If you need more information or are investigating the issue separately, respond to the whole Contact Group to let everyone know that you are responding and then reply to the individual separately. Make sure to respond to the Contact Group after the issue is resolved with the resolution. In this way, the resolution can be referenced by other people on the Contact Group. If you suspect Outlook stuck updating folders solution that what you are looking for might be in an accepted meeting request (and therefore is on your calendar), try selecting All Outlook Items. After you start creating Quick Steps, you will find that there might be other ways that you can optimize the number of clicks required to get something done. Whenever you find yourself doing the same thing repeatedly, try creating a Quick Step.

• It’s a best practice to have a central repository for your messages, so that you can refer to them after you've "dealt" with them.
• Treat these streams of information much as you would a large newspaper — there might be a useful or interesting article, but reading the whole paper would take considerable time.
• Sometimes you receive a message that is really meant for someone else to deal with.
• Otherwise, consider using an online meeting app such as Microsoft Teams or meeting by phone.
• Collapse the top-level Contact Group folder so that you aren’t distracted by the unread messages in the folders beneath it.
• This becomes even more complicated if there is more than one appropriate folder per message.
• We also used CiraSync to sync and update Outlook contacts to iPhone and Android devices.

Delete it

Your calendar should be treated as your real plan for your time — if you have scheduled it, then that is what you are committed to doing at that time. After you finish processing your messages, you should have a clean Inbox and can switch your focus to your calendar and tasks. If you find that you are repeatedly applying the same categories and flags, create a new Quick Step that flags, categorizes, and files.

Which Contact Groups should go to a folder instead of my Inbox?

Sometimes you receive a message that you don’t need to act upon, but which you might need at a future date. File these messages in your reference folder (1-Reference) by selecting your Reference Quick Step. Adding a category will make the troubleshoot Outlook synchronizing folders error message easier to find later if you need it (for example, @Project).

Daily review: Managing your time and tasks

Limiting the time you spend reading messages to once in the morning and once at the end of the day could significantly improve your productivity. The Quick Steps feature lets users automate repetitive email tasks with a single click. For instance, if you frequently move messages to a specific folder, you can set up a quick step to move them faster with one click. Rules allow you to move, flag, and respond to email messages automatically. For example, you can create rules that change the importance level of messages as they arrive, automatically move them to other folders, or delete them based on certain criteria.

When to create a Contact Group in Outlook

To select a meeting time, select a time suggestion in the Room Finder pane in the Suggested times section, or pick a time on the free/busy grid. Each additional person you invite to a meeting adds to the complexity of the meeting, making it harder to control. On the other hand, if a decision needs to be made, make sure all of the key stakeholders are present, or the meeting will be a waste of time and resources. After you process your messages, you can tackle your task list. This is when you respond to those messages that you have deferred.



Search folders can be especially useful when you need to gather information that is saved in different folders — for example, when preparing for a quarterly meeting. Set your Contact Group folders to auto archive every six months or more frequently if they are time sensitive — for example, a Contact Group for finding carpool rides should be archived daily. Sentences prefaced with the Microsoft 365 logo are references to other mailbox not updating on IMAP Microsoft 365 products, such as Microsoft OneNote, and Microsoft SharePoint Server. Sentences that mention AutoArchive and Outlook Data Files (.pst) are marked with an icon of a folder and file . If your organization doesn’t deploy these products or features, these sentences can be disregarded without impacting the overall document and work flow.



For example, many messages can be responded to in two minutes or less. But if a message takes longer than two minutes to deal with, defer it. To get a sense of what two minutes feels like, try timing yourself. If you never want to receive another message as part of this conversation, ignore it.



However, the read and unread states of messages can be easily be triggered by clicking around your messages so they aren’t a perfect record — just a tool. Create Contact Groups (formerly known as personal distribution lists) in Outlook when you want to make it easier to send messages to a group of people outside your corporation. For all groups inside your corporation, create a public Contact Group (ask your IT administrator about how to do this). Send your calendar in a message when you set up meetings with people who can’t see your free/busy information, such as people outside of your company. Create a single task, mark it with the @Meeting category, and set the Start Date or Due Date to the date of your meeting. As the meeting date approaches and discussion points come up, add comments, bullets, and thoughts to the task as they occur to you.