The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on March 20, 2025.
EMO is a weekly publication. To receive your own copy of EMO by email, subscribe here.
Support Exchange Messaging Outlook Sponsors
Increase Your Productivity!
ReliefJet Essentials for Outlook is a set of more than 160 tools for performing a wide range of tasks in Outlook: processing email messages, contacts, appointments, meetings, tasks and other Outlook items.
Today's Highlights »
- Move Office Subscription to another Microsoft account?
- Emails are Moved to RSS Feeds Folder
- Follow Up Flag Date Missing
Move Office Subscription to another Microsoft account?
A user created a Microsoft account using their Gmail address and purchased an Office subscription. They recently created a new Microsoft account using an outlook.com address and asked if they could move the subscription to the new account.
This is not possible. Microsoft subscriptions can't be moved to another account and outlook.com addresses cannot be moved to another account.
It’s too late for this user, but had they asked before creating the new account, I would have told them to add an outlook.com alias to the current account. Then set the new account as primary, or if only using Outlook on the web, set the Outlook address as default for email.
Add an alias here and set it Primary on the same page. Don't Remove the current address if it is a Microsoft domain as it can't be restored. Non-Microsoft addresses can be added back.
Because the user already created the new address, the only solution is to set the subscription so it won’t automatically renew then re-subscribe on the outlook.com address when it expires (or anytime if they don't mind paying for a second subscription for a few months).
Turn off recurring billing or cancel the subscription at Microsoft account | Subscriptions. Note: Cancelling the subscription will take effect at the end of the current subscription period. You can continue to use the subscription until it expires. Microsoft won't issue a refund unless the subscription was renewed within the last 30 days, in which case you can request a refund.
Any files in OneDrive will need to be moved to the new account if they exceed 5GB. The easiest way to do this: sync the entire OneDrive to a computer (using always keep on the computer option for files) then unlink the account and sign in using the new address. Allow it to use the same OneDrive folder.
Emails are Moved to RSS Feeds Folder
A user discovered new mail was moved to the RSS Feeds folder in classic Outlook.
The user said they checked the RSS settings in File > Account Settings > Account Settings > RSS Feeds but did not have any feeds set up.
The user said they didn't see rules in RSS Feeds. They tried using the ‘always move to…’ to create a rule to move the messages back to the Inbox but it didn’t work.
When messages are moved to another folder, it is a rule in Manage Rules & Alerts. If you did not create the rule and selected the wrong folder, the mailbox was hacked. While some hackers move the messages to the RSS Feeds folder, some use Conversation History folder instead.
Rules only work on mail as they are delivered to the Inbox, so a rule won’t automatically move the messages back to the Inbox. You could use Run Rules Now on the folder to move them, but it’s just as easy to select all and drag or use the Move to command to move them back to the Inbox.
Check for rules in Rules > Manage Rules & Alerts and edit or delete the rules. If you don’t see a rule to move the messages there, the rule is hidden and corrupt (not uncommon as hackers use scripts to create rules).
To delete the corrupt rules, close classic Outlook and restart it using the /cleanrules switch. To do this, press Windows key + R to open the Run dialog. type or paste the following into the Open field and press Enter or click OK to restart Outlook. (There is a space before /)
outlook.exe /cleanrules
This will delete any rules you are using, along with the corrupt rule. (Sorry!)
If you did not mess up when you created the rule or see other rules listed that you did not create, change your password.
Follow Up Flag Date Missing
This is a frequent question from Outlook users: “I cannot set a follow-up date in Outlook. It only allows setting a follow-up without a date.”
The reminder / due date option for follow-up flags in classic Outlook only works in Microsoft Exchange mailboxes, including outlook.com and Hotmail, and business Exchange accounts. Reminder dates on follow-up flags are also supported in PST files (used by POP accounts).
However, reminders on flags are not supported in IMAP mailboxes in classic Outlook. IMAP users only have “flag on, flag off”. If you need a reminder, drag the message to the task folder and set a reminder.
Or, try the new Outlook. It supports reminders on follow-up flags in IMAP accounts.
Another difference between Exchange and IMAP accounts in classic Outlook is in the new mail notification banner in Windows 10/11. With Exchange accounts, you’ll see 3 buttons at the bottom of the banner: Flag, Archive, Dismiss. Messages from IMAP accounts have one button: Dismiss. In another plus for new Outlook, all accounts have three buttons: Delete, Flag, Dismiss.
New & Updated Microsoft 365 & Exchange Server Support Articles
Introducing Exchange Online Tenant Outbound Email Limits | Microsoft Community Hub
New & Updated Outlook Support Articles
Classic Outlook mail merge hangs trying to initialize Word - Microsoft Support
Go back to classic Outlook button not working correctly in new Outlook - Microsoft Support
Outlook icon on the Start menu is not updated to Outlook (classic) - Microsoft Support
Other Resources
Import EML Files into New Outlook
How to import EML files into new Outlook for Windows.
Insert Word Document into Email using VBA
How to use a macro to reply to senders by inserting the text from a Word document as the message text. There is also a macro to send a new message with the contents of a Word document inserted.
New Outlook: Show To, CC, BCC in Replies
When you Reply or Reply All in new Outlook, the CC line is not visible, even if the message was CC’d to others. If you reply all, you may only see one name and "+ Others". I'll show you how to view all addresses and the CC and BCC fields.
Opening PST files in New Outlook
How to open a PST file in new Outlook and the current limitations.