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We use categories to group emails coming into a Support mailbox. We set up lots of different categories for different people, teams etc. Each has a different colour assigned to it. When emails come in we will assign the appropriate category. Over the weekend, the categories appear to have been wiped from our categories list i.e. we now have only some predefined ones like Blue Category, Green Category etc. For emails previously categorised, I can still see what category I applied but the coloured 'sticker' is missing and I can no longer select those categories. In addition, if I set up a new category now, whilst I can apply a new category, it's not subsequently available for me to select in the category list, plus the coloured 'sticker' does not appear. Any thoughts on how we might resolve please? I'm using Outlook via Office 365.
Using New Outlook on Windows for personal email, calendar, and contact management
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Thank you for keeping us updated. I lose categories, but only some of them. Then I'll attempt to recreate them (why am I doing the same thing and expecting a different result? lol) and they disappear again. I'm using New Outlook and it happens on the web version too.
Hi Caitlin,
Yes, the bug seems to be affecting the web version (I use this) as well as the outlook app.
On my side, only ten categories are appearing. The other 370+ are missing. However, the data/categories aren't really gone. When I click on a contact, I can see all the categories associated with their record, which proves that the data has not been deleted...it's just not showing up on the left hand list.
The advice I've been given from Microsoft is "DO NOT DELETE OR MAKE ANY CHANGES TO YOUR CATEGORIES"
It won't help to delete and recreate them, because the bug is still there.
Microsoft have provided me with a workaround, but whether it's useful will depend on how many categories you have.
They are suggesting the following: "For now, would recommend to utilize the previous contacts feature using the folder's option as shown below, this is due to the uncertain ETA on resolution for the previous feature limitation occurring:"
In other words, roll back to the old version of Outlook (web or app) before categories were introduced, and use the folders feature to re-categorise your contacts.
It's a poor compromise, but that's all they can offer at this point.
Unfortunately, this is only worth doing if you only have a small number of categories that you can quickly recreate as folders.
In our case, with nearly 380 categories and 4,000 contacts, it will take weeks to do.
03 SEPTEMBER 2024 UPDATE
!! A large percentage of our categories have reappeared overnight !! :)
Not all of them are back...of the 371 categories we set up, around 145 have reappeared in the left column and are fully functional i.e. I can search for contacts through these reappeared categories.
Not sure when this change happened, but it's a welcome one, and a step in the right direction.
Whatever buttons Microsoft are pushing, I hope they keep doing it until all of our categories are back.
Does anyone have any updates on resolution?
It's been complicated even though we don't have the categories, it has a huge impact on everyday life.
Furthermore, my outlook calendar does not synchronize with the teams calendar and vice versa... I have meetings scheduled in both places and I have to manually reconcile them.
I have the latest versions
Thank you in advance
Hi Tania,
They have started to roll out a fix, but it's not 100% sorted out yet.
As of the 03rd September, about half of our categories reappeared and are working as normal.
The other half are still missing.
Unfortunately, the Microsoft representative closed my case when I reported that some of our categories had returned, and is no longer responding to emails, so I'm going to have to open a new case to get any further updates.
As best as I can tell, the bug seems to have been widespread and, now that they've found a solution, it's going to take them a while to roll it out.
I'll post here if/when I get an update from Microsoft.