What shortcut might archive messages on outlook.live.com?

Anonymous
2021-08-15T14:58:20+00:00

On several occasions, I have accidentally archived messages while typing them. Possibly sometimes while reviewing them. I have done this while typing a combination of keys. Lately, there is a prompt after it happens, and I can undo it. Previously, there wasn't. I have asked outlook support, but the person helping me does not believe me. He keeps insisting that it is E just because the references say so. However, I typed capital E multiple time in response e-mails, and it didn't do anything (thus debunking the reference). Also, it doesn't make sense that Microsoft would program a capital letter without any other key with it for a shortcut, when people might be typing it in e-mails. It could in fact, be in somebody's first name, so that doesn't make sense. I have given two reasons why it doesn't.

i am getting absolutely no help from Outlook support. I have told the person multiple times that I did not type capital E (besides typing it multiple times in the e-mail). These people also seem to think that unlinking my phone is the solution to everything. He knows that the e-mails keep getting archived by me typing on my computer' keyboard, but he wants me to unlink my phone to solve it. I sometimes feel like some of those people may just be searching for instructions to help people. Indeed, I have had a different problem that solved on its own after it was caused and fixed after an outlook update. Throughout troubleshooting, they also thought it would fix it by unsyncing my phone. That particular solution was given to me for three different issues, and for two of them, it was solved without doing so. The third one is this, but the factors involved prove it has nothing to do with my phone.

Please help if you have knowledge or experience in this issue. Archiving messages definitely has nothing to do with capital E.

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Settings

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-01-11T20:19:45+00:00

    Yeah, that worked for me on the archiving issue too. But are you getting dropped letters as you type emails too? And do you have a solution to that SoB?

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-01-11T20:14:12+00:00

    It's a plausible theory, but that doesn't explain the dropped letters issue that is driving people nuts. It's almost as if Outlook can't keep up with your typing and 'forgets' the keys you typed as it tries to keep up. Grrrrrr

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-01-11T20:12:28+00:00

    Turning off hotkeys did not fix it for me. However, turning off "Show suggested replies" and "Suggest words or phrases as I type" did fix the problem.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-01-11T20:03:48+00:00

    Indeed, there typical solution for this issue was to disable hot keys/shortcuts. Then they stopped responding altogether. Basically it is that they don’t know why people are having messages archive differently than the reference guide says (supposedly), and the programmers seem to keep changing the websites, so they told us to disable the keyboard commands so it might not cause a hassle.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-01-11T19:51:42+00:00

    I take it back.

    For me I suspect it is the E key - actually just lowercase 'e'.

    I think the problem stems from the fact that Outlook 365 allows single keys to impact a selected email.

    e.g. when you are using the list of emails pane, 'e' archives a selected email; 'j' marks it as junk; 'u' marks it as unread; etc.

    This to me is a fundamental flaw in their programming: one should never use single keys for such operations, but rather CTRL+e or OPT+e or CMD+e, etc.

    Granted, the browser has already 'stolen' a bunch of hotkeys, but there should be enough left to allow browser-based software to have its own unique hotkey combos.

    Anyway, for some reason, I think that in the middle of writing an email, Outlook 365 interprets a key as affecting the list of emails pane (and thus whatever email is selected there), rather than the currently-writing-an-email pane.

    Perhaps SHIFT confuses the software into thinking the next key belongs to the list of emails pane?

    I thought I had gotten the SHIFT then 'e' to reproducibly archive emails, but I think the issue is more intermittent and (much like taking a car to a garage for a weird noise, only for the mechanic to find nothing out of the ordinary) not readily reproducible.

    In any event, clearly it's a bug in the software, affecting plenty of users, so Microsoft need to come up with a better solution than just disabling all hotkeys or altering registries. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/archive-in-outlook-for-windows-25f75777-3cdc-4c77-9783-5929c7b47028

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