How to stop Outlook from jumping to older emails every time I click on unread email?

Anonymous
2024-12-30T22:40:28+00:00

I started encountering this problem recently. I didn't make any changes that should have prompted this newfound issue. When I click on an unread email (I sort my emails by date, the newest at the top), Outlook will frequently automatically scroll down in my Inbox to older emails (usually to yesterday's or last week's emails). It also happens when I click on an older email after reading a new email. It doesn't do this every time, but I would say it does it more times than not. I searched to see if anyone else had encountered this problem and found a couple of posts. I followed Microsoft's instructions (disabling add-ins, repairing the application, restarting, updating, etc.), and nothing has fixed this issue. This is a super annoying glitch, and I'm tired of constantly scrolling back up in my inbox every time I go through my newer emails.

If it helps or matters, I use Microsoft 365 Apps for Business, Version 2411, Build 16.0.18227.20082. I do not like the new Outlook, so I am using the classic version on my desktop (not web-based). My computer is a Lenovo ThinkPad with Windows 11 Pro, 24H2 version.

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-01-31T22:02:42+00:00

    After much troubleshooting, I was able to get this issue to replicate every time I toggled View Focused Inbox to on from being off.

    The only permanent cure I've found is to have turned View Focused Inbox off.

    Steps taken

    1. Resized email preview partition.
    2. Moved ndMail add-in window to above Reading Pane
    3. Deleted & regenerated .OST file
    4. Unchecked Download shared folders
    5. Reset View/changed view sizing, preview lines, review pane off
    6. Reverse sort

    Doesn’t replicate in safe mode

    Replicated without any COM add-ins (normal mode)

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-01-31T21:44:02+00:00

    Thank you - this is driving me CRAZY

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-01-31T15:20:48+00:00

    I think I fixed it.

    I'm not sure how feasible this is for others.... but..

    I have about 375 emails in my inbox.

    About 360 were read, and 15 were unread, scattered amongst the last few months.

    As soon as I went back and made sure all of my unread emails were now "read", the problem went away.

    Even after getting new emails (I had my coworker send me 5 so I could try to recreate the behavior), I'm no longer having the problem. So maybe one of those unread emails had some sort of attribute that was throwing Outlook off?

    Either way, that's what worked for me. I pity someone with 1000's of unread that wants to test this out, lol.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-01-31T12:00:02+00:00

    Number 6, disabling reading pane animations is the one that worked for me. I started getting this issue around the same time you posted this reply, so I would try that one.

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-01-31T10:40:05+00:00

    Thank you.

    Lest it assists I have several e-mail accounds within Outlook and have managed to cure some of this problem presumably through either e-mail moving or deletion (including emptying trash folders).

    However, other lesser-used e-mail accounts (which I've not touched) remain affected.

    I am not using the 'new' Outlook format.

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