Add and Remove Folders in Favorites in Microsoft Outlook

In this article, you shall learn how to Add and Remove Folders in Favorites in Microsoft Outlook. The Favorites section in Outlook is a valuable feature at the top of the Navigation pane that allows us to access specific folders in Microsoft Outlook quickly. The Navigation Pane includes shortcuts to folders such as your Inbox, Sent Items, and Search Folders. You can add, remove, and rearrange folders in this area to make it easier to access your mail folders. Please see also How to Add or Remove Sites from the Favorites List in Microsoft Edge.

Adding a folder to Favorites creates a shortcut, but the original location in the folder list remains unchanged in Microsoft Outlook. Removing a folder from Favorites doesn’t erase the folder or its contents, only removing the shortcut displayed in Favorites.

Here are other related guides: How to Add or Remove Sites from the Favorites List in Microsoft Edge, and Files On-Demand with OneDrive: Microsoft OneDrive Setup On Windows 10 and 11 and Key Features Explained.

How to add folders to Favorites in Outlook

To add a specific folder to Favorites in the Navigation Pane, locate the folder, then right-click it in Microsoft Outlook.

In the drop-down menu that appears, select Add to Favorites.

Please see Focus on tasks: How to get your task done on Windows by minimizing distractions, and How to use color filters in Windows.

How to remove folders from Favorites in Microsoft Outlook

If you no longer want specific folders under the Favorites section of Microsoft Outlook. You can follow the process below to remove or hide them from your view.

To remove a folder from the favorite pane, navigate to the Favorites section and right-click on the folder to remove. In the drop-down menu that appears, select Remove from Favorites.

Note: Make sure to remove folders from the Favorites list rather than deleting them. When you remove a folder from Favorites, the original folder remains in the folder list. When you delete a folder from Favorites, Outlook deletes the folder and its contents.

If you don’t want to remove the folder from the Favorites pane completely, you can simply hide it. This approach will hide the Favorites folder and its subfolders from the Navigation Pane. Follow the steps below to do that:

In Microsoft Outlook 2010 and above. Go to the View tab and select Folder Pane (or Navigation Pane), then click Favorites from the drop-down menu.