How to search for emails by category on new Outlook app

Anonymous
2023-11-14T20:56:23+00:00

In the older version of the Outlook app on desktop, I was able to easily search for emails with a specific category. However with the new Outlook app, I'm not sure how to do that anymore. I understand that you can click on an email with a category to search for emails with the same category, but I find this rather inconvenient. Is there an easier workaround that's more similar to how the old Outlook app worked?

Outlook | Windows | New Outlook for Windows | For home

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Anonymous
2023-11-15T03:00:40+00:00

Dear Yongj_363,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to assist you.

Based on your description, you are asking about searching for emails by category on the new Outlook app. Here's how:

  1. Click on the search bar at the top of the Outlook app.
  2. Type in the name of the category you want to search for.
  3. Choose the category option when it comes out.
  4. The search results will show all emails that have been categorized with the category you searched for.

I did an sample search, please refer to the information below:

  1. I categorized my emails in my inbox as custom 123, default Blue, Green and Purple.

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  1. When I search emails with one specific category, I just search the name of this category.

For123: I typed 123, the option would come out for searching 123 category (If the option does not show up, add a space).

.

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For Blue category: I typed Blue and I got the option for Blue category.

.

.

I hope the information above can be useful for you. If there is any update or I misunderstand you, please feel free to let me know. I will continue to assist you. Your understanding and co-operation are highly appreciated.

Thanks for your precious time. Have a nice day.

Sincerely,

Sherry | Microsoft Community Moderator

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-07-19T09:12:00+00:00

    This doesn't work if you have numerous emails that also include that word! The category doesn't appear in the list. Please can we have a more effective way of searching for categories. Currently, the most efficient way is to make the folder a favourite temporarily so I can see everything in there and then turn it off again which is quite long winded.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-07-16T14:36:53+00:00

    What was wrong with being able to click in the search box and then select categories in the ribbon? Two clicks to quickly see just the emails that I'd assigned a category to (or used rules to assign categories to as they came in). Now there's literally no functioning way to filter my inbox to show the specific type of emails I want to check for.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-07-01T15:54:58+00:00

    This is what we are saying that used to work. It no longer works. I just had a ticket opened with microsoft and they indicated what you are showing above never worked in new outlook. You can see by the many replies that yes it did in fact work prior and now it does not work. This is part of the reason I moved over to the new outlook. If you want adoption, you need to mirror what regular outlook does so people will move. The added features of pinned emails and snooze are also added to get people to move, however it take things away, you will never get people to move. We need this back and added into new outlook so that we can all go back to working. It did work, put it back and make the people that use it happy.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-06-30T20:13:46+00:00

    Is this the New Outlook?

    This feature is not working in the New version.

    I found a work around (thanks to someone who posted previously)

    Search for an email you know is tagged with the category you are after and then click on the tag and the search changes to include all of the tags.

    The original way was still much better!!!

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