Over the weekend my Outlook categories have disappeared from the Categories list. How do I get them back?

I replied to this thread on June 26, 2024, to say I was having the same issue.

I just wanted to post an updated reply to see if maybe I could provide some insight into the issue with other things I've experienced, and to maybe offer some help for others in the same boat.

To start, I have been taking screenshots of my category list any time I make a change. This will be important in a moment.

Eventually I had given up with respect to this issue and decided to just work around it. In taking screenshots, I figured, I would just remake the categories and work from there. In my world, I use categories to sort current tasks, and once completed, the category is no longer important to me. So if completed items lost their category, it wasn't a big deal.

I did notice, however, that for items that had "lost" a category (and by this I mean the categories I had made that had disappeared), the item still retained something of a "ghost" of a category. It was basically just a blank/white category with the name of the old one, but it no longer existed in my category list. Here is what that looked like:

This is so common for my team that we just call them "ghost" categories colloquially... LOL

Here is what I noticed, based on the information above...

Because I was taking screenshots of my categories, and re-adding them in Outlook, I began to notice that the "ghost" categories began to regain their colour. And what's more, they were "shifted" over to the new categories that I re-made in Outlook! It's like the system picked up on the same colour and title and just... switched it back.

This isn't a fix to this problem, as I am in a position where losing my categories is just annoying rather than consequential to my work flow, as is the case for others.

I just wanted to provide my insight for those that may find it beneficial.

Cheers,

Christine

I just had this happen to me and i almost had a heart attack. I am using the Desktop app. I clicked the box in the top right to revert back to the old out look, then switched it back to the new and every category came back!?

To Dustin Cathey. What came back? I'm having this problem and I'm afraid to go to the new Outlook for fear I will lose even more after painstakingly recreating categories under each of my email accounts in Outlook. Can you please elaborate --- what you lost, how the new Outlook brought things back? I know new Outlook will restore all those reminder flags , etc. but what else does it do to change what's in your email boxes?

Thanks

DinaBiblin

Hi,

I had the same issue, and I'm embarrased to admit - but maybe it can help others:

Categories in the inbox (folders) might be hidden for you under the inbox. You have to press the small arrow (>) to the left of inbox, and they might be there for you!

thank you, but that I already knew and I had to rebuild all of them all over again when I made the horrible mistake of attempting to backup to the Microsoft Cloud. Now, I'm afraid that if i start using New Outlook, I will lose them again. Do you know what result will be because I want to get back the reminder buttons, etc.

My categories seemed to have disappeared over the weekend. I last used them on Friday, April 11th and when I attempted to use them yesterday, Monday April 14th, they were all gone. What's even more bizarre is that the categories in my personal email box remain BUT the ones in a shared email box I have access to, have disappeared. The only remaining ones are the generic presets with basic red, blue, purple, etc. colors.

It seems this has been an ongoing issue for over a year, what has been discovered? I didn't see a final resolution in any of these replies.

I typically use Firefox and use MO365 on the web app, not the desktop app.

THANKS!

Amber