The Favorites section at the top of the New Outlook folder pane gives you one-click access to critical folders. When Favorites fail to sync, folders you pin may disappear after restarting the app, fail to appear across multiple devices, or display out-of-date unread message badges. Because New Outlook manages navigation through cloud service objects rather than local profile files, fixing sync failures requires targeting the server-side configuration.
Fast Fix
Open Outlook on the web (OWA) in a browser (
outlook.office.com) and add or rearrange your Favorites there. New Outlook retrieves its navigation hierarchy directly from your Exchange Online cloud profile. Updating Favorites in OWA forces an immediate cloud configuration write that resynchronizes your desktop client.
Diagnostic Snapshot
| Property | Details |
|---|---|
| Symptom | Pinned folders disappear from Favorites, fail to mirror on other PCs, or unread counters freeze |
| Root Cause | Stale local WebView2 cache, corrupted Exchange navigation settings, or unsupported account types |
| Architecture | Exchange Online UserConfiguration objects (Common.Navigation) |
| First Action | Validate and update folder hierarchy in Outlook on the web (OWA) |
How Favorites Syncing Works in New Outlook
In classic Outlook, Favorites were managed locally on your computer. Your pinned list was written to a local configuration file (<profilename>.xml) stored inside your Windows user profile.
New Outlook does not write navigation preferences to your local drive. It uses cloud roaming:
- When you pin a folder to Favorites, New Outlook sends an API call to Exchange Online.
- Exchange Online stores this metadata inside a hidden UserConfiguration message called
Common.Navigationinside your cloud mailbox. - Every modern client you use—including Outlook on the web, New Outlook for Mac, and New Outlook for Windows—reads this exact same cloud message during boot.
Classic Outlook (Local File Storage)
└── Pins Folder ──> Writes to local XML on C:\ ──> Does NOT sync to other PCs
New Outlook (Cloud Roaming Storage)
└── Pins Folder ──> Writes to Exchange Online ──> Syncs to all web/desktop clients
│
└── Corrupted Cache? ──> Fails to persist on restart
When this synchronization fails, the breakdown typically stems from one of three areas:
- Account Type Limitations: IMAP and POP3 accounts do not support Exchange roaming configurations.
- Secondary / Shared Mailbox Breaks: Folders pinned from delegated or shared mailboxes often drop out of Favorites if the automapping token refreshes.
- Client-Side Cache Lockups: The local Edge WebView2 IndexedDB container fails to write or pull updates from the cloud store.
Progressive Troubleshooting Steps
Step 1: Force Cloud Synchronization via Outlook on the Web
Because New Outlook is an application wrapper for web components, testing Outlook on the web isolates whether the problem is account-wide or client-specific:
- Open a browser and sign in to Outlook on the web (
outlook.office.com). - Look at the Favorites section at the top of the left folder pane.
- Right-click any missing folder under your primary mailbox and select Add to Favorites.
- Drag and drop the pinned folders into your preferred order.
- Close and relaunch New Outlook on your desktop.
If the folders now display correctly, the desktop client was suffering from a background sync delay that the web edit forced to resolve.
Step 2: Resolve Shared and Delegated Mailbox Limitations
If the disappearing folder belongs to a shared mailbox rather than your primary account:
- Classic Outlook allowed you to favorite subfolders from secondary mailboxes easily.
- In New Outlook, secondary accounts and shared mailboxes connected via “Shared with me” frequently lose their favorite bindings if your delegate permissions are re-evaluated or if the mailbox is unmounted.
- Workaround: Instead of pinning nested subfolders from a shared account, add the root shared folder directly using the manual mounting procedure:
If the entire sidebar folder structure reports errors when accessed, see:
Step 3: Clear the Local Olk Navigation Cache
If your Favorites display properly in a browser but continue disappearing or reverting in the New Outlook desktop app, your local database cache is damaged:
- Close New Outlook completely.
- Press
Ctrl + Shift + Escto open Task Manager and ensureolk.exeis terminated. - Press
Win + R, paste the following path, and press Enter:%localappdata%\Microsoft\Olk - Delete all files and folders located inside the
Olkdirectory. - Relaunch New Outlook. The app will pull a clean copy of your
Common.Navigationsettings directly from Exchange Online.
Step 4: Address View Settings Resetting
If your Favorites disappear alongside custom column layouts, density choices, or reading pane preferences, your entire view configuration pipeline is failing to commit changes to your cloud profile. Follow our dedicated guide for view state issues:
Hard Stops: Account Type Restrictions
If you are using an account from an external provider (such as Gmail, Yahoo, or an on-premises IMAP server), New Outlook relies on local emulation rather than native Exchange UserConfiguration objects. Pinning folders across separate IMAP data files is prone to sync drops during background authentication renewals.
If your daily workflow requires complex multi-account folder grouping across IMAP accounts, consider returning to classic Outlook: