This blog is here to provide you with the best possible ways to resolve the issue “folders disappeared in outlook“. You can contact our experts to get thorough details.
We use emails for our day-to-day tasks, and they help us stay organized and connected. But sometimes, we may find one or more email folders missing in Outlook. You might have mistakenly deleted a folder. If not, it can point to something more significant. When the folder has some important emails, you must take steps to find them. If you notice one or more folders disappeared in Outlook, know that it’s a common problem that you can resolve. It can result from recent changes made to your device, a connection error, or corrupted system files. In this article, you’ll find various workarounds to this problem.
Table of Contents
What Causes Folders to Disappear or Go Missing in Outlook?
Several factors can lead you to report Outlook folders missing. One or more reasons given below can be the cause of this issue.
- Some folders in your Outlook are hidden.
- The Outlook application is not synchronizing with the server.
- You mistakenly deleted an Outlook folder.
- Your folder file is damaged.
What to Do When Folders Disappeared in Outlook
There are various simple measures to troubleshoot the missing Outlook folders problem. Implement these measures and find your Outlook folders.
1. Restore a deleted folder from the trash
If you mistakenly deleted a folder but have not cleared your ‘Deleted Items‘ folder, you can send that folder directly to its earlier position. Ensure to see the ‘Trash‘ folder in your Outlook as it can be in this place too.
To recover a deleted folder, follow these steps.
- Choose the folder that has the email messages you deleted.
- If you use an Outlook Online, Exchange, or POP email account, navigate to ‘Deleted Items.’
- If you use an IMAP account, navigate to ‘Trash.’
- Highlight or open the message you desire to recover.
- To recover multiple emails, highlight more than a single email.
- If you can’t locate a message, utilize the ‘Search‘ box to locate the folder for the subject or sender of the message.
- Navigate to the home tab, and choose ‘Move.’ From there, go to ‘Other Folder.’ You can also press ‘Ctrl‘ + ‘Shift‘ + ‘V’ keys for this action if you are a Windows user.
- Select the designation folder for the retrieved message.
- Tap ‘OK.‘
2. Ensure that all Outlook folders are showing
An easy trick to find the solution for the Outlook folder disappeared problem is to make sure that all the folders are displaying. A missing folder can even be a minimized folder pane. Remember that in Outlook, folders can be nested. Expand a folder by using the tiny triangle beside it to check that all folders are showing. It will help you to find those folders that have gone missing.
3. Recover the folder from the server
Sometimes people can delete a whole folder by mistake and also empty their ‘Deleted Items‘ folder. In such a scenario, you have the option of recovering it from the server. Follow these steps.
- Navigate to your email folder list and tap ‘Deleted Items.’
- Check that ‘Home‘ is selected. Click ‘Recover Deleted Items from Server.’ Microsoft will retrieve permanently deleted emails from its Exchange server and list them.
- Choose the item you wish to recover and hit ‘Restore Selected Items.’ Then tap ‘OK.‘ After you retrieve an item, you can locate it in your ‘Deleted Items‘ folder and shift it to a different folder.
4. Repair MS Outlook application
On finding Outlook email folders missing, you can try to repair the MS Outlook application. It’s particularly useful when Windows cannot find Outlook.exe.
- Navigate to the ‘Start‘ button and choose ‘Apps and Features.’
- Choose ‘Microsoft Outlook‘ and then select ‘Modify.’
- You’ll be guided by the system for the relevant steps you need to take to repair your Outlook.
- It will provide two options, ‘Online Repair‘ and ‘Quick Repair.’
- The first option will resolve everything. The second option will scan your program files and replace the ones that are damaged.
5. Repair Outlook personal folder (PST) file
When the Outlook personal folder file gets corrupted, you may report that folders disappeared in Outlook. But you can use the Inbox Repair tool that Outlook provides. It checks the data files on your system to ensure that they are in good shape. Use it whenever you think that your .PST file is damaged.
- Close Outlook and browse to one of the file locations given below.
- Outlook 2019: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
- Outlook 2013: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15
- 2016 Outlook: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
- Outlook 2007: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12
- 2010 Outlook: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14
- Open’ SCANPST.EXE.’
- Choose ‘Browse‘ to select the .PST file.
- Select ‘Start‘ to commence the scan.
- If you find errors, select ‘Repair‘ to begin fixing them.
- After the repair is done, open Outlook with the profile related to the data files you recently repaired.
6. Retrieve folders from a backup.
If you made a backup of the personal folder file, and it had the missing folders, you can retrieve them by restoring the .pst file. Follow these steps to back up the .pst file to recover the Outlook data to the same system, another system, or another email account.
- Navigate to ‘File‘ and go to ‘Open & Export.’ From there, choose ‘Import/Export.’
- Choose ‘Import from another program or file‘ and choose ‘Next.’
- Select either ‘Personal Folder File (PST)‘ or ‘Outlook Data File (.pst)‘ according to your Outlook version. Then, choose ‘Next.’
- Choose ‘Browse‘ to locate and choose the PST file you wish to import data from.
- Select one of these:
- ‘Replace duplicates with items imported.’
- ‘Allow duplicates to be created.’
- ‘Do not import duplicates.’
- Select ‘Next.’
- Choose the folder from where to import, and whether to include subfolders and the location to import. Select ‘Filter‘ to filter specific emails to import.
- Choose ‘Finish.’
7. Resolve connection problems
When Wi-Fi or other network connection isn’t functioning well, it prevents the Outlook account from synchronizing with the Exchange server. This can result in you encountering the Outlook folder’s missing problem. Even if your Outlook folders are showing, you’ll find them to be empty. After you fix connection problems, your folders will reload.
Read Next- Why Is Microsoft Outlook Not Working?
Final Words
Now, whenever you find Folders disappeared in Outlook, you can implement the different resolutions given here. Follow the step-wise instructions carefully and find your folders. If you face any difficulty following the procedures, contact our technical experts who will troubleshoot this problem speedily and efficiently for you.
