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
    2012-09-12T14:13:00+00:00

    Dear Kathleen,

    Just following up my comment to Garry, thanks for this suggestion, but it does not always work with imported messages.

    When I import sent messages from another provider, ALL of the messages show my name, not those of the recipients. Sorting by "to" therefore doesn't really help! Literally, every message that was not sent by my Outlook.com account will show my name in the "sent" folder, rather than the recipients' names! :)

    I wish that Microsoft could resolve this problem with sent messages from other accounts (e.g. GMail, Yahoo). Otherwise, those of us who want to move to Microsoft will have to continue with other providers.

    Cheers,

    D.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-09-12T14:05:17+00:00

    Hi Garry,

    For ages, I have been trying to resolve the same problem.

    I am not sure if ShonaghWoods has imported messages from another account, but I really want to move from GMail to the new Outlook.com service.

    The problem is that - no matter if I use IMAP to move messages, TrueSwitch or even Outlook / Hotmail's own POP protocol - messages sent from another account always show my name rather than the recipient's name for sent messages.

    This is the ONLY reason why I cannot migrate all of my services (email, pictures, etc) over to Microsoft, since I need to be able to browse through my old emails sent to friends and collagues. At present, with any of Microsoft's email offerings (Hotmail, Live, Outlook...), my sent folder becomes a complete mess, with every message listed as "<my name>", rather than the names of the recipients.

    For what it's worth, similar services (like AOL, Yahoo, GMX) can display messages sent from other accounts correctly. This must have something to do with how Microsoft deals with messages, but it's really frustrating.

    Any advice would be great, and thanks for your help.

    D.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-09-12T05:16:21+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.

    Open the Sent folder > top right, click Arrange by > click To

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-09-12T04:02:52+00:00

    Hi,

    I’d like to request additional information from you.  I will start a private message with you that contain instructions and place to upload the information. If we can determine a solution or fix, I will share it with everyone on the thread. 

    Thanks!

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