Fix: Can’t Unsubscribe From Cortana Daily Briefing

When you receive tens or even hundreds of emails every day, being able to focus only on the important ones is crucial. You don’t want to waste precious time decluttering your inbox in order to find the emails that really matter to you. That’s why many Windows 10 users prefer to unsubscribe from Cortana’s Daily Briefing emails. But sometimes users keep on receiving these annoying messages anyway. Let’s see how you can fix this issue.

Why Am I Getting Daily Briefing From Cortana?

Microsoft 365 users receive Cortana Daily Briefing emails because the feature is on by default. If you want to stop getting these emails, you need to manually unsubscribe from the service.

The briefing email lists all the important tasks you need to take care of so that you can better organize your workday. These may include meetings, various reminders, documents you need to review, and so on. Of course, if you want to stop getting the emails, you can either unsubscribe or ask your IT admin to disable this option for you.

How to Unsubscribe From Cortana Daily Briefing

Hit the Unsubscribe Button

So, first things first, double-check and make sure you properly unsubscribed from the service. To opt out of the briefing email, launch Microsoft Edge and go to www.cortana.office.com. Then scroll down to Opt out of the briefing email to turn off this feature.

Alternatively, log into your Outlook mailbox using Edge, open your Cortana email, and hit the Unsubscribe button at the end of the email footer.

Many users confirmed they had to use the Edge browser to successfully unsubscribe from Cortana Briefing. Apparently, you cannot unsubscribe from Chrome, Safari, or any other browser.

Make sure you get the “Successfully unsubscribed” message. Feel free to tell Microsoft why you decided to unsubscribe. If the company gets plenty of negative feedback about this feature, maybe things will change.

Keep in mind that you can’t block these emails by tweaking your Windows 10 or Cortana app settings. For example, even if you go to Outlook’s Security settings and you hit the Block option or mark the briefing emails as Junk, that won’t help at all. They’ll always be back the next day.

The same is valid if you tweak your email privacy settings. If you did that hoping to get rid of Cortana’s briefings, well that may explain why the assistant keeps on sending you daily emails.

Another option is to simply contact your IT admin and ask them to turn off this option for you. Depending on your organization’s settings, you may not always have access to Cortana’s Office settings to unsubscribe from the service.

If You’re a GoDaddy User

According to some users, if you’re a GoDaddy customer, this is how Cortana actually found you. Unsubscribing from Cortana is not easy because there’s no relevant password to use.

To work your way around this issue, open one of those Briefing emails and hit the Unsubscribe button. Then type in your email address and enter the password you use to access your Office365 webmail. Many users said the problematic email address was created when GoDaddy started hosting their domain. Although many users said they never used that email address, Cortana doesn’t seem to mind that.

Even if you don’t have an Outlook account yourself, if your organization uses the Microsoft Exchange online mail server, the administrator might have enabled the briefing emails for you.

Create an Outlook Rule

As a workaround, you can also create a rule in Outlook and send those pesky emails straight to the Junk folder.

1. Launch your Outlook mailbox and go to Settings (hit the cogwheel icon).
2. Then click on View all Outlook settings.
3. Select Rules and then Add new rule.
4. Name and define the new rule. For example, you can send Cortana’s emails (sent from cortana@microsoft.com) to your Junk folder or you can create a dedicated folder for all those emails.

Keep in mind that if you simply mark those emails as Junk, that won’t work. But if you create a stand-alone rule to filter those emails, that should work.

Why Users Absolutely Hate Cortana Briefing

Many users really hate Cortana Briefing because they don’t like the idea of Microsoft harvesting information from their personal emails. In order to compile the briefing emails, Cortana needs to scan your emails to find relevant information. Honestly speaking, I’m an Outlook user myself and I don’t like the idea of Microsoft combing through my emails either. That’s why I turned off this option and I’m seriously considering switching to a different email client.

By the way, if you want to protect your privacy, these guides will come in handy:

• 5 Privacy Settings Your Windows 10 Computer Should Have Turned On
• Adjusting Privacy Settings in Windows 10
• Top Tips to Ensure Webcam Privacy in Windows

Conclusion

While Microsoft implemented Cortana’s Daily Briefing emails with the best intentions in mind, many users prefer to disable this feature due to privacy concerns. To do that, you need to open one of your Briefing emails and hit the Unsubscribe button at the end of the email footer.

⇒ Over to you now: What’s your stance on Cortana’s Briefing emails? Do you find them useful? Or are you rather concerned about Microsoft combing your emails? Share your thoughts in the comments below.