If your inbox is such a hallway cafeteria, Outlook can help you blend out the messages that you surely will note need. For any conversation irrelevant to you, you can, in one fell swoop, delete all messages in the thread and have Outlook move future messages in the conversation to the Deleted Items folder, too.
Mute a Conversation in Outlook
To delete a conversation and prevent future messages in a thread from appearing in your Outlook inbox:
- Open a message in the conversation you want to ignore.
- Go to the Home tab in the main Outlook window's ribbon.
- Click Ignore in the Delete area.
- You can also press Ctrl-Del instead of using the ribbon.
- Click OK if you are prompted to confirm your action.
- Click Ignore Conversation if you are prompted again.
Unmute a Conversation in Outlook
To recover a conversation from the Deleted Items folder and make sure future messages in the thread do appear in your Outlook inbox:
- Open the Deleted Items folder.
- Open a message that belongs to the conversation you want to recover.
- Go to the Home tab in the main Outlook window's ribbon.
- Click Ignore in the Delete area.
- Now click Stop Ignoring Conversation if you are prompted.
Note that unmuting a conversation will recover all messages in the Deleted Items folder that belong to the thread — including those Outlook may have cleaned up previously. You can streamline the conversation again in your inbox, of course.
