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SOLVED: How to View Unread Messages in Outlook 2010

To avoid a major rant, let me just say that I can not think of a single good reason for Microsoft to remove the VIEW, UNREAD MESSAGES option that has existed in Outlook 2000 and 2003.  To the point, if you want to view your unread messages in Outlook 2010 simply:

  1. Click the VIEW tab in Outlook 2010
  2. Click the VIEW SETTINGS button
  3. Click the FILTER button
  4. Check the ONLY ITEMS THAT ARE box
  5. Select UNREAD from the drop down list.

Now, wasn’t that easy!?!

Outlook 2010 How to View Unread Messages

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  • Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Amazing that I couldn't find this solution from Microsoft, but this is exactly what I was looking for!

  • Click on one account's inbox. In the upper right you'll see a bar with the magnifying glass. In this box type "read:no" and you'll get ALL the UNREAD messages from ALL the accounts. Merry Christmas 2013!

  • I am so frustrated with Outlook 2010. First I was getting duplicated messages from two years ago. I archived those and that stopped. Now however, all my new messages are going into my RSS feeds. This is after they were going to my search unread messages folder.

    How do I get all unread and read messages to stay in my Inbox until I transfer them to sub folders? HELP PLEASE!

    • Hi Maraine;

      That is a problem I have only seen once before and it was caused by a user creating RULES which was easy to resolve:

      Note that I am running Outlook 2013 now so to answer your question I am using Outlook 2007 which will be very similar to Outlook 2010.

      1: TOOLS > ORGANIZE
      2: Click RULES AND ALERTS from the top right
      3: That will show you all of your existing rules which hopefully has the offending one jump out at you

      Note that very few people use rule in my experience; somewhere around 5% I would guess so if you have no rules, don't be shocked... it just means this was not your issue.

      Let me know what you find

      • I recently switched from Outlook 2010 to 2013, when I purchased my Surface Pro. In Outlook 2010 my Unread Mail folder that I set up under Favorites used to display email from both my personal gmail and company Exchange mail accounts. However, using 2013, I seem unable to set up the Unread Mail folder to display unread messages from both accounts. Any ideas?

        Thanks.

        • Yes, I THINK I know this one. The problem is that you are using TWO message stores, one Exchange and one .PST which the UNREAD tab in Outlook 2013 does not support (I THINK). I found the following which might help you:

          Add a predefined Search Folder
          1.In Mail, on the Folder tab, in the New group, click New Search Folder.

          Keyboard shortcut To create a Search Folder, click CTRL+SHIFT+P.
          1.From the Select a Search Folder list, click the Search Folder you want to add.
          2.If prompted, under Customize Search Folder, specify the search criteria to use.
          3.To select a different mailbox to search, under Customize Search Folder, click the arrow at the Search mail in box, and then select the mailbox from the list.

          Tip To change the criteria for a Search Folder, right-click the folder in the Navigation Pane, click Customize this Search Folder, click Criteria, and then change the criteria. The criteria of Search Folders in the Reading Mail group, such as Inbox, Drafts or Sent Items, can’t be changed.

          http://superuser.com/questions/187771/ms-outlook-2010-shared-unread-mail-for-multiple-email-accounts

    • Thanks nealbscott ! I also saw that I can right click and add the "Unread mail" search folder to my favorites.

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Published by
Ian Matthews
Tags: how toMessagesOutlook 2010UnreadView
13 years ago

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