How to remove "External" tag in Outlook subject lines

Anonymous
2022-12-13T16:44:21+00:00

Recently my outlook business account has started tagging emails as "External" with a massive grey box that takes up a third of the available space it the preview pane. It was bad enough in the subject lines but this is making my inbox unusable.

Whoever designed it obviously doesn't use email.

Is there a way to disable the External Tagging?

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-16T20:36:08+00:00

    Our team hates this useless and irritating feature. Thanks to Microsoft careless implementation no IT managers are reluctant to remove it as a CYA. Microsoft should be more attuned to customers for such a large company.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-04-23T07:24:54+00:00

    Hi all,

    I know this is not exactly a fix to this annoying issue, but at least it's a workaround.

    Just move the "sender" column one step right from it's default position. I don't know why, but when the sender column is moved away from it's original position, the annoying "external" tag disappears.

    It made my day when I accidentally discovered this workaround! I hope it helps you as well.

    Best regards,

    Mikko

    This is superb ! It works for me as well. Looks like some bug which is a feature in disguise.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-04-23T07:21:58+00:00

    This workaround does work, except that you now cannot sort your emails based on the new formula field column. So now I have 2 columns, the new formula column I created to see the sender name without external label, and the original one (with external labels next to sender name) for which I have reduced the column width to bare minimum. When I have to sort by sender name, I have to use the original from column. Aren't I a genius !

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