Focused Inbox in Outlook: How It Sorts, How to Train It, and How to Turn It Off
Focused Inbox splits your Outlook inbox into two tabs, Focused and Other, and decides on its own which email goes where. Some people rely on it; others discover it only after missing an email that sat in Other for a week. Here is what it looks at, how to correct it, and where the switch is in each version of Outlook.
In short: Focused Inbox divides the inbox into a Focused tab for the email that matters to you and an Other tab for the rest. It learns from the people you email and interact with, and keeps automated and bulk mail out of Focused. Other is still your inbox, not a folder and not Junk Email. To turn it off: in the new Outlook, View > View settings > Mail > Message list and untick Sort messages into Focused and Other; in classic Outlook, View > Show Focused Inbox; on the web, Settings > Mail > Message list; on a Mac, View > Turn off Focused Inbox; on a phone, Settings > Mail > Focused Inbox. To train it, right-click an email and choose Move to Other or Move to Focused, or the Always move version for every future email from that sender.
What Focused Inbox Is and How It Decides
Focused Inbox separates the inbox into two tabs — Focused and Other. Microsoft’s description of how it decides is short: it takes into account the emails and contacts you interact with, and filters out “noisy” sources such as automatically generated or bulk email. In practice, mail from people you write to and reply to tends to land in Focused, and newsletters, notifications and marketing mail tend to land in Other.
Microsoft does not publish the exact rules, and the sorting is not fixed. Microsoft says it gets better the more you use it, and that moving emails between the two tabs teaches it what matters to you. That is also why two people with the same sender can see that sender in different tabs.
A few things Focused Inbox does not do:
- It does not delete or file anything. Both tabs are your inbox. An email in Other is still in the Inbox folder, and nothing is moved into other folders.
- It is not the junk filter. Junk Email is a separate folder with its own filter. Other holds mail Outlook considers less important, not mail it considers suspicious.
- It does not hide Other completely. When Focused Inbox is on, Microsoft says you’ll be informed about email flowing to Other, and you can switch tabs at any time.
On a phone it matters more than on a computer. In Outlook for iOS and Android, Microsoft says your notifications are synced to Focused Inbox, and on iOS the badge count is too. If you rely on notifications, an email that lands in Other is easy to miss. You can change that under Settings > Notifications in the app.
Focused and Other vs Clutter
Clutter was the older version of the same idea. It moved low-priority mail out of the inbox into a separate Clutter folder. Focused Inbox replaces it, and Microsoft says the same algorithm that moved items to Clutter now powers Focused Inbox: mail that would have gone to Clutter now goes to the Other tab, and stays in the inbox.
- Messages already in your Clutter folder stay there until you delete or move them.
- If you don’t see Focused and Other at all, you might have a Clutter folder instead.
- Microsoft says you can keep using Clutter for now, but that it will eventually be replaced by Focused Inbox.
How to Turn Focused Inbox On or Off
Each version of Outlook has its own switch. The steps below follow Microsoft’s articles Focused Inbox for Outlook, Focused Inbox in Outlook for Mac and What is Focused Inbox? (iOS and Android).
- New Outlook for Windows: select View > View settings, then Mail > Message list. Select the account, tick or untick Sort messages into Focused and Other, and select Save. The setting is per account, so with several accounts you choose for each one.
- Classic Outlook for Windows: on the View tab, select Show Focused Inbox. Select it again to turn it off.
- Outlook on the web and Outlook.com: select Settings > Mail > Message list. In the Focused Inbox section, tick or untick Sort messages into Focused and Other, then select Save.
- Outlook for Mac: on the View tab, select Turn on Focused Inbox or Turn off Focused Inbox. In legacy Outlook for Mac it is Organize > Focused Inbox; Microsoft ends support for legacy Outlook for Mac in October 2026.
- Outlook for iOS and Android: from the message list, swipe left or tap Home or your user icon to open the menu, then Settings > Mail, and set the Focused Inbox toggle to on or off.
Turning it off removes the two tabs and shows the inbox as one list again; no email is moved or deleted. Microsoft says the switch is set separately in each Outlook app, so the tabs can still appear in one Outlook after you turned them off in another. If that happens, switch it off there too.
How to Train It: Move vs Always Move
When Focused Inbox puts an email in the wrong tab, move it. Microsoft says moving emails between Focused and Other, and setting overrides for senders, is how you teach Outlook what matters to you. There are two kinds of move, and the difference matters.
- Move moves only the selected email to the other tab.
- Always move moves it and sets an override for the sender: every future email from that sender is delivered to that tab.
Where to find them:
- New Outlook and Outlook on the web: open the Focused or Other tab, right-click the email, then Move > Move to Other inbox or Move to Focused inbox, or Always move to Other inbox / Always move to Focused inbox.
- Classic Outlook for Windows: right-click the email and choose Move to Other, Always Move to Other, Move to Focused or Always Move to Focused.
- Outlook for Mac: select the email, then Message > Move to Other or Message > Always Move to Other (and the same for Focused).
- Outlook for iOS and Android: open the email, tap the More options icon in the header and choose Move to Focused inbox or Move to Other. On iOS, Outlook then asks whether to Move Once or Always Move.
A sensible way to use them: Always move to Other for newsletters and notifications you never want interrupting you, Always move to Focused for the few senders you must never miss (a manager, a key client, your bank’s fraud alerts), and a plain Move for everything in between, so the sorting keeps learning without a fixed rule. Microsoft describes these overrides by sender only. To sort by subject or keywords, you need a rule. If an email isn’t in Other either, see where disappearing Outlook emails usually go.
Where Focused Inbox Doesn’t Work
- Account types in Outlook for Windows. In Outlook for Windows, Focused Inbox is available only for Microsoft 365, Exchange and Outlook.com accounts. A Gmail, Yahoo or other IMAP or POP account added to Outlook for Windows does not get the tabs. The iOS and Android apps are different: Microsoft says Focused Inbox works there across all your email accounts.
- Shared mailboxes. Focused Inbox doesn’t work with shared mailboxes, and Microsoft says this is by design. If you select Move in a shared mailbox and the email does not move, this is why. Microsoft also notes that Outlook for Windows currently shows Focused Inbox hints for shared mailboxes anyway, which it calls unexpected behavior.
- A Clutter folder instead. If your mailbox still uses Clutter, you may see the Clutter folder rather than the two tabs (see above).
Focused Inbox, Rules or Folders?
Focused Inbox, rules and folders answer different questions, and it helps to keep them apart.
| Focused Inbox | Inbox rules | Folders | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it answers | Does this need my attention now? | Where should mail like this always go? | Where do I find everything about this later? |
| Who decides | Outlook, learning from what you do | Conditions you write (sender, subject, words) | You, email by email |
| Where mail ends up | Still in the inbox, in one of two tabs | A folder you chose, or deleted | A folder you chose |
| Best for | Keeping newsletters and notifications out of the way | Mail with a fixed pattern: one sender, one subject line | Mail you need again by client, project or case |
Focused Inbox only sorts. Once you have read and handled an email in Focused, it is still in the inbox, and so is everything in Other. If you need to see all the mail for one client or project together later, sorting is not enough: it has to be filed into a folder. Rules can do that for mail with a fixed pattern (see how to automatically file emails in Outlook), but most client and project mail has no pattern a rule can match, so it ends up filed by hand.
That hand filing is the part Folder Suggest speeds up: an Outlook add-in that suggests a folder for each email from the ones you already have, so you can file it with a click when the suggestion fits. It has a free plan. It works alongside Focused Inbox, which keeps sorting the inbox as before.
For the folder side, see how to organize emails in Outlook. For mail you are done with but don’t want to file, see what Outlook’s Archive, Sweep and Clean Up do.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Focused and Other in Outlook?
Both are tabs of the same inbox. Focused holds the email Outlook thinks matters to you, based on the people you email and interact with. Other holds the rest, mostly automated and bulk mail such as newsletters and notifications. Nothing in Other is deleted or moved to a folder.
How do I turn off Focused Inbox in Outlook?
New Outlook: View > View settings > Mail > Message list, untick Sort messages into Focused and Other, Save. Classic Outlook: View > Show Focused Inbox. Outlook on the web and Outlook.com: Settings > Mail > Message list, untick the same option, Save. Mac: View > Turn off Focused Inbox. iOS and Android: Settings > Mail > Focused Inbox toggle.
Why are important emails going to Other?
Focused Inbox decides from your past interactions, so a new sender, or one you rarely reply to, can land in Other. Right-click the email and choose Always move to Focused inbox (Always Move to Focused in classic Outlook): every future email from that sender then goes to Focused.
Why don’t I see Focused Inbox in Outlook?
It may be turned off, by you (see the steps above) or, in a work account, by your IT admin for everyone; you can still turn it back on yourself, and it appears after you restart Outlook. In Outlook for Windows it is available only for Microsoft 365, Exchange and Outlook.com accounts, so Gmail, Yahoo and other IMAP or POP accounts don’t have it there. It doesn’t work in shared mailboxes. And a mailbox that still uses Clutter may show a Clutter folder instead of the two tabs.
Is Focused Inbox the same as Clutter?
It replaces Clutter and uses the same algorithm, but where Clutter moved low-priority mail into a separate folder, Focused Inbox keeps it in the inbox, on the Other tab. Messages already in a Clutter folder stay there until you move or delete them.
Does Focused Inbox move emails into folders?
No. It only splits the inbox into two tabs. To move mail into folders automatically you need rules, or Sweep in the new Outlook and Outlook on the web; to file mail that follows no pattern, you file it yourself.