Outlook Email Clutter and Focused Inbox

Question

What is clutter and/or focused inbox?

Answer

Clutter is a legacy system previously used by Microsoft Outlook to collect potentially unwanted messages. Using an algorithm developed by Microsoft, Outlook would determine whether or not an email message should be delivered to the Inbox or the Clutter folder. Microsoft announced they were discontinuing the Clutter feature over a year ago.

Microsoft has since replaced the technology with “Focused Inbox.”Focused Inbox is a filtering technology implemented by Microsoft in an effort to replace their “Clutter” feature. Unlike Clutter, Focused Inbox does not move messages from one folder to another, but hides messages via a filter in your Inbox based on an algorithm. (The idea is that when Focused Inbox is enabled, you will only see “important” emails).

Depending on your computer or device settings, Focused Inbox may be enabled by default. To disable:

1. Log into the web version of Outlook
2. Determine if Focused Inbox is enabled (you will see Focused and Other as shown below)

3. There are two methods to disabled the Focused Inbox:
   1. Click on Filter and “Uncheck” Show Focused Inbox 
   2. Click on the Gear Icon and click the Focused Inbox slider to off

Below are screenshots for Method 3a and Method 3b, respectively

For more information, please review this Microsoft help article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/focused-inbox-for-outlook-f445ad7f-02f4-4294-a82e-71d8964e3978