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How do I organize my Hotmail folders?

I've been a hotmail user for over a decade, and want to remain so. Lately my emails have been auto-organizing in weird ways -- sometimes by size of the email, sometimes by attachments vs. no attachments, etc. I just want the email to stay organized by date both in my inbox as well as my files (most recent at the top), but I can't seem to find how to do that.


Dave's Answer:

Like many different Web-based applications, Hotmail has some user interface subtleties that can be darn confusing if you aren't aware of them. I think that a combination of a couple of different things are affecting your experience with your Hotmail mailbox.

For example, when you're looking at your mail, the top column headers look like this:

MSN Hotmail, Mail Headers

Yeah, it's a busy screenshot there, and that's part of the problem, frankly. There's so much you can do that the nuances of the interface are just about impossible to see.

I have my mail being sorted in ascending order, by from address rather than by date. How can I tell? The tiny up arrow symbol -- ^ -- immediately to the left of the word "From" on the column headings.

Click on "Subject" and you'll be sorting by subject. Click on "Size" and you'll be able to organize your messages largest to smallest or, with another click, smallest to largest. Click on "Date" and you'll get it organized the way you want, newest to oldest.

Now, one more nuance of the Hotmail Web interface: See where it says "Everyone" adjacent to "Show me mail from"? Click on that and you'll find a really slick additional interface filter:

MSN Hotmail, Mailbox Filters

These are nice additional filters you can apply to your mailbox, and the next time you go to look at your mail, they'll be pre-selected.

Given all that, I imagine you can figure out how to get things set to your desired view. Then quit the browser, start it up again, log back into Hotmail and you should be in good shape!



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Comments

All of a sudden, as of a couple weeks ago, I am no longer able to click on the headings in my hotmail account. In other words, I used to be able to click on "From" or "Subject" or "Date" but now, everything is listed in order of "Date" and I am unable to change this. What can I do to correct this? Or can I subscribe to a paid version of hotmail in order to improve my ability to look up old emails?

Posted by: steve hirsch at October 20, 2008 12:28 PM

I have old email its hus909@hotmail.com is not privew so what can i do ? i have email on this mail help me please

Posted by: hussain at August 2, 2009 9:16 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...
Starbucks coffee cup I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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