This issue started happening in January 2025 for a one of our customers in Oxford.

Microsoft Outlook 365 (classic) randomly jumps to older emails in the inbox when changing folders, deleting, flagging emails, etc. Sometimes it jumps without the user performing any action whatsoever.

First, I’m going to list what didn’t help:

• Outlook startup switches:
  • Outlook /cleanviews
  • Outlook /resetnavpane
  • Outlook /safe
• Outlook > View > Reset View
• Create a new Outlook profile
• Microsoft Office Quick Repair
• Microsoft Office Full (Online) Repair
• Disable Outlook caching (Online mode)
• Disable Reading Pane

Some people on Microsoft forums report that removing Grammarly from their computer fixes the issue, however, there was no Grammarly installed on this particular PC.

I noticed that Outlook always jumps to the emails received around mid-December. Every time to a slightly different place, but always around mid-December.

After some experimenting, I found that if I move all those mid-December emails to a subfolder inside Inbox, the issue goes away.

There are some very recent reports on Microsoft support forums about the same issue with no resolution. I assume this is quite a new Outlook bug which Microsoft will hopefully resolve sooner rather than later. In the meantime, moving email to a subfolder will have to be the workaround for now.

January 2025
Oxford, Oxfordshire