If you don't like having Outlook 365 cluster email messages & their replies — but would rather see each email message on its own — here's how you can fix your view of email threads.
The screenshot below shows a set of email messages posted to the WisPubLib listserv as seen in Outlook 365, with Conversation View turned on (which is the default setting). I've circled in majenta (2) and red (4) the numbers that indicate there's multiple messages grouped together because they have the same subject line:
If you want to read all 4 messages in that grouped conversation, you need to click the arrow ► next to the sender's name, which expands to show you the individual messages:
And here's what it looks like when you turn off grouped conversations in Outlook 365 (the numbers 4 and 2 next to individual messages correspond to the previous screenshot of grouped conversations):
So here are the steps to turn off grouped conversations in Outlook 365:
- When in Outlook 365, go to the folder where you want to make the change.
- In the upper right-hand corner of the screen, next to Items By Date, click the down-pointing triangle to open the menu.
- Go down to the bottom of the menu, and click your mouse cursor next to Off to put a checkmark there.
![]()
- The effects are immediate; your view of that folder in Outlook 365 will refresh to show the new view.
If you've got multiple folders besides your Inbox (like a folder just for listserv postings like WisPubLib or Publib) you'll need to change the Conversation View in each folder where you want the grouped-by-conversation feature turned off.
Want to turn off Conversation View in your desktop version of Outlook? Here's how:
Sources:
• Hat tip to the University of Tennessee OIT Customer Technology Support Knowledge Base
Image sources:
• speech message bubbles clip art by ocal via Clker.com free clipart
• screenshots of Outlook 365 are by me
