How to Sort Email By Unread Messages on Outlook

By Tammy Clevenger

In Microsoft Outlook, emails may be sorted by nearly any field by default, just by clicking on the field header in the top row. However, functionality for sorting emails by read and unread status is not configured by default. A few settings must be modified in order for emails to group by read versus unread. Once grouped, clicking on the field header will bring either group to the top of the reading pane.

Open Outlook and click "Send/Receive" if not configured to automatically retrieve email. You will want to have some unread messages in your inbox to work with.

Right-click on the Message field header and click "Field Chooser."

Click on "Read" and then click "Add" to add the Read/Unread column to the grouping schema. Click "OK" and close the window.

Click the Message field header and the messages will now group by read versus unread. Click the header again to list in reverse grouping order.

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