How to remove Important and All Mail folders Gmail and Microsoft Outlook
One thing to learn about setting up your Gmail in Outlook using IMAP is that there are 2 folders that are not really needed when viewing in Outlook: the “All Mail” and “Important” folders. Not only are they redundant, but these can also cause your Outlook to constantly synchronize and all it’s really doing is syncing duplicated data over and over…and a lot of it!
Basically, those 2 folders are duplicates of what is in the inbox. The “All Mail” is, literally, all of your email and the sent folders. The “Important” is still an unknown filter that Gmail sets up, I guess with what Gmail deems important. Either way, it’s usually just a duplicate of the inbox.
When setting up Gmail in Outlook, these 2 folders will also setup. They are hiding under the subfolder “Gmail” under the Inbox. You need to open that arrow to view the folders, “All Mail”, “Important” and “Sent”.
To remove those from your view in Outlook, the easiest way is to remove it from your Gmail settings. Log into your Gmail on the browser, then go to the wrench “settings” button in the upper right corner of the browser, then go down to “settings” and then click on the tab for “Labels”.
Click on “Hide” for both and uncheck “Show in IMAP” and then refresh your Outlook and those folders should go away from the view.
If you need my help, feel free to schedule on my calendar below.
Update: Aug 23, 2024
This post is almost 10 years old and my #2 searched post on my website. I know this query has helped 1000’s of people in the past 10 years and I thank you all for the comments and video comments.
I’d like to remind everyone that after the New Outlook is launched 1-5 years from now, and my testing has found that Google Workspace and Gmail work pretty nice in the New Outlook (as of Aug 23, 2024) and Microsoft even allows contacts and calendar synching (believe it or not!). So if you removing the Important and All Mail folders, keep in mind that your calendar and contacts from (This computer only) will need to get migrated to your Gmail and Google Workspace accounts. You might not need me now, but add me your contacts for later. I am very experienced with migrating (This computer only) to Gmail and Google Workspace and sync with your iPhone or Android.
If you need my help with this project, please email me lisa@callthatgirl.biz or you can also fill out the form below to get in contact or schedule a 10 minute consult.
I can also help with the following:
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Want even more information?
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- Interested in learning about New Outlook? Check out my New Outlook Resource Guide, with all my links to articles, YouTube videos and podcast https://callthatgirl.biz/new-outlook-resource-guide
Thank you for reading, I look forward to helping!
Lisa
Category: Outlook Support
About the Author (Author Profile)
Lisa Hendrickson is the owner of Call That Girl. She is an Outlook Expert and Microsoft 365 Consultant.Subscribe
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This tip solved a long time annoyance with Gmail. Unchecking IMAP has the effect of removing the redundant ‘All Mail’ and ‘Important’ folders to my Thunderbird email client as well. We have the technology!