• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Technipages

Tutorials and fixes for smartphone, gadget, and computer problems

  • Topics
    • Android
    • Gaming
    • Hardware
    • Internet
    • iOS
    • MacOS
    • Office
    • Software
    • Windows
    • Definitions
  • Product Reviews
  • Downloads
  • About Technipages
How to Find Email Folder Location in Outlook

How to Find Email Folder Location in Outlook

By Mitch Bartlett 31 Comments

Sometimes you would like to know where you have an email located in Microsoft Outlook. If you have a lot of folders, this can be a common problem. Fortunately, you can find the folder location for any email using these steps.

  1. Open Outlook and search for the message using the quick search box located toward the upper-right portion of the window. When searching, be sure that “All Outlook Items” is selected in the drop-down box.
  2. Once you press “Enter” to submit your search, there should be an “In Folder” field that will tell you which folder the email is located in.

If you do not have this field perform these steps:

  1. Select the “View” tab.
  2. Select “Add Columns“.
  3. From the “Select available columns from:” drop-down menu, select “All Mail fields“.
  4. Select “In Folder” then select “Add” to add it.

You Might Also Like

  • Enable or Disable Autosaving Email to Drafts Folder in Outlook 2016
    Enable or Disable Autosaving Email to Drafts Folder in…
  • Windows 10: How to Find the Location of EXE Program
    Windows 10: How to Find the Location of EXE Program
  • Google Maps: How to Find the Coordinates for a Location
    Google Maps: How to Find the Coordinates for a Location
  • Fix: Can't Create OneDrive Folder in the Selected Location
    Fix: Can't Create OneDrive Folder in the Selected Location
  • How to Find Physical Location of Hidden Wireless Router
    How to Find Physical Location of Hidden Wireless Router
  • Google Maps: Find Someone's Location by Phone Number
    Google Maps: Find Someone's Location by Phone Number
  • Windows: Create Command Prompt That Opens To Specific Folder Location
    Windows: Create Command Prompt That Opens To Specific Folder…
  • Facebook: Find People Using Email Address
    Facebook: Find People Using Email Address
  • Dropbox: How to Disable the Weekly Shared Folder Activity Email
    Dropbox: How to Disable the Weekly Shared Folder Activity…

Filed Under: Office Tagged With: Outlook 2016

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anjani says

    June 1, 2022 at 5:21 pm

    Absolutely useless. I nest lots of folders. Without the path, the file name is meaningless.

  2. AngryMan says

    November 9, 2021 at 8:23 pm

    totally ridiculous !! how can MS neglect such simple need from users?
    i am frustrated in locating the folder and the related emails …..
    should MS incorporate Google search in their Outloook!

  3. Paige says

    November 2, 2021 at 9:39 am

    None of this was helpful; 1 way shows you the subfolder but doesn’t tell where the subfolder is. the CTLR + Shift = F just shows “Inbox” for EVERYTHING. Yeah, I know it’s in a subfolder in the Inbox; that’s so not helpful…..

  4. Colin Bonfield says

    October 6, 2021 at 3:21 am

    Your outlook search function is utter TRASH! Please sort this out so that we can see the full path of where an email is stored.

  5. CURTIS LANGAGER says

    September 3, 2021 at 1:33 pm

    updated to a new computer and now it no longer shows which folder the email is in in the results box. this causes me to waste an incredible amount of time trying to find emails.
    can’t beleive outlook was stupid enough to delete this simple but essential function!!!!

  6. Nik says

    June 29, 2021 at 2:24 am

    1. Open email
    2. Click File. and under “Move item to different folder” the current folder is displayed

  7. John says

    May 19, 2021 at 7:02 am

    OK, attempt three.
    Do these changes in “View”, but not in “View Settings” do it in “Change Settings” then it seems to stick there.
    Good luck!

  8. John says

    May 19, 2021 at 6:57 am

    Only recently has the “In Folder” column disappeared, which it has just done again! Microsoft should be able to make this easy and essential function remain available.

  9. Erin says

    March 24, 2021 at 6:45 pm

    No this did not help. I’m looking for a way to change settings so that the InFolder tab is always visible after conducting a search. Then you can easily determine where the email is located. This is especially important if you’ve accidentally deleted it – it would be good to know this!

  10. AH says

    March 17, 2021 at 6:00 am

    It is utter insanity that Outlook does not easily show the paths of a folder, only which folder it is in. This is almost the mid 21st Century and cannot believe how much time I waste looking for things because of this very simple ask.

    For example, i oragnise emails by [Conversations[]. A new email comes in that says previously filed emails are in Folder D.

    Folder D, is a sub folder of Folder C, which is a sub folder of Folder B, which is a sub folder of Folder A. I am a lawyer so this is how I file. Why can you not show me the path without a ridiculous search function which also doesn’t really work. Sort it out please!!!!!

  11. Michael Maxwell says

    February 10, 2021 at 2:03 pm

    The method described in the post ONLY tells you the bottom-most folder the message is in. (This holds for both the information shown in Properties, and for the information shown in the “In Folder” column.) This is NOT sufficient if you have nested folders, since you may not remember where a particular deeply nested folder is; and worse, you might have more than one nested folder with the same name (like “Budget” if you have a budget folder for each project).

    The ONLY way that will tell you the path to the folder is the Ctrl-Shift-F + Browse button method.

    This has been a problem in Outlook forever. It is really inconvenient to have to use the Ctrl-Shift-F method when the other methods ought to work. (It’s also inconvenient that when you do a search for emails, Outlook doesn’t automatically show you the “In Folder” column–instead, you have to add that column every time you re-open Outlook, which for me is ever day.)

  12. DavidC says

    September 21, 2020 at 1:19 am

    There is an extra step required. Go to File – Options – Search.
    Then on “Include results only from” Select radio button “All mailboxes”.
    Then (copied from comment above: )
    1. Open the email
    2. Click CTRL+SHIFT+F : the Advanced file dialog is opened in it choose the button “Browse…”
    there you can see the the full path
    Enjoy

  13. LF says

    July 23, 2020 at 5:05 pm

    Thanks!!!

  14. Alexis says

    June 9, 2020 at 3:54 pm

    Any of the 2 options works:
    option 1: search your email, open your email, press CTRL+SHIFT+

    option2: in Outlook, click view, add columns, all mail fields, add “in folder”. This will add the “in folder” column in outlook, allowing you to see where is the email located.

    Thanks for sharing!

  15. Michelle says

    June 2, 2020 at 10:37 am

    This was EXACTLY what I was looking for. When I did an email search, I couldn’t determine where the email was actually found so I could reallocate it to a different folder if necessary.,
    I could not find these instructions anywhere on Microsoft website anywhere. Thank-you!!

  16. Tony Mason says

    April 18, 2020 at 11:09 am

    Thanks Ofira Sharon for your work-around
    ========
    for finding the path of a specific Email do this:
    1. Open the email
    2. Click CTRL+SHIFT+F
    =======

  17. Sandor Boldizsar says

    February 6, 2020 at 2:46 am

    THANKS A LOT Ofira Sharon!

    It worked for me perfectly!
    =================================================================================================
    for finding the path of a specific Email do this:
    1. Open the email
    2. Click CTRL+SHIFT+F : the Advanced file dialog is opened in it choose the button “Browse…”
    there you can see the the full path
    =================================================================================================

  18. Tim Sluckin says

    October 30, 2019 at 4:49 pm

    I have the same trouble as these complainants. The lack of a file path is a real problem. The software people are not real users!

  19. Larry says

    September 20, 2019 at 8:12 am

    Best bet is to get X1. far outshines the worthless Microsoft search. All of the concerns and complaints are valid. I have been using X1 for several years and love it. click on the file or email you want then click on folder and you’re there.

  20. Ofira Sharon says

    September 3, 2019 at 6:30 am

    for finding the path of a specific Email do this:
    1. Open the email
    2. Click CTRL+SHIFT+F : the Advanced file dialog is opened in it choose the button “Browse…”
    there you can see the the full path

  21. Travis says

    August 28, 2019 at 6:58 pm

    It worked for me using Outlook desktop for Windows.

  22. Edward says

    August 12, 2019 at 3:56 am

    This is the functionality users are actually looking for:
    http://vboffice.net/en/developers/get-the-message-folder/

    It’s relatively easy to install and use;
    1. Enable macros in Outlook, go to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings… > Macro Settings > “Notification for all macros” > OK
    2. Use keys ALT+F11 in Outlook to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications editor, and go to Project1 (VbaProject.OTM) > Microsoft Outlook Objects > ThisOutlookSession, and double click, then paste the code, File > Save VbaProject.OTM, and close the editor.
    3. To use the macro, if you have message preview pane on, you can just select the email you require the information on, then use keys ALT+F8 to and choose your new macro ‘GetItemsFolderPath’.

  23. Fran says

    July 8, 2019 at 11:24 am

    I tried to do this and it doesn’t work. It keeps asking me to Name the new column and then the new column is not created. I finally figured out I had to drag it to the row of columns, but the column is blank. It doesn’t indicate which folder the email is filed in.

  24. scott says

    June 21, 2019 at 3:59 pm

    This is ridiculous. Seriously.

  25. Shelia says

    May 4, 2019 at 12:44 pm

    No this did not help. I just want to see the list of my e-mail folders and I can’t figure out how to get to it.

  26. David says

    March 4, 2019 at 4:42 am

    A brand new folder called Bulk Emails appeared form nowhere. It fills up with spam and other junk. I want to remove it but Microsoft has prevented it from being removed. Add this to the millions of other complaints.

  27. James Wilton says

    February 19, 2019 at 12:19 pm

    Come on Microsoft, just show the file path, including the email account:
    i.e. \\bob@bobski.com\inbox\sorted\otherwise lost forever

  28. Victoria MacDonald says

    November 13, 2018 at 9:51 am

    Absolutely useless. Microsoft file explorer can find the exact location with a folder address. This isn’t a new concept for Microsoft.

  29. Gubbs says

    November 2, 2018 at 4:45 am

    As pointed out by previous posters, the ‘In Folder’ column is useless if the folder is nested more than once from the root folder – it should show the entire path (like windows explore search). Didn’t Microsoft just get a tax break? Maybe they can take a little of that money and make this function a little more usefull.

  30. Gregory Kielczewski says

    October 13, 2018 at 11:57 am

    No, it doesn’t help at all, because it “explains” obvious and avoid difficult. I have hundreds of folder in Outlook. Sometimes they change position in the folder structure, or possibly I inadvertently and unconsciously move them to a new place. At this moment I am in trouble. Microsoft does not provide any tool to locate such “lost” files, or possibly I have not discovered such a tool. When I search for files in a “lost” folder Outlook show them, and even tell me in which folder they are. The problem is that I have no idea what is the location of the folder.

  31. Stephen says

    July 17, 2018 at 1:17 pm

    I can find the “in folder” but I cannot locate the folder itself.

Did this help? Let us know!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Windows 11: How to Add Clocks with Different Time Zones
  • Google Assistant: How to Never Miss a Birthday
  • Windows 11: How to Disable Notifications and Ads
  • How to Use Oculus Quest 2 Air Link
  • How to Create an Avatar in the Oculus Quest 2
  • 5 Free and Fun Math Apps for Kids
  • Windows 11: How to Discover What Graphics Card You’re Using
  • How to Change Display Resolution on Windows 10 and 11

Who’s Behind Technipages?

Baby and Daddy My name is Mitch Bartlett. I've been working in technology for over 20 years in a wide range of tech jobs from Tech Support to Software Testing. I started this site as a technical guide for myself and it has grown into what I hope is a useful reference for all.

© Copyright 2022 Technipages · All Rights Reserved · Privacy