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Disable Conversation View in Outlook.com and Outlook on the Web

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› Microsoft 365 › Outlook on the Web › Disable Conversation View in Outlook.com and Outlook on the Web

Last reviewed on March 24, 2017     15 Comments

Applies to: Outlook on the web, Outlook.com

I love conversation view, most of the time. It makes it easier for me to follow message threads as all previous messages in the thread are together, regardless of which folder each message is stored in. Not everyone likes it and finding where to disable it isn't necessarily intuitive.

Conversation view (IMHO) is a most annoying & confusing feature. Please share with us on how to disable it in Outlook.com.

If you are using the new Outlook.com or an Outlook on the web in your business account, you can control how the message list sorts, set some predefined filters, and turn conversation groups off and on by clicking on Filter at the top of the message list to expand the menu. Select Show as > Messages at the bottom of the menu to turn off Conversations. Select Conversations if you want to group by Conversations. Note, Conversations is not a toggle, you need to select Messages.
conversation view

If you want to change the reading pane position (or turn it off), preview text, change the order of the subject and sender's name in the message list, or change how the conversations sort (newest or oldest on top), click on the Gear icon then Display Settings.

change display settings

Disable Conversation View in Outlook.com and Outlook on the Web was last modified: March 24th, 2017 by Diane Poremsky

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About Diane Poremsky

A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999, Diane is the author of several books, including Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginners Book. She also created video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.

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Amanda Jones
September 25, 2019 12:30 am

Holy cow! Thank you for posting this. I have been at my wit's end trying to figure this out. The options others tell me I should see just aren't there. You are awesome!

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max
March 15, 2019 12:57 am

God bless you for this! I was hating Outlook's webmail. This makes *so* much difference to using it!

(ok, maybe I still am hating it, but for other reasons. Like why do they hide this "Filter" menu item over on the right, nowhere near any other menu item? And what does filtering have to do with showing as a conversation? Nothing gets filtered out, it's just a different view of the same stuff. And why all the wasted white space. And...)

But thank you!

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bairdskii
October 6, 2018 6:28 pm

thank you so much for showing how to disable conversation view in outlook.

I had months of frustration with it, which you have ended!

: ))

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David Barr
September 20, 2017 10:10 am

Don't know if this subject is still being monitored, but is it possible to do this for all folders, without having to go into each individual folder? I've got dozens of folders and hate the conversation mode!

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Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  David Barr
February 1, 2018 12:08 am

On the web, no. Outlook desktop will offer you the option.

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Karine
September 3, 2017 9:39 am

New Outlook face and can't seem to find the way to turn off the conversation view. I have the filter option next to my focused and other boxes but doesn't give me the option to switch off the conversations. And add on top the new Beta version! So frustrating!

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Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  Karine
September 9, 2017 12:05 am

This is outlook on the web or outlook installed desktop? In Outlook on the web with the beta enabled, you can either turn off the beta to get the old options back or go to calendar then options - this brings up the old options.

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Liz
April 24, 2017 12:14 pm

I don't see where this Filter drop down menu is. My version of the web app only has Undo at the top of the message list. There's no drop down menu. Where is this menu supposed to be found?

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Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  Liz
May 25, 2017 8:19 pm

What browser are you using? I haven't been able to repro this problem - the menu should be right at the top of the message list in Outlook on the web.

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Suriyakumar
February 15, 2017 7:02 am

thankyou verymuch your answer is very userful

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Travis
February 4, 2017 11:13 am

The actual way to do it is to click on Filter to the right of the Inbox then click Show As

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Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  Travis
February 4, 2017 7:44 pm

They keep changing the design of the interface. :(

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