Set Up Single Inbox Folder For All Accounts In Outlook 2010

By Usman on Apr 12 2010 17 Comments

Undoubtedly Outlook 2010 stands out when it comes to managing multiple accounts but it does not present any direct way to create a single Inbox folder, containing all mails from different account. By creating new rules you can easily setup a generic Inbox folder for receiving all mails in one folder. Thus, you don’t need to check each account for new emails manually since all emails will be collected in a single folder. In this post will be creating a simple rule which will direct all received emails to the specified folder.

Launch Outlook 2010 and from left sidebar, select an account, right-click it and hit New Folder. From Create New Folder dialog, enter an appropriate name and click OK.

generic inbox

Now head over to Home tab and click Manage Rules & Alerts from Rules drop-down button.

manage rules and alerts

From Rules and Alerts dialog, select an account and click New Rule.

Rules and Alerts

In Rules Wizard, we will start off with creating a blank rule, click Apply rule on messages I receive and hit Next.

rules wizard 1

In this step of the wizard enable through the specified account option. From bottom of the dialog window click specified account and select the desired account from Account dialog window, and click OK.

1

You will see the specified account in the bottom of dialog window. Now click Next to continue

2

In this step, enable move it to the specified folder option, now click specified in the bottom of the window and select the Generic Inbox folder recently created, from new Rules and Alerts dialog.

3

You will see the folder name in the bottom of the window. Click Finish to end the wizard.

4

It will bring you back to Rules and Alerts dialog, showing newly created rule. Click OK to apply this newly created rule.

rules and alerts

For associating this folder with other accounts, repeat the whole procedure to direct all mails from multiple accounts to Generic Inbox folder. On receiving emails, you will see all the emails in the specified mail folder.

You can also checkout posts from Outlook 2010 notification series:

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  • Seiji Fetter

    Hi,
    how about going to the manage accounts option and, on the tab Data files, select all accounts to refer to a single data file (such as the original outlook.pst)

    that’s what I do and it works, apparently

    • Seiji Fetter

      sorry, let me correct myself

      instead of the data files tab, its the first tab in which you manage the accounts

      secondly, this only works for emails which you actually can choose the pst. so it works for gmail. but it won’t for a hotmail account synced through the outlook connector, for which case the instructions of this post seem to do the job!

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  • A.D.

    An elaborate page full of what is arguable the wrong advice.
    I recommend this: Delete the auxiliary account if it already exists. Create a new account. At the very first panel, choose “Manually configure server settings” (instead of the default, which is “E-Mail Account”.)

  • Alexander Danel

    In Outlook-2010, do this:

    File–>Info–>Account_Settings->Account_Settings

    This brings you to the “Account Settings” panel.

    [ New ]

    This gives you the Add New Account “Choose Service” panel. The default is correct.

    [x] E-Mail_Account –> [Next]

    This gives you the Add New Account “Auto Account Setup” panel. The choice here is not the default.

    [ x ] Manually Configure server settings or additional server types.

    This gives you the “Choose Service” panel. The default is correct.

    [ x ] Internet e-mail –> [ next ]

    This gives you the “Internet E-Mail Settings” panel. Note the section:

    Deliver New Messages To:

    This is where you select an:

    [ x ] Existing Outlook account.

    Browse, and pick the “Outlook” file.

    That should do it.

    • Adsandiego

      Tool. You are not using Outlook 2010.

    • Randy

      Does this work with IMAP accounts? When I select IMAP instead of POP3, it removes the option of routing to the existing folder.

    • NT

      Thank you very much Alexander…….you are a star! You saved me many hours of pulling my hair out :-)

    • Barry

      Alexander,
      Thanks. It worked on my gmail account which is pop 3 using Outlook 2010 after i had tried usman’s adding an account which did not work for me. may be I did it wrong but Alex’s way is easy and fast.

  • Adsandiego

    Alexander. You’re a complete fool. What you are describing is not Outlook 2010.

    • Josh

      Actually he is describing Outlook 2010, check again. It only works for POP3 accounts though.

  • Michelle

    Ok, so does this work with multiple IMAP accounts? I have a few IMAP and a few pop3. Receiving in one inbox would be great… but of MAJOR importance to me is that if I REPLY to a message, it should send from the account to which it was originally sent. I can do it easily on my iPad and Blackberry. Thanks

  • Kevin

    I am in the same situation. I want to be able to read multiple IMAP accounts and keep them synced over several devices, but read them on outlook in an unified folder.

  • James Shadle

    Thank You!!!!
    This is a life saver.
    James

  • Maggie

    Okay, so I tried what Usman suggested here, and it worked on the first email account when creating the rule. But it did not work going forward, nor is it working for the other accounts. I thought Outlook 2010 was meant to be good. I cannot believe you do not have the option of using one Inbox, and replying from whatever email account you want as it used to be the case before…

    So am not sure what you are saying is the alternative which would allow me to have all messages in one Inbox and reply from the email account I select…

  • nvrslpn

    So after arguing with the inept helpdesk tech at Microsoft, who was in India, for about an hour. He informed me that the problem was because I had multiple Imap accounts. I can not understand how Microsoft would release a program to handle e-mail that makes organizing your e-mails an impossibility. Uhm, isn’t that the whole purpose of an e-mail program. BTW, all of these features are handled with a problem through the completely free MS Live mail program. So if you didn’t get this program for free, I’d suggest steering very clear from Outlook 2010 as it can not do very basic e-mail handling operations. It is a whole load of poop wrapped in a pretty package. But in the end when you open the box, there’s still poop inside.

    • Luke

      This all seems too complicated. I have all different kinds of account (imap, pop, etc.) set up, and all I did was…

      In Outlook 2010

      - in the left pane, single click the “indox” (i.e. highlight it) of the account you want to set this up on
      - In the ribbon at the top of the screen, click “Rules”…”Always move this folder”.
      - Select the folder you want to move it too (I sent them to the outlook data file “Inbox”)

      Thanks it, your done, outlook takes care of the rest

      P.S. After you created the rule, you can click “manage rules” and you can even set it up so that a custom sound is played and a popup message appears everytime a new email comes in.

      Hope this helps someone

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  • sandy beach

    I found the easy and simple way is In Outlook-2010, do this:

    File–>Info–>Account_Settings- Account settings click on the non default email account and underneath it click on- change folder and change it to the same as the default email account.
    do this for any other accounts.
    It also sends from whatever account you received it from.

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