How to mute a pointless email conversation in outlook

How to get rid of an email conversation or thread.

Sometimes you get emails on a topic that doesn’t matter to you and is cluttering up your Inbox. Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 have a fairly simple solution – the Ignore button.

Ignore tells Outlook to move all existing and future emails with a certain subject to the Deleted Items folder. It is similar to, but not the same as, the Mute option in Gmail. Ignore isn’t available in Outlook 2011 for Mac nor in Outlook 2007 or previous (you’d have to make your own custom Rule instead).

Select one message from the conversation and click ‘Ignore’.

Click ‘Ignore Conversation’ and the messages will disappear to the Deleted Items folder. Any future messages with that subject (i.e. conversation or thread) will go to Deleted Items automatically.

There’s no practical limit to the number of ignored conversations configured at any time – certainly thousands can be running.

If Outlook is connected to Exchange Server 2010 or later (including Office 365 customers) the Ignore rules are run at the server level as emails arrive. That means the conversations should move even if there’s no copy of Outlook running and you’re viewing the Inbox another way (Outlook Web Access or on a smartphone).

Stopping Ignore

To stop ignoring a conversation, find an ignored message in the Deleted Items folder. Look on the ribbon and you’ll see the Ignore button is selected, click on it to Unselect and the conversation will be restored to the Inbox.

In Outlook 2007 you can right-click on an ignored message and choose Move | Disable Always Move Conversation.

Or you can select a single message and move it to the Inbox (or any other folder).

Auto Stop

Outlook will delete an Ignore rule after some days of inaction (i.e. no new messages arrive).

According to Microsoft, the Outlook 2010 default setting is 14 days.

We can’t find anything definitive from Microsoft for Outlook 2013 so, absent other evidence, it’s probably also 14 days. There’s various values given around the web from 30 to 180 days.

The Ignore expiry can be controlled from the registry

add a DWORD key called OnGoingActionsExpiration

And add an integer value for the number of days before an inactive conversation stops being ignored.

The list of Ignored conversations

There isn’t one! Outlook maintains a list of conversations to ignore in the mailbox store (PST or OST) under ‘Conversation Action Settings’ (visible to administrators) but Microsoft hasn’t seen fit to add a display of them to standard users.

You can remove all Ignore rules from the command line using the command:

this will erase all the Ignore conversations list but will not move any existing messages.

Ignore messages is a useful Outlook feature but, like many Office features, lacks proper transparency or flexibility. Many users complain about ‘missing’ messages, not realizing they are being moved and Ignored by Outlook. A list of the Ignored threads from the Outlook Rules dialog would help users trace the movement of messages and the reason for it.

I’ve been using the the “Ignore” button on some conversations hoping to get rid of some “noise” in my Inbox and created a “Move Conversation” rule on some other messages. However, some conversations went back to an interesting topic again and I want to start receiving them in my Inbox again.

I’ve looked at my list of rules, but I cannot find any rule in my list of rules which is responsible for moving/deleting this conversation.

How can I stop ignoring/moving a single conversations or stop ignoring any conversation?

The “Ignore” and “Move Conversation” actions are indeed not exposed as rules but still can be disabled via any message in a conversation or for all conversations at once.

Background info

Since conversations are assumed to be of a temporary nature, Outlook stores these selected actions in a separate location where the action gets deleted automatically 30 days after the last message of a conversation has been received. After that amount of time, the conversation has been considered “died out” and Outlook cleans up the conversation actions to prevent conflicts in the future.

Stop ignoring a conversation

To stop ignoring or “muting” a conversation, select a message from that conversation in your Deleted Items folder and press the Ignore button again. This will directly “unmute” the conversation and the entire conversation (so including previously received messages which are now in the Deleted Items folder) will be moved back to the Inbox folder.

Click on Ignore again to “unmute” a conversation.

Stop moving a conversation

To stop moving a conversation, select a message from that conversation, right click on it, select Move-> Disable Always Move Conversation. This will not move back the entire conversation to the Inbox folder but new messages for that conversation will be delivered in the Inbox again.

Disabling a conversation Move action can be done via the context menu.

Stop ignoring or moving any conversation

If you want to stop all the moving and ignoring actions for any conversation that still have active “mute” actions applied, start Outlook with the /cleanconvongoingactions switch.

• Windows XP
  Start-> Run; outlook.exe /cleanconvongoingactions
• Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8
  Start-> type; outlook.exe /cleanconvongoingactions

Note the space in the command listed above. In Windows 8 you can just start typing in the Start Screen and the Search/Run field will automatically show up.

Note: Unlike disabling the “Ignore” button manually, this command line will not move any messages from the previously ignored conversation from the Deleted Items folder back into the Inbox folder.

Reset all conversation actions by starting Outlook with the /cleanconvongoingactions switch.

Rob Woodgate is a writer and IT consultant with nearly 20 years of experience across the private and public sectors. He’s also worked as a trainer, technical support person, delivery manager, system administrator, and in other roles that involve getting people and technology to work together. Read more.

When Outlook receives a new message, it uses a standard chime. This chime is managed in Windows, rather than Outlook, and is also used by the Mail app, the standard (non-Outlook) mail client that’s bundled with Windows 10. The chime is turned on by default in Outlook, but you can turn it off or change it to play something else. Here’s how.

Turn Off the Chime

If you don’t want an auditory alert every time, you receive a message (which can be especially jarring if you’re using headphones) you can tell Outlook not to play a noise at all. Go to File > Options > Mail and scroll down to the “Message arrival” section. The setting you’re looking for is “Play a sound”.

Switch this off, then click “OK.” Outlook will no longer play a sound when a message arrives.

Change the Chime to Something Else

If you still want an auditory alert, but you want something other than the standard sound, open Control Panel (click Start and type “Control Panel”) and then click the “Sound” option.

In the Sound window that opens, switch to the “Sounds” tab, scroll down a bit in the “Program Events” box, and select the “New Mail Notification” option.

By default, Windows uses the built-in “Windows Notify Email.wav” sound file. Open the drop-down menu to select a different installed sound, or click “Browse” to choose a sound file of your own.

The sound will have to be a WAV file, so if you’ve got a different file type, you want to use you’ll have to convert it (we’re big fans of Audacity or VLC for audio work, but use your tool of choice). When you’re done, click “OK” to exit save your change and exit the Sounds window. Restart Outlook and your new sound will be played when a message arrives.

You have a number of options available in your U-M Gmail to help you reduce unwanted email. You can block mail from particular addresses, mute an email conversation, report spam, and use a filter to automatically delete, report, or file messages. Similar options are available to Michigan Medicine Exchange Outlook users.

The Gmail instructions below are for using Gmail in a web browser, such as Google Chrome. Different email clients may have different specific instructions but generally will have the same capabilities.

Gmail

Block a Sender

You can block messages from a particular address so that they never appear in your inbox. They will be automatically marked as spam.

1. Open a message from the person you want to block.
2. At the top of the message, click the More icon (three dots)—the icon is to the right of the Reply arrow—and select Block .
3. Click Block to confirm.

Mute a Conversation

You can have all replies to a particular email conversation bypass your inbox and go straight to your message archive. Do this by muting the conversation.

1. Open a message in the conversation that you want to mute.
2. In the Gmail toolbar at the top of your mailbox, click the More icon (three dots), and select Mute.
3. All current and future messages in that conversation will bypass your inbox and be archived.

Report Spam

You can report unwanted email to Google by marking it as spam. Mail that you mark as spam is removed from your inbox and labeled as spam. Google uses your reports to improve its spam filters.

1. Select the message you want to report.
2. In the Gmail toolbar, select the Report Spam icon (a circle with an exclamation point in it).
3. The message will be labeled as spam and removed from your inbox.

Use Filters

You can have Gmail take action—such as labeling, deleting, or archiving—on your incoming email based on the criteria you specify by setting up filters.

Filters work hand-in-hand with Gmail labels. You may want to set up labels first—such as a label for newsletters you want to read later—to use in your filters.

Create a Filter Based on an Existing Email

1. At the top of the email you want to base your filter on, click the More icon (three dots)—the icon is to the right of the Reply arrow—and select Filter messages like this.
2. In the filter window, adjust your filter’s criteria. In this example, we want to filter notices sent from the Federal Trade Commission. You could choose to filter on a particular subject line and/or keywords. Then click Create filter.
3. Next, choose what you want your filter to do with the emails that match your criteria. In this example, we want the emails to bypass the inbox and be labeled “Newsletters for Later.” Click the down arrow next to Choose label to choose from a list of the labels you have set up. Then click Create filter.

Create a New Filter from Scratch

1. Click the down arrow in the search box at the top of your mailbox.
2. You can then set the criteria and actions for your filter following Steps 2–3 above.

Edit Your Filters

Open your Gmail settings to make changes to your filters.

1. Click the Settings icon (a gear) at the top of your mailbox.
2. In the small box that opens, click See all settings.
3. At the top of the settings screen, click Filters and blocked addresses.
4. You will see a list of your filters with links to edit or delete each one.

More detailed instructions:

Michigan Medicine Outlook

Outlook users can use rules to move specified incoming email messages to folders automatically. For instructions, see Microsoft Support: Manage email messages by using rules.

Если Вы получаете слишком много электронных писем (например, в процессе активного разговора), которые кажутся Вам скорее назойливыми, чем полезными, Вы можете отключить оповещения для этого разговора. Если позднее Вы передумаете, Вы можете легко снова включить оповещения для разговора.

Отключение оповещений для разговоров

В приложении «Почта» на компьютере Mac выберите разговор, для которого хотите отключить оповещения.

Нажмите кнопку «Выключить уведомления» в панели инструментов Почты (возможно, сначала понадобится нажать кнопку «Еще объекты панели инструментов» ).

В сообщениях разговора в списке сообщений отображается значок выключения звука.

Разговор остается в папке «Входящие», но Вы больше не будете получать уведомления или звуковые оповещения при поступлении новых сообщений в этом разговоре.

На панели «Основные» в настройках Почты можно включить автоматическое перемещение разговора с отключенными оповещениями в архив или корзину в зависимости от того, какой из этих ящиков доступен для Вашей учетной записи электронной почты. Последующие сообщения этого разговора будут поступать не в Ваши входящие сообщения, а сразу в этот ящик.

Включение оповещений для разговоров

В приложении «Почта» на компьютере Mac выберите разговор, для которого хотите включить оповещения.

Нажмите кнопку «Включить уведомления» в панели инструментов Почты (возможно, сначала понадобится нажать кнопку «Еще объекты панели инструментов» ).

Значок выключения звука удаляется с сообщений в этом разговоре.

Если Вы включили перемещение разговоров с отключенными оповещениями в архив или корзину, разговор останется в этом ящике после того, как Вы снова включите для него оповещения.

By default, the new email notification works on all incoming emails of all accounts in Outlook. If you want to disable the new email notification for a specific email account in Outlook but keep other accounts activate, please try the below method to get it done.

For disabling new email notifications for a specific account, you need to disable the new mail desktop alert for all accounts, and then create new mail desktop alert rule for all accounts except the specific one. Please do as follows.

1. Click File > Options, in the Outlook Options window, click Mail in the left pane, uncheck the Display a Desktop Alert box in the Message arrival section, and then click the OK button. See screenshot:

2. Click Rules > Manage Rules & Alerts under Home tab.

3. In the Rules and Alerts dialog box, click the New Rule button under the Email Rules tab.

4. In the first Rules Wizard, click Apply rule on messages I receive in the Start from a blank rule section, then click the Next button. See screenshot:

5. In the second Rules Wizard, click Next button without selecting any conditions, and click Yes in the popping up Microsoft Outlook dialog.

6. In the third Rules Wizard, check the display a Desktop Alert box and click the Next button.

7. In the next Rules Wizard, check the except through the specified account box in Step 1, click specified link text in Step 2. In the Account dialog, select the email account you will disable new email notifications and click the OK button. Then click Next to continue. See screenshot:

8. In the last Rules Wizard, specify a name for the rule as you need, keep the Turn on this rule box checked, and click Finish.

9. Click the OK button in the Rules and Alerts window to finish the rule.

From now on, new email notification will pop up when email arrives in all accounts except the specified one.

Banish unworthy emails to Gmail hell.

Posted on Sep 26, 2016 Updated on May 25, 2021, 10:24 pm CDT

Do you ever wake up in the morning to a really bad email? I don’t mean your usual crappy notification telling you your student loan payment is due, or that yet another of your online accounts has been breached. I mean a real stinker.

Here’s a great example:

Oh look! It’s another pointless email thread from Martin Shkreli. In case you were wondering, “Pharma Bro” regularly sends emails to hundreds of editors and reporters in which he publicly cc’s everyone, hoping to cause chaos in our inboxes. He doesn’t have a great grasp on the English language so it’s difficult to parse exactly what his communications mean, but everyone just ignores the emails, so it’s of little consequence.

Anyway, when you get an email like this, it’s always good to permanently banish it to the depths of Gmail hell, and you can do that quickly and easily with Gmail’s handy mute feature.

Simply select the offending email by clicking the check box on the left, then select “Mute” from the drop-down menu in the Gmail toolbar. Once you do this, the email will be automatically archived and removed from your inbox.

If you should ever desire to go back and look at the muted email, you’ll just have select the “All Mail” box on the left-hand side of the Gmail screen and find it there, or search for the email via the search bar at the top of the page. It’s as simple as that!

Mike Wehner

Mike Wehner is a former tech editor for the Daily Dot who now writes for BGR. His work has appeared everywhere from Yahoo to CNN, and there’s a good chance his Apple Watch is dead right now.

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Let’s say you discussed a technique issue with your customer via Outlook emails back and forth, and now you need to collect these emails and forward them to your colleague. How could you forward all emails in the conversation quickly? This article will introduce two methods to batch forward an entire conversation easily.

This method will guide you to find out all emails in a conversation, and then forward them in bulk as attachments in a new email. Please follow as below steps:

1. In the Mail view, select one of emails in the conversation, right click and select Find Related > Messages in this Conversation from the right-clicking menu. See screenshot:

2. Now all emails in the conversation are found out and listed in the mail list. Please press Ctrl + A keys together to select all of them, and then click Home > Forward.

3. Now all emails in the conversation are added as attachments in a new email. Please add recipients and subject in the email, compose, and then send it.

So far, all emails in the specified conversation have been forwarded as attachments in bulk.

This method will guide you to find out all emails in a conversation, and then forward all emails in the conversation separately in bulk by Forward (Multiple Mails) feature of Kutools for Outlook.

Kutools for Outlook: Add more than 100 handy tools for Outlook, free to try with no limitation in 60 days. Read More Free Trial Now

1. In the Mail view, select one of emails in the conversation, right click and select Find Related > Messages in this Conversation from the right-clicking menu. See screenshot:

2. Now all emails in the conversation are found out and listed in the mail list. Press Ctrl + A keys together to select all of them, and then click Kutools > Bulk Forward (in the Multiple Mails group). See screenshot:

3. In the popping out Select Names: Contacts dialog box, please specify the recipients into the To/Cc/Bcc fields as you need, and then click the OK button.

And now all emails in the conversation are forwarded separated one by one quickly.

Tip: In this Video, Kutools tab is added by Kutools for Outlook . If you need it, please click here to have a 60-day free trial without limitation!

Ignore a Conversation in Outlook: Overview

You can ignore a conversation in Outlook that you no longer want to see in your Inbox. This is a helpful feature if you are no longer a part of an email conversation. While this feature ignores any new emails in the conversation stream, it doesn’t block or ignore emails from any senders or other recipients. It only blocks or ignores future emails in the same conversation stream.

To ignore a conversation in Outlook, find and click on the conversation in the Inbox pane of the folder that contains the message. Then click the “Ignore” button in the “Delete” button group of the “Home” tab in the Ribbon. Alternatively, select the message and press the “Ctrl” + “Delete” or “Ctrl” + “Del” keys on your keyboard to ignore the conversation. You can also right-click a message and select “Ignore” from the pop-up menu.

Ignore a Conversation in Outlook – Instructions: A user ignoring a conversation in Outlook by selecting “Ignore” from the pop-up menu.

A message box then appears, asking you to confirm you want to delete the selected conversation and send all future conversations in this thread to the Deleted Items folder. Click “Ignore Conversation” to confirm this is what you want to do. You can check the “Don’t show this message again” checkbox to ignore any future conversations without seeing the confirmation box.

This action does not “block” emails, as in refusing to receive new conversations in this thread; it simply sends the future emails it receives in the thread to the “Deleted Items” folder. You can easily open the Deleted Items folder and view the ignored conversations, if needed.

To stop ignoring an email conversation, open the Deleted Items folder and find the conversation you originally ignored. Right-click the message and select the “Ignore” option from the pop-up menu. A “Stop Ignoring Conversation” message box then appears. Click the “Stop Ignoring Conversation” button to move this conversation, and any future emails in the thread, back into the Inbox folder.

Ignore a Conversation in Outlook: Instructions

1. To ignore a conversation in Outlook, select a conversation and click the “Ignore” button in the “Delete” button group of the “Home” tab in the Ribbon.
2. Alternatively, you can also select the message and press the “Ctrl” + “Delete” or “Del” keys on your keyboard to ignore a message.
3. Alternatively, you can also right-click a message and select “Ignore” from the pop-up menu.
4. A message box appears, asking you to confirm you want to delete the conversation and ignore all further messages in this conversation.
5. Click “Ignore Conversation” to confirm.
6. To not see the confirmation box in the future, check the “Don’t show this message again” checkbox and then click “Ignore Conversation.”
7. This does not block the sender from emailing you. It simply moves this conversation thread to the Deleted Items folder. Future emails in the same thread are automatically moved to the Deleted Items folder.
8. To stop ignoring a previously ignored conversation, open the Deleted Items folder and find the message you ignored.
9. Right-click the message and click “Ignore.”
10. A “Stop Ignoring Conversation” message box then appears.
11. Click the “Stop Ignoring Conversation” button to move the conversation, and any future emails in the thread, back to the Inbox folder.

Ignore a Conversation in Outlook: Video Lesson

The following video lesson, titled “ Ignoring Conversations ,” shows how to ignore a conversation in Outlook. This video lesson is from our complete Outlook tutorial , titled “ Mastering Outlook Made Easy v.2019 and 365 .”

Ignore a Conversation Thread in Outlook Web App: Overview

A conversation thread in the Outlook Web App is any response to an original email and further conversation that stems from the original email. When you ignore a conversation thread in Outlook Web App, you remove and ignore future messages that stem from the original email.

To ignore a conversation thread in Outlook Web App, find the email conversation to ignore in the Inbox pane. Right-click the email message and choose “Ignore” from the list of options. When you click “Ignore,” a popup box will appear warning you that all messages from this conversation will be deleted from all folders. The only exception is the “Sent Items” folder. No messages in the “Sent Items” folder will be deleted.

Ignore a Conversation Thread in Outlook Web App- Tutorial: A picture of a user ignoring a conversation thread in Outlook Web App.

A rule will automatically be created so that any future items from that conversation will be sent directly to the “Deleted Items” folder. You can check the checkbox on the popup box to not see the warning the next time you ignore a conversation thread in Outlook Web App. Click “OK” to accept and ignore the conversation thread in Outlook Web App.

This does not block any of the users from sending you new email messages. It only removes that conversation thread and any future emails that are in the same conversation thread.

Ignore a Conversation Thread in Outlook Web App: Instructions

1. To ignore a conversation thread in Outlook Web App, find the conversation in the Inbox pane and right-click the message.
2. Choose “Ignore” from the list of options.
3. Click “OK” in the confirmation box to confirm ignoring the conversation. Click “Cancel” to not ignore the message.
4. To avoid seeing the confirmation box again, check the “Don’t show me this message again” checkbox.
5. Any future messages in that conversation thread will be automatically sent to the “Deleted Items” folder.

Ignore a Conversation Thread in Outlook Web App: Video Lesson

The following video lesson, titled “ Ignoring a Conversation Thread ,” shows you how to ignore a conversation thread in Outlook Web App. This video lesson on how to ignore a conversation thread in Outlook Web App is from our complete Outlook Web App training titled “ Mastering Outlook on the Web Made Easy v.2016 .”

Email is a necessary part of modern life and work, but while it’s now an important method of communication, it’s not always great for productivity. It may seem that email is a great way to help you get more done, but the truth is, those email notifications can be highly distracting. Every time you stop what you’re doing to read and respond to a new email, you’re really just interrupting your workflow—and it can take an average of 20 minutes to fully get it back again. Instead of letting every new email distract you from your current task, why not turn off your notifications? It’s easy to do, and once you’ve gotten rid of those pesky popups, you may find your productivity is noticeably improved.

Turn Off Notifications in Outlook

In the Outlook desktop app, you’ll get a popup notification when you receive a new email, meeting request, or task request. These desktop alerts are turned on by default, so if you don’t want to receive them, you’ll need to turn them off. This is a quick and simple process.

1) Choose File > Options > Mail.

2) Under Message arrival, clear the check box for Display a Desktop Alert.

3) Click OK.

If you later decide to enable Desktop Alerts just perform the same steps and put a check in the Display a Desktop Alert box.

Turn Off Outlook Notifications in Windows

Depending on how your workstation is set up, you may also need to turn off Outlook notifications in your Windows settings. This is another easy process that takes only a minute or two.

1) Right click on the Windows taskbar. Make sure to click on a blank area rather than on an icon.

2) Choose Taskbar Settings.

3) Scroll down to the Notification area and click Select which icons appear on the taskbar.

4) Find the Microsoft Outlook entry. If there’s more than one entry for Outlook, find the one with the subheading You have new unread email messages.

5) Make sure the slider is set to the Off position to disable taskbar notifications.

6) Follow the same steps to re-enable notifications, and set the slider to the On position.

Turn Off Notifications for a Single Outlook Account

What if you want to disable email notifications for a single specific account, while leaving notifications active on other accounts?

To do this, you’ll need to disable notifications for all accounts, then create a new email alert rule to apply only to the accounts that you want alerts to be active on. This is a slightly longer process than those above.

1) Follow the above process to turn off notifications in Outlook.

2) In the Home tab, choose Rules > Manage Rules & Alerts.

3) Locate the Rules and Alerts dialogue box. Under the Email Rules tab, click New Rule. This will start the Rules Wizard.

4) On the first screen, find the Start from a blank rule section and click Apply rule on messages I receive. Then click Next.

5) On the next screen, click Next then choose Yes on the dialogue window that pops up.

6) On the next screen, check the box that reads display a Desktop Alert then click Next.

7) On the next screen, for Step 1 check the box that reads except through the specified account.

For Step 2 click the word specific. On the popup dialogue box that appears, choose the email account for which you want to disable notifications. Click the OK button and then click Next.

8) On the last screen, choose a name for the rule you just created. Make sure the box labelled Turn on this rule is checked then click Finish.

9) Finally, click OK in the Rules and Alerts window.

Once this process is complete, all accounts, except the one you specified, will receive email notifications.

A Better Way to Deal with Email

If you turn off notifications, you won’t see a note for every new email as it arrives. For some people, the idea of not receiving notifications may be a bit anxiety-inducing—after all, what if it’s really important? Luckily, it’s easy to set up your day to deal with email more effectively.

One option is to designate one or more time points over the course of the day, during which you’ll read and respond to new email. For instance, these could be first thing in the morning, after lunch, and at the end of the day. Once you’ve picked out some time blocks, put on your calendar and get into the habit of only checking email at these times.

Alternatively, if you really feel you need to check your email more often, resolve to do it every two hours, or every hour. Just 8% to 11% of people expect a reply to an email in under an hour, but around 40% prefer a reply within one hour—so, if you check email hourly, you’re meeting or exceeding the majority of expectations.

For more tips and tricks to get more out of Outlook, get in touch with ACUTEC today.

If you’ve ever worked in a corporate setting, you’ve surely encountered the nightmare of a “Reply All” misfire . This is when someone accidentally (or purposefully) blasts an email to way more people than they should’ve , and even more people chime in via “ reply all” asking to be removed from the conversation and/or distribution list.

It’s usually pretty funny when it happens—unless you work in IT and it’s wrecking your mail server—but a “Reply All” email storm can get annoying if you’re trying to get work done and are being constantly distracted by notifications . If you’ve found yourself drowning in a delug e of unwanted “Reply All” emails, here’s how you can bail yourself out using Gmail , Apple Mail and Outlook .

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I have two techniques to fix this problem in Gmail. First, if you’re getting a lot of unwanted pile-ons to a message (or all the replies it spawned), and they are all contained within the same email thread, simply mute the thread. Click on the email (or click into the email), look for the triple-dot icon at the top of Gmail’s web interface, and select mute:

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If you’re using the Gmail mobile app, the “mute” option should be hidden behind the triple-dot icon that appears whenever you tap on or jump into an email .

This might not be enough to stem the tide , especially if a bunch of auto-generated “out of office” messages have started pouring in as well . In this case, I recommend setting up a Gmail filter, or a few of them . On the browser-based version of Gmail, click on the Gear icon and select Settings, then click on “Filters and Blocked addresses” on top of your screen and click on the blue “Create a new filter” that appears in the main body—at the bottom, if you already have a bunch of filters.

As for what you should include in your filter, that depends on what circle of “Reply All” hell you’ve find yourself in. You can probably get away with dropping in a few of the words found in the subject line of the original email (which everyone is surely replying to), which should catch most of the junk. Adding a filter for “autoreply” could help too. That will look like this if you combine them all on one line:

Click on “Search” to test your filter, or “Create Filter” to keep building it. You can then elect to have the messages skip your inbox or, if you’re really annoyed, go straight to the trash .

Instead of working for your inbox, you should learn how to make your inbox work for you to keep your email organized, and that’s where Outlook rules come in. With the right filtering, you can automatically filter email messages as they arrive, and creating them couldn’t be easier thanks to solutions such as Clean Email.

Clean Email

Filter emails like a Pro

The Art of Learning How Filter Emails in Outlook

Most Outlook users receive many messages every day, including personal emails from friends and family members, important announcements from work colleagues, e-commerce newsletters, and malicious spam.

If you count yourself among them, then you know how much time it can take to manually go through all new emails and sort them out into appropriate folders. Wouldn’t it be better to use this time more productively? Of course, it would! And that’s where Outlook rules and tools such as Clean Email come in.

Using Clean Email, you can quickly and easily set up automatic email filtering by creating Outlook rules based on different types of messages you receive, and this article will tell you how to get started.

Quickly find and delete all the emails you don’t need anymore.

What Are The Outlook Rules?

Microsoft Outlook is a powerful mail client with a whole host of useful features to make your life easier. Included among them is the ability to create inbox rules.

What are inbox rules? You can think of them as actions that Outlook automatically performs whenever certain conditions are met. For example, Outlook mail rules can be used to move all emails from a specific sender to a single folder, or they can be used to delete all messages that have been sitting in the inbox for some time.

Outlook email filter rules can be created directly in this service provider using its filter wizard, or you can create them using a third-party inbox organizing app like Clean Email. Third-party email organizers are definitely more convenient, but they typically require you to purchase a license or subscription.

Just by creating several well-thought-out Outlook rules, you can prevent your inbox from turning into a huge unorganized mess after just a few days of neglect and prevent important emails from disappearing under a pile of junk.

How to Filter Emails in Outlook Using Rules

To create Outlook email filters, you don’t need any thing-party software (although it can definitely make their creation easier, as we explain in the next chapter). Both the desktop client and the web version of Outlook feature an email rules creation wizard, so let’s take a look at how to use them.

How to filter emails in Outlook on desktop:

1. Launch the app and select your Inbox.
2. Navigate to the Home tab and click the Rules button and then select the Create rule option.
3. Specify the conditions under which the rule will apply and choose how you want the mail client to handle matching emails.
4. Click OK to create the new rule.

You can manage your Outlook rules from Home → Rules → Manage Rules & Alerts. There, you can edit rules, sort rules by priority, or delete them, among other things.

How to set up filters in Outlook on web:

1. Go to:
2. Log in with your username and password.
3. Click the Settings gear icon and select the View all settings link.
4. Navigate to Mail → Rules.
5. Click the Add new rule button and choose both the conditions that trigger the rule and the actions the rule will take.

The web version runs rules in the displayed order, so feel free to move them however you like.

If you’re looking for instructions on how to create Hotmail rules and filters, then simply follow the steps above. Microsoft phased out Hotmail in October 2011, calling it Outlook.com since then. We also have instructions on how to filter emails in Gmail and how to filter emails in Yahoo, so feel free to check them out as well.

How to set up filters in the Outlook mobile app:

Unfortunately, it’s currently not possible to set up rules in the mobile app. All you can do is move important messages from Other to Focused:

1. Tap the three dots at the top.
2. Tap Move to Focused Inbox.
3. Tap Always Move, Move Once, or Cancel.

Moving important messages from Other to Focused helps this mail service provider improve its automatic email filtering capabilities, which results in less work for you.

Filter Email in Outlook More Efficiently Using Clean Email

As we’ve already explained, email filters in Outlook can be created using the built-in email filter wizard or third-party email filter services.

The biggest advantage of third-party email filter services, such as Clean Email, is their convenience. Instead of having to go through the email filter wizard each time you want to create a new filter, the app lets you set up a new rule in Outlook just by ticking a single checkbox when managing your messages.

Here’s how easy it is to create rules using Clean Email:

1. Go to:
2. Sign in with your mail address.
3. Go to your Inbox and apply any action you want to a message on which you would like to base your filter.

Next time you receive a message that matches your newly created Outlook rule, the rule will be automatically applied to it.

In addition to a streamlined creation of Outlook rules, Clean Email offers several other attractive features that make it stand out from the pack. For example, Smart Views help you organize your mailbox by intelligently grouping related emails together, and Unsubscriber makes it easy to get rid of newsletters and promotional emails.

These and other features make Clean Email a must-try solution for anyone who is interested in learning how to filter emails more effectively.

How to Filter Emails in Outlook – FAQs

How do I make emails go to a specific folder in Outlook?

To make emails go to a specific folder automatically as soon as they arrive in your inbox, you need to learn how to set up filters in Outlook. In short, you can either use the Outlook filter wizard or a third-party email organizer app like Clean Email.

How do I filter emails by category in Outlook?

Filtering emails by category in Outlook is easy:
1. Click the Filter Email button on the Home tab.
2. Hover your mouse over the Categorized option.
3. Select any available category.

How do I filter all emails in Outlook by importance?

You can filter emails by importance by creating rules for all main types of messages you receive. For example, you can create one rule for advertising emails and a different one for emails from work colleagues, telling Outlook to automatically archive advertising emails and label work-related emails as top priority.

What are the two types of Outlook rules?

It recognizes two types of rules:
– Server-based rules: When you create a server-based rule, the rule will be applied directly by the email server.
– Client-only rules: On the other hand, client-only rules are applied locally on your computer.

We’ve all been there – stuck in a chain of Reply All emails that’s gone on far too long and is clogging your inbox. Either the chain started innocently enough with an FYI email to a group that’s spun out of control. Or you’re stuck on a chain you shouldn’t have been copied on in the first place.

Luckily, if you’re using Outlook, there are a few things you can do to get out from under the mess. If you’re the sender, you can stop your recipients from using the Reply All button in the first place. If you’re a recipient, you can opt out. Using these two tricks should help you cut down on the number of unnecessary emails you get from reply all button abuse.

How to prevent people from using Reply All

To prevent recipients from replying all to your email, you’ll need to create a custom form in Outlook (all recipients must be using Outlook for this to work). This seems like a lot of steps, but you’ll only need to set up the form once.

Go to “Design a Form.” If you’re using Outlook 2013 or later, this is on the Developer tab. If you’re using an earlier version, it’s on the Tools tab (if you don’t have either, you’ll need to add the tab first using the Customize Your Ribbon option). If you’re using Office 2016 or Office 365, you can get it to by typing “form” in the “Tell me what you want to do…” box in the ribbon.

Once you click the “Design a Form” button, you’ll get a box that looks like this:

In the “Look In:” drop down, choose “Standard Forms Library.” Then, select “Message” and click “Open.” A message window will open that looks like a lot like a normal new email message – but with very different options. This is the developer view. For this form, you’ll need to go to the “Actions” tab:

Once you’re on the “Actions” tab, you’ll see these options you can customize. To customize the use of Reply All, double click on that line:

A new box will pop up. Uncheck the box next to “Enabled” and hit “Ok.” After the box closes, you’ll need to go to the “Properties” tab (right next to the “Actions” tab).

Once you’re on the “Properties” tab, you’ll need to check to box next to “Send form definition with item.” (You’ll get a pop-up box saying this isn’t a recommended action – hit Ok.)

Then, you need to publish the form. To do this, click the “Publish” button in the main ribbon on the message window, then select “Publish Form As”

When the “Publish Form As” box comes up, change “Look in:” to “Personal Forms Library”:

Change the “Display Name” to something you can easily remember, like “No Reply Alls”. In the “Form Name” box, enter a unique name (no spaces), like “noreplyalls”. Hit Publish. You can close the Form Editor window that looks like an email message now (you don’t need to save changes – you saved them by Publishing them).

Now you can use this form to send emails that won’t let people reply all! To use it, you’ll need to write your email using the form you just created.

On the Tools/Developer tab, click “Choose Form” and in the box that pops up, select “Personal Forms Library” in the “Look In:” drop down. Select the form you just created and hit open. A new message window will pop up. Use this to write and send your email.

The email will appear completely normal to your recipients. But, if they try to Reply All, they will get a pop-up message saying “That action is not available for this item.”

How to Opt Out of Reply All conversations

If you are stuck in a Reply All chain you didn’t start, there is still hope for you: the “Ignore Conversation” button. You can use this to ignore all future communications in an email chain.

To ignore an email chain/conversation, select a message in the email chain, and click the “Ignore” button (right next to the deleted button). This will send all future replies directly to your “Deleted Items” folder.

Use with caution, though (especially if you habitually clean out your deleted messages folder). It will also delete the messages in the chain you’ve already received.

If you need to stop ignoring a conversation, and it’s still in your Deleted Items folder, select a message and click the Ignore button again. The emails will be restored to your Inbox and future replies will go to your Inbox.

These features can up your email game, whether you use the mobile, desktop or browser version of Outlook.

Shelby Brown (she/her/hers) is a writer for CNET’s services and software team. She covers tips and tricks for apps and devices, as well as Apple Arcade news.

As the pandemic continues, remote and hybrid work models have become commonplace. Large and small businesses, including companies like Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter , have adopted work-from-home policies over the last two years.

Whether you’re working for a tech giant or a smaller business, it can be stressful juggling virtual meetings, coworkers in different time zones, Slack notifications and lengthy group email threads. Microsoft Outlook has a number of features to make your digital day easier. I tested these tips on Outlook for the web on a Mac device, so the steps may look different depending on the version and device you use.

Here are our favorite Outlook tips and tricks.

Meeting management

It’s easy to invite people to a meeting via Outlook, but you can also keep tabs on who’s coming, whether you’re the organizer or an attendee. Here’s how:

1. Open Microsoft Outlook.
2. Open the calendar panel and choose an event.
3. Under response options, you should see the name of the person who invited you as well as a tally of everyone who’s interacted with the invitation.
4. Click the tally to see an expanded version including who’s accepted, declined, who’s a maybe and who hasn’t responded.

If you’re organizing a meeting, you can explore more options by opening the form in a new window. From here, you can use features, such as Scheduling Assistant to get a better idea of your potential attendees’ availability and response options, letting you disable forwarding, request responses and hide the attendee list.

Better time zone management

Hybrid work environments are here to stay, and that means coworkers might not be in the office at the same time or working traditional hours. It’s more important than ever to be aware and respectful of varying time zones. Instead of adding and subtracting mentally to figure out if a meeting you want to schedule is too early or too late, you can add a second time zone in Outlook calendar.

Scheduling Assistant can help you view two time zones at once so you don’t schedule a meeting too early or late.

1. Open the Outlook calendar panel.
2. Choose New Event and expand it into a separate window.
3. Click Scheduling Assistant.
4. Click the little globe icon next to the All Day toggle. It should say Time Zones if you hover over it.
5. Leave one field set to your time zone and search for the city of your choice in the other one.
6. Click done.

Outlook will take you back to your invite draft and now you’ll see the time zones you’ve chosen side by side. This only applies to the invite you’re working on at that moment, and it won’t carry over to your full calendar.

Schedule emails

You can also schedule emails so you’re not responsible for waking up a co-worker in the middle of the night or disturbing their vacation. Here’s how to do it:

1. Compose an email, but don’t hit Send.
2. Click the little down arrow next to Send.
3. Choose Send Later. This opens a window where you can select a custom date and time.

To schedule an email in Outlook, just click Send Later after you compose your message.

Outlook will automatically suggest 30-minute time intervals, but if you really need to send an email at 4:17 p.m., you can manually type it into the field.

There’s not a dedicated tab for scheduled emails, but you can find any emails you’ve scheduled (until they send, of course) under Drafts. The email should note when it’s scheduled to send so you don’t accidentally delete it.

Quick navigation with multiple windows

If you’re in a situation that calls for multitasking, clicking back and forth between Outlook views might slow you down. Fortunately, the navigation pane makes it pretty easy to accomplish your tasks. Should you need your calendar and inbox open at the same time, just right click and choose to open a new window. This feature only gets better with the Windows 11 Snap Layout and Snap Group tools.

Snap Layouts in Windows 11 makes multitasking with Outlook even easier.

Mute ongoing conversations

We’ve all been looped in on an email where the Reply All button isn’t necessary, but it keeps getting clicked. If you’ve gotten the information from an email and don’t want to be bogged down in notifications, you can turn on the option to ignore an email. Turning on Ignore Conversation will automatically delete the conversation from all your folders except for Sent, as well as any new replies to that email — so just be sure that’s what you want before clicking OK.

1. Open an email.
2. Click the three-dot settings option in the toolbar.
3. Click Ignore.
4. Outlook will ask if you’re sure you want to ignore the conversation. If so, click OK.

If you want something a bit less permanent, you can choose to Snooze a conversation. In the same toolbar, click Snooze and choose how long you want to silence the conversation. This way, you’re not distracted by endless replies, but you can still look back on any information you might need later.

Chat is at the center of everything you do in Microsoft Teams. From individual chats with just one other person, to group chats and conversations in channels—chat has you covered.

The following are the first things to know:

1. Chats can be one-on-one or in a group

Sometimes, you’ll want to talk one-on-one with someone. Other times, you’ll want to have a small group chat. In Chat, you can do either.

You start one-on-one and group chats the same way: by selecting New chat at the top of your chat list. Once in a chat, you’ll be able to send messages that include files, links, emoji, stickers, and GIFs—whatever you need to get your point across.

The following are more details about each kind of chat:

One-on-one chat

Once you’ve selected New chat and entered the person’s name, compose your message in the text box and then select Send or press Enter. This starts the chat.

Chat with yourself

Note: Chat with yourself is available as part of the public preview program and might undergo further changes before being released publicly. To get access to this and other upcoming features, switch to Teams public preview.

For times when you want to draft messages, send files from one device to another, or get to know features a little better, you can start a chat with yourself. Everything you do in a regular chat you can also do in a chat with yourself. You’ll see it pinned to the top of your chat list by default.

If you unpin the chat with yourself and want to find it again, select New chat and enter your name into the To field.

Group chat

Use a group chat when you need to talk to a small group of people. Start one the same way you start a one-on-one chat: select New chat at the top of your chat list. Select the down arrow to the far right of the To field and type a name for the chat in the Group name field. Next, type the names of the people you’d like to add in the To field.

Once the chat has begun (whether group or one-on-one), just choose it in the chat list to resume the conversation and send more messages.

2. Press Shift+Enter to start a new line

If you keep pressing Enter to start a new line, which sends the message before you’re ready, try the following:

When you want to start a new paragraph, press Shift+Enter to insert the line break. If you’ve opened your formatting options (see step 3 for details), just press Enter to start a new line of text, then select Send to send it.

3. Select Format to see all your formatting options

There are many formatting options for messages.

To open your formatting options, select Format beneath the box where you type your message. In this expanded view, select the text that you want to format, then choose an option like B, I, or U to bold, italicize, or underline the text. There are also options for highlighting, font size, font color, lists, and more.

Beneath the box you’ll also find delivery options, attach files, emoji, giphy, stickers, schedule a meeting, and more. Select More options to find more apps.

4. Chat happens in channels, too

When you go to any channel in Teams the very first tab is Posts. Think of this as one big group chat. Everyone who has access to the channel can see messages in Posts.

Based on your organization and culture, you’ll need to decide which messages are suitable for the Posts tab in a particular channel.

Another important thing to know is that replies to a channel message stay attached to the original message. This way, the whole thread of the conversation can be easily followed by anyone reading it. This is what’s great about threaded conversations .

To reply to a channel message, be sure to use the Reply link underneath the message.

5. There are several ways to search for and find messages

Depending on what you remember about the sender of the message or the characteristics of the message, a different way of searching might make more sense.

Find a chat based on a person’s name

Enter the person’s name in the command box at the top of Teams. You’ll see their name and any group chats they’re a part of with you listed. Select their name to go to your one-on-one chat with them or select a group chat to resume that one.

Find a message that has a keyword that you remember

Start typing a keyword into the command box at the top of Teams and press Enter. You’ll see a list of results that include the keyword.

Filter to show certain types of messages

From the Activity feed, select Filter and then More options to show certain types of messages including unread messages, @mentions, replies, and reactions.

For a more specific search, go to the Feed menu, select the drop-down arrow, and then choose My Activity.

Find your saved messages

To save a message, hover over it, select More options , and then select Save message .

To see a list of your saved messages, select your profile picture at the top of Teams, then choose Saved. Or, type /saved in the command box at the top of Teams.

6. Hide or mute chats to keep them out of your way

While you can’t delete an entire chat conversation in Teams, you can hide the chat from the chat list, or mute it so you stop getting notifications. For details, see Hide, mute, or pin a chat in Teams.

Note that you are able to delete individual messages you’ve sent.