Outlook.com sent items show sender not recipient - how can I change the display setting

Anonymous
2012-08-03T11:33:19+00:00

When viewing sent items on outlook.com the items are displayed in a list with the sender name (my name) showing - rather than a list of the recipients. How can I change it to show the recipients. Currently to remember who an email was sent to I have to open it.

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Settings

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2013-05-16T01:10:08+00:00

Hi Everyone,

I'm Lanie, a Senior Support Analyst for Microsoft and I am part of Hotmail/Outlook.com Support Escalations Team investigating this case.

We would like to apologize for the delayed response and for the inconvenience that the issue has caused you.

You have reported that your name appears in the recipient’s column instead of the email recipient’s name/address when viewing your sent items using a web browser.

Here are the reasons why this is happening:

  1. If you are using an email client such as Windows Live Mail or Outlook client when sending an email.
  2. If you are importing emails from a third party email account (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo! mail etc.) to your Hotmail/Outlook.com account using TrueSwitch or POP settings, emails from the sent items folder will show your name in recipient’s column.

We understand that you don't want this behavior and you want everything to be synchronized like showing email recipients name in the sent items folder instead of your names when using a web browser. This behavior of Hotmail/Outlook.com is by design. But, we will be taking this concern as a feature request. We appreciate your feedback regarding our product.

For other feedback and suggestions that will help us in improving our product, please visit this link.

If you have other concerns regarding our product Outlook.com, we recommend that you create a new post with regards to your issue. This will help us address your concern in a timely and proper manner. 

I am now  locking this thread.

Thanks!

Lanie

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-02-25T16:49:13+00:00

    I hope they do something about it, because it is *bleep*ing annoying.

    I remember though that something similar happened when I migrated my e-mails from Outlook (2003, 2010?) to Gmail. Previously, I used tons of different e-mail addresses, and I wanted to have those messages in the "cloud", too. Exporting them was smooth as it could be, however, when I went to the sent folder in Gmail I had the same problem - instead of the recipient, it showed only the sender. Only after I added all my accounts as a send/receive pop3/imap account did Gmail show me the recipient instead of the sender, which sucked, since I had no access to many of those accounts. I had a few hundred e-mails in the sent folder listing "me" and the message subject only, but no recipient.

    I hope MS does something about it, though, it's 2013 so a bug like this is kind of embarrassing.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-02-25T16:29:22+00:00

    Thanks Shonagh - hopefully that will do the trick, assuming all the smart Microsoft techs didn't leave to join Google or Apple of course!

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-02-24T22:49:20+00:00

    Dermot,

    That is the best reply ever. Absolutely love it!

    You have summed it up perfectly. I saw the recent reply from MS asking again for screenshots - and I couldn't even be bothered to reply to say - WE'VE SENT THEM ALREADY!!!!

    So, thank you for your brilliant response to them. Especially the bit where you go and make yourself a cup of tea!

    Shonagh ;-)

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-02-24T15:27:46+00:00

    I too am frustrated with this situation, but let me attempt to dumb this down for the Microsoft Support team so they stop asking the same repetitive questions - here's the scenario for their reference...

    1. I open up the Microsoft Outlook 2003 (or later version) desktop application (NOT Outlook.com) on my PC and connect to my Hotmail account using the "Outlook Connector" feature, so I can send/receive my Hotmail email through my Outlook 2003 desktop application.
    2. I send an email to someone (say ******@test.com) using the Outlook 2003 desktop application
    3. I shut down Outlook and make myself a nice cup of tea - then sometime later...
    4. I login to Outlook.com (or Hotmail.com) through Internet Explorer - and when I click on my Sent folder, instead of seeing ******@test.com in the recipient list on that message I just sent before my cup of tea, I see "Dermot Murray".
    5. Now when I open that email in Outlook.com (NOT my Outlook desktop application), it does show that ******@test.com is the recipient - but it doesn't show that in the Sent folder list on Outlook.com.

    I know that Microsoft generally employs intelligent people as they were once the most valued company in the world. So I'm hoping that they still have technicians who can test/replicate, and hopefully solve this problem, since it's caused by BOTH of their products - Outlook 2003 desktop application AND Hotmail/Outlook.com - so they can't blame another company for screwing up! Maybe they should have called Outlook.com something else so as not to cause confusion with their Outlook desktop application!

    Thanks,

    Dermot Murray

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