Outlook (365) - mark item as read only AFTER I OPEN the item.

PLEASE!!! Only answer this if you have completely UNDERSTOOD my question. I've seen countless threads here where people are asking the same question, but the reply they get is NOT the answer to their question.

Pay Attention!!

Microsoft 365 - Outlook (desktop or web) (NOTE: Not regular Outlook (which was wonderful and powerful), but the %^%$## product from M...365 which looks like it was written for little kids writing to their BFFs or for grandmas).

Mark an item as read ONLY AFTER YOU OPEN IT. Not previewed, but opened. Not replied to, but opened!

Do NOT try to tell me how to keep it from marking it read when I view it in the reading pane, or move selection, or after 5 seconds. I DON"T NEED THAT! Pay Attention!

I need a button (in microsoft 365 outlook) that says to mark as read when item is opened just like I had in the original program (that my office has forced me to get rid of in favor of this mess).

BTW - I tried to post a screenshot (as suggested above) but it doesn't work (surprise!!)

moved from: Outlook / Outlook.com / Settings

I have exactly the same problem. I need the item to be marked read ONLY after I double click it to open it. Any other type of click is just previewing it and it should remain unread. Double click and opening means I read it. Outlook has always had this option and worked this way. What happened to this. Why am I having to make extra clicks to mark something as read. FIX THIS PROBLEM. Why was something so natural to everyone removed?

Nope that's not it either... that option will mark messages as "read" as soon as you click on them in inbox. I too wish for the old Outlook functionality where a message stayed unread until I double clicked it to open it up. Guess it's back to old Outlook until this gets fixed.

The problem is that then even when you open an email it still doesn't get marked as read. You have to manually set each email to read. This is not a solution at all.

I was able to get around the problem. The issue was that when I got my new Windows 11 laptop, there were 2 versions of outlook and I didn't realize that because why would there be 2 versions installed at the same time?

See this image: https://www.screencast.com/t/crNWfDGgKv

The "new" version seems to just be a local version of the web-based app. That one works in a weird way and you have to manually mark each email as read. I started using that one thinking it was the replacement for outlook and that I could not use the old version without going back to an older version of office. Even when I clicked the button to go back to the old version, every time I started outlook, it went to the new version. This is because my shortcut was to the new version.

To make a long story short, I just changed the shortcut on my start menu to "outlook" not "outlook(new)", opened the outlook not marked as new from then on, set it up, and everything works fine. It is the new version that sucks or has some odd way of doing things that I don't understand.

I hope this helps.

Same issue here. Why would you remove something that the majority of your users are using. This is so stupid. I am waiting for an answer as well!!!