If you prefer to see your emails in chronological order rather than bundled together by subject, Microsoft Outlook’s default “Conversation View” can be frustrating. When this feature is active, Outlook groups all replies and forwards into a single collapsible thread. While some users find this helpful for tracking long discussions, others find it makes it easy to miss new messages or lose track of specific emails.
Fortunately, you can easily disable Conversation View and return to a traditional, chronological inbox.
How to Turn Off Conversation View in Outlook (Desktop)
If you are using the classic Microsoft Outlook desktop application on Windows or Mac, follow these steps:
- Open Microsoft Outlook and navigate to your Inbox.
- Click on the View tab in the ribbon at the top of the screen.
- In the “Messages” group, look for the checkbox labeled Show as Conversations.
- Click the checkbox to uncheck it.
- A dialog box will appear asking whether you want to apply this change to just the current folder or to all mailboxes. Select All mailboxes to disable it everywhere, or This folder to only disable it for your Inbox.
How to Turn Off Conversation View in Outlook on the Web
If you use Outlook in your web browser (Outlook.com or Microsoft 365), the setting is located in a different menu:
- Open Outlook in your browser and click the Settings gear icon in the top right corner.
- In the Settings menu, navigate to Mail > Layout.
- Scroll down to the “Message organization” section.
- Select the option for Show email as individual messages instead of “Show email grouped by conversation”.
- Click Save at the bottom of the window to apply your changes.
Your inbox will immediately refresh, and all your emails will now appear individually in the order they were received, making it much easier to scan through your recent messages.