How to Sort a Mailbox in Outlook

Personalize your inbox to suit your style

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Updated on November 3, 2021

What to Know

Select Filter > Sort and choose a setting: date, sender, subject, newest or oldest, and more.
Sort your folders by setting them as favorites. To do this, right-click a folder and select Add to Favorites.
In the Favorites List, use Move up the list or Move down the list to sort folders.

Outlook positions newly received emails on top of all others. If you'd rather see them at the bottom so that old, undone emails get more attention, you may want to change the order of your Inbox. You can also sort emails by sender or by subject. Here's how.

Sort a Mailbox in Outlook

When you want to change the order of the emails in your Inbox, use the Microsoft Outlook filter system.

Open your Inbox, and click Filter at the top of the window.
Select Sort.
Select a sorting setting. You can sort by date, sender, size, importance, or subject, and you can order emails to display either oldest on top or newest on top.

Sort the Folder List in Outlook

In Outlook, the easiest way to arrange your most-used folders is to set up your favorites list.

On the left side of the Outlook window where your folders list resides, right-click a folder and select Add to Favorites. This folder now appears in your favorites list.
In your favorites list, right-click a folder and select either Move up the list or Move down the list. Use this feature to list favorite folders in your preferred order.
Remove folders from your favorites by right-clicking the folder and selecting Remove from Favorites.

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