After the latest round of Office 2013 updates, some IMAP users are reporting their Inbox is not listed in their profile, is empty, or their IMAP accounts aren't syncing.

This is the result of the November 12 2013 updates, KB2837618 and KB2837643. In addition to the IMAP problems, Outlook may crash shortly after it starts, users with Exchange 2007 mailbox may have problems setting out of office replies, retrieving free/busy or using add-ins (such as Lync) that use the SMTP address property, due to problems with autodiscover.

If the only problem is with an IMAP account, I don't recommend uninstalling these updates as they add some IMAP improvements and you'll have a better IMAP "experience" with these updates installed. If Outlook is crashing or you use Exchange 2007, you'll probably want to uninstall the update.

If you have custom folders created in Outlook, confirm they are synced up to the server before changing the root folder. When you change the root folder, Outlook re-syncs the mailbox and folders that have not synced up will be lost if you don't have a backup copy.

There are two possible fixes for IMAP accounts. The first, and preferred, method is to add Inbox to the IMAP root.

Set a Root Folder

To do this, go to File, Account Settings and double click on your affected IMAP account. Click More Settings button then switch to the Advanced tab.

In the Root folder path field type Inbox. Exit the dialog and perform a send and receive. (If the Inbox is not your root folder, setting Inbox as the root won't work, as it will hide all of the other folders.)

If that doesn't work, try disabling the option to show only subscribed IMAP folders.

Show only Subscribed Folder

Right click on the IMAP Inbox folder and choose IMAP folders. At the bottom of the dialog is an checkbox for When displaying hierarchy in Outlook, show only the subscribed folders. Remove the check then close the dialog to return to Outlook. Click Send and Receive.

If the IMAP account still doesn't work, Outlook is crashing, or you connect to Exchange 2007, you need to uninstall the updates or revert to an earlier build of Office 2013.

If you are using a click-to-run version of Office 2013, follow these steps to roll back:

First, disable Updates:

1. Start Word.
2. Click File, and then click Account.
3. In the Product Information column, click Update Options, and then click Disable Updates.

Go to Microsoft Office 2013 Click-to-Run virtualization to find the previous version number.

In the Start search field in Windows 7 or on the Start screen in Windows 8, type cmd. Right click on it on choose Run as Administrator.

If you have Office installed in a 32-bit version of Windows, type or paste this in the command prompt window:
cd %programfiles%\Microsoft Office 15\ClientX86

If you're using 64-bit version of Windows, use this command line
cd %programfiles%\Microsoft Office 15\ClientX64

Type or paste this command to revert to the previous product update, replacing the nnnn with the version number you want to revert to:
officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=15.0.nnnn.nnnn

Press Enter to begin the uninstall process.

Uninstall updates for volume licensing installations
To uninstall Office 2013 Volume licensing updates or Windows updates from Control Panel's Program and Features. Click on View Installed Updates, locate the update(s) and uninstall.