Symptom
A folder in Outlook appears to have no messages and you know there are messages in that folder.
Solution
Microsoft Outlook has the ability to set up customized views for items such as email located in folders. Sometimes, particularily after a large import from another account such as Gmail or an IMAP-based account, the custom view settings hide the emails from view. The solution is to reset the view for the folder or the entire mail box.
Reset a View on a Specific Folder Outlook 2010 and Up
A Reset button is also on the View Settings dialog (formerly the Current view dialog, below), which can be opened from the View ribbon, View Settings button or by right clicking on the field names visible in a view and selecting View Settings (Method 3, below).
You can expand the Change View menu and select Manage Views (formerly the Define Views dialog, below), then select the View by name to reset the view globally or select <Current view settings> to reset the view on the current folder only.
Create new views, edit views, or delete custom views using the Manage Views dialog.
Reset All Views in All Folders
Reset the views for the entire mailbox. When you open Outlook using the /cleanviews switch you will wipe out all custom views and return all default views to "factory default". Sometimes its necessary, but sometimes just resetting the view for the current folder will work. If you aren't using custom views, you can use the /cleanviews switch without worry.
The /cleanviews switch will wipe out all custom views and return all default views to "factory default".
To use this method, close Outlook. Go to Start menu > Run (or Windows key + R) and type Outlook.exe /cleanviews then click OK.
Comments (16)
Thankyou thankyou
I thought i had a system wide issue syncing folders, but this helped me see hidden emails.
Thank you thankyou thankyou
It did not work, all the sunfolders also disappeared
did not work, showing 165 unread email, but no email appear including old email and unread email.
same here - didn't work for me. Thanks for posting anyway :)
did not work - folder properties showing the number of email in the folder - folder is blank. Have tried it on Outlook 2013, 2016 and 2019 - all the same !!!
I have the same problem and I have found a workaround, not a great one, but it works for me. I go to the folder that has the emails, but doesn't show them. I type a common letter such as 'a' in the Search-field. Search will find the emails and I continue my work. Strange bug anyhow.
I have the same problem and I have found a workaround, not a great one, but it works for me. I go to the folder that has the emails, but doesn't show them. I type a common letter such as 'a' in the Search-field. Search will find the emails and I continue my work. Strange bug anyhow.
An Outlook feature I never knew existed! Worked perfectly. Thanks very much.
Here's what worked for me. Select the mail folder with hidden emails. Select "View" from top menu bar. Select "Change View" . Mine had the "Hidden Messages Marked for Deletion" selected. Changed it to "IMAP Messages" and bingo they were now visible locally.
I can’t find the top menu bar
all my folders are empty even though it says emails in it...omg have i lost all my saved emails
This is more likely to be an imap config issue than a view issue.
None of this addresses my problem. When I open the folder Inbox it opens but at the top, the heading is unread not inbox.
Same with Sent Folder , it’s called when opened Unread.
same for deleted.
How do I get them to open with the Folders name that is in the sidebar
Tim Rusher, thank you. I just tried this same technique after the first instructions and it worked. And then by clicking on "apply view to other mail folders" I was able to click all folders I wanted to have this same effect apply (unhide) them.
Did not work for me :(
When I get this problem, I click into another folder and then back into the problem folder. 9 times out of 10 this makes the emails magically appear. But I cannot find any proper solution to avoid this "We didn't find anything to show here" feature of Outlook.