Unified Inbox in Outlook 2020?

An alternative to Thunderbird has been a recurring quest of mine for years, and I returned to it this evening.  The unified inbox thing has been a big hangup with Outlook, so I came across this thread.  After experimenting a bit, I seem to have found a satisfactory solution, but feel like I must be missing something, given the other comments and the fact that I didn't find this answer anywhere.

If I go to Account Settings and click on the Email tab, I see a list of all the emails I've added to Outlook.  At the bottom is a "Change Folder" button that corresponds with each email address as I click on it.  From what I can tell, I can use this button to send the mail from all of my email addresses to a single inbox.  So, I pick my default Outlook address, which doesn't receive any mail, and all of the emails from all my addresses go to that inbox.

Furthermore, it looks like as I go through those emails, if I hit reply, it automatically replies using the correct address.  

So, basically, whatever email address I pick as the default, I just send all addresses to that inbox, and that becomes my unified inbox.

Is there some reason this isn't a workable solution?

For me this is not a workable solution. Although I do think it will be for most people. I have over 40 email addresses - most of which don't get a lot of traffic.

I have used the technique in Thunderbird to create an account that highlights people who I don't want to miss.

I'm like you. Every so often I look at Outlook with the view to moving from Thunderbird. But the lack of a unified inbox holds me back every time. Why is this a problem when your phone does it easily? Come on!

I've been using Outlook on Windows for years. Originally there was only POP3 mail, then came IMAP and I didn't bother to change from POP because IMAP didn't give me the option of putting all my emails from different accounts in one place. I tried using rules to move everything around, and that was a hassle and it only worked on my local PC. With all POP accounts, my accounts flow into a PST, and I see everything in one place. It's probably not the best solution, but until MS gets its act together and provides a unified mailbox for Outlook on Windows PCs, I'll stick with POP.

As a regular user of Outlook on the Mac and PC I have been amazed at this critical feature missing from Outlook on the PC. My recommended workaround is easy and gets you the results in two clicks.

To setup:

• Go into Outlook Options via the Outlook File menu and change the Search>Results option to All mailboxes so it defaults to search all mailboxes. If you don't do this it will always default to current mailbox and you will need to click all mailboxes manually.
• Perform the initial search like for Unread or just search for any email sent to the multiple email accounts you have in Outlook using something like the following:
  • (to:"Your Name" OR cc:"Your Name" OR to:"******@address.you") etc... basically list all the email addresses you use.
• Then right click on Recent Searches and click Add to Quick Access Toolbar. This will add recent searches to the toolbar.

Now anytime you want to see all emails you click the search Icon in the quick access toolbar and select the search (quick access toolbar is the bar always at the top of Outlook that contains the search filed itself.)

The drawback to this method is the search does not seem to auto update and if you perform a lot of other searches your main search may get buried in the list. TIP once you have the search terms you want honed in copy the search query to a draft email so you can copy and paste it again if needed.

Refusal by Microsoft to implement these basic features, that are only available on non-Microsoft platforms - Both supporting multiple Teams accounts, and Unified view of Outlook for windows - Is Microsoft planning to retire windows and get out the desktop business? Another example - PowerPoint, VSCode - they are a lot better on Mac than on windows. Several basic features are not available on windows but are provided on Mac, Linux and IOS?

Outlook Rooms availability is the same case... I am seriously concerned.

Seriously ...

The guy sitting and collating issue tickets must a "Sutton(ian) Jerk" to turn a blind eye to this very natural interface requirement.

It speaks volumes of the company and its operational procedures too.

 At the bottom is a "Change Folder" button that corresponds with each email address as I click on it.  From what I can tell, I can use this button to send the mail from all of my email addresses to a single inbox.  So, I pick my default Outlook address, which doesn't receive any mail, and all of the emails from all my addresses go to that inbox.

I dont know what a "folder" is in this case, but it sounds like you are forwarding a copy of all your mail to a single inbox?  I have may be 200 thousand emails in my 20 or so inboxes (I get more than 100 a day) , I would worry that this cause outlook to break (it used to fall over when I hit the 10k barrier).  I have ordered a Mac to replace windows (just so I can get the unified inbox), but with covid it has been delayed by some months.