain is responding incorrectly to Autodiscover.
3. Fix incorrect Autodiscover responses
   • Contact the web hosting or web service provider for the domain used by the mailbox.
   • Ask them to ensure that their web server does not respond to these Autodiscover URLs:
     1. https://<Rootdomain>/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml
     2. https://autodiscover.<Rootdomain>/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml
   • Once those endpoints stop returning IMAP Autodiscover data, Outlook will fall back to the correct Microsoft 365 Autodiscover endpoint (https://outlook.office365/AutoDiscover/AutoDiscover.xml), and the account will be recognized properly so Focused/Other remains available.

If Focused Inbox still does not appear after Autodiscover is corrected, ensure that connected experiences are enabled for the profile, as Focused Inbox relies on cloud processing of mailbox content.

References:

• Focused Inbox disappears when you switch folders in Outlook
• All, Unread and other filtering options no longer show in Outlook
• Change how the message list is displayed in Outlook
• How to get Focused/Other categories in Classic Outlook email - Microsoft Q&A