There may be issues with some of your Outlook folders not showing up. As a result, you will not be able to see the emails, contacts within those folders.
In this article, we provide potential solutions to resolve the issue. First of all, try restarting Outlook to see if your folders are visible. If they are, great! If not, proceed with the following solutions to troubleshoot the issue.
Solution 1: Subscribe to folders
Some folders may not show up if you haven’t subscribed to them. In order to subscribe to folders, do the following.
- In the Mail menu, right click on the top folder
- Choose IMAP folders > Query
- Choose the folder/s and click on Subscribe
This will help to add the folders to the main Outlook window. For more information on IMAP sync issues, read Outlook 2016 sync issues.
If after subscribing to folders, the issue isn’t resolved, proceed to the next step.
Solution 2: Update folder list
If the folder is created using a web browser, you may not be able to view them in ‘IMAP folder’ list (described above). In this case, you may need to update the folders. To do this,
- Click on Mail, right click on the top folder
- Click Update Folder List
Now you should be able to see all the folders in IMAP folder section. Then click Subscribe to see all the folders on your Outlook page.
If these steps don’t help, proceed to the next step.
Solution 3: Download Mfcmapi
This tool is known as Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Editor. Making a small change in settings within the tool will help resolve the issue.
- Download Mfcmapi and run the tool
- Click on Session menu and select Login > Display Store Table
- Then choose an Outlook profile
- Double click on the email associated with the mailbox
- If you are using Cached mode, Expand Root – Mailbox > Expand IPM_SUBTREE
- If you are using online mode, Expand Root Container > Expand Top of Information Store
- Then identify the folder missing from Outlook and check if the PR_ATTR_HIDDEN value is TRUE.
- If it is, right click on it and choose Edit Property
- Deselect Boolean and click Ok
Now restart Outlook and see if all the folders are visible in Outlook. If none of these solutions work, try recreating your Outlook profile and check if it helps.
If it doesn’t work, it is possible that the Outlook data file is corrupt. In such cases, you will need Outlook repair tools such as Remo Repair. It is great to repair corruption in PST files and recover all folders and attributes.
All attributes such as emails, attachments, contacts, calendars etc. can be recovered safe and sound. There will be no damage caused to your original file as the tool works on a read-only feature.
The software supports all recent versions of Outlook including Outlook 2016. And all your recent versions of Windows including Windows 10 are supported.