Outlook 2016 favorites should stay ordered as the user established
At the moment, in Outlook 2016, the order of items in the Favorites list is not always displayed in the order set by the user. This ordering comes and goes at a whim; so, it looks like a bug. But, given that it's been months and months and MS hasn't fixed it, it needs proper attention from this list to have them focus on fixing the problem.

Thank you for your feedback. We fixed this issue and it’ll be available starting with build 9022.1000. For reference on build numbers, please see this support article on version and build numbers of update channel releases: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Version-and-build-numbers-of-update-channel-releases-ae942449-1fca-4484-898b-a933ea23def7
41 comments
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Anonymous commented
I've not been able to find this build # "build 9022.1000" at the link you've provided.
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Anonymous commented
Same problem here, despite fix.
It only happens when using IMAP and Exchange accounts together.
The workaround proposed by Peter on February 19 works. Simply right-click on an entry in the Favorites and select Open in new window.
Unfortunately this is not a good solution and very annoying, this has to be fixed by Microsoft. -
M. Treep commented
Although there is Build 9029.2253 installed I still have the same issue in The Netherlands.
Is this only fixed with the US version? Still the inbox gets moved to the end instead of how I want it. -
Janet Walker commented
Thank you Peter - my goodness, it works! It's been driving me crazy. Thought I would google the problem and I found this. I still don't understand when the 'fix' will be available but until it is, THANK YOU!
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Kimberly Osborn commented
@Admin, please verify the build number you listed looks a little far off.. When is it due to release?
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David Meyer commented
Thank you Peter, your February 19 2018 is a great temporary solution.
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Peter Bird commented
Until MS pull their finger out and fix this problem you can open Outlook and get the jumbled favourites listing; right click on any favourite and select open in new Window,;then close the old window and you have the new window with the correctly ordered favouites.
This just goes to show that Outlook knows the correct order but can't list themin order for some reason.
A bit of code to open, select, right click, select, and close the old window woul ddo it for you; sadly I am not that skilled!
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Anonymous commented
Fixed it finally - after almost two years! Amazing attention to customer feedback!
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Adrian Timms commented
When is build 9022.1000 due to release?
Latest Outlook 2016 update (as of Feb 15 2018) has installed Version 1801 Build 9001.2171, which released Feb 13 2018. This current build has NOT fixed the issue.
To test, I just closed Outlook (newly updated) and restarted, and it opened with the list of favorites folders inverted. I have to keep closing and restarting to get the favorites folders list to re-invert.
Not mission critical, but enough to be a nuisance. -
Ian Clark commented
I love Outlook, but it's becoming unusable due to this problem and the other problems with mixed inboxes, now the slider underneath the favourtites window doesn't work. It's very simple really give us a fix date or I will have to use another mail client and think about moving away from Office 365 Outlook, it's really no possible to live with this.
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Ian Clark commented
Dreadfully slow to fix this, and it's really really time consuming, should be at the very very top of your bug fixes.
Poor service for both my Office 365 accounts -
Peter Bird commented
If you fixed this issue, as you say you have, why aren't you releasing it instead of issuing so many trivial fads.
Perhaps someone at MS is performing a tension building roll of the drums leading up to the big release.
Seriously, please get this issued asap. I have spent hours on the phone to your US support team (I'm from the UK), wasting your time and mine.
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Ali commented
this was fixed in earlier version (by not having a gmail folder at the bottom of the favourites) but now it is messed up again.
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Mark Liechty commented
Admin please help. As others have noted this is a long standing problem that wastes up an hour a week for me. You are saying that it will be fixed in build 9022.1000 based on your build number chart that is at least a year away. Can you please get us a date for that fix?
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Zev commented
...a wellspring of useless features ...NOW one that is ALL TOO important that fails to function as designed!
Thank you Microsoft... befuddled AGAIN!
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stevebal@microsoft.com commented
+100 on the ridiculous nature of this obvious, long standing bug. How hard can it be to fix this annoying issue?
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Jesse Smith commented
When multiple inboxes are installed and added to the favorites, the most recent addition to the favorites randomly (Seemingly without provocation) is removed from the favorites. Unsure why this happens, but can we change it?
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John H commented
Same problem, caused by the addition of an IMAP account to the Favorites list. Please fix.
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Anonymous commented
I had multiple folders for 1 Exchange and 3 POP emails in favorites with no rearrangement problem for months. It started rearranging as soon as I converted to POP emails to IMAP emails. Problems seems to be related to IMAP emails per Anonymous' comment on this subject. Very irritating!
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Anonymous commented
Something happens when you mix imap or shared folders in favorite list with exchange folders:
From:
https://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/172035-Outlook-2016-favorites-keep-rearranging. From another thread:
I am also having a similar problem, I have done some testing on my outlook...
In my outlook I have setup several email accounts configured including exchange, Hotmail/outlook.com, Microsoft 365, POP, IMAP/SMTP types.
I added each inbox to the favorites one by one, moving them to the top of the favorites section, closing and opening Outlook between each one. I found that when I added the IMAP/SMTP folders to favorites (like gmail or yahoo) the problem starts.
Furthermore I found that I can add the imap accounts to favorites but if I do NOT move them to the top of the favorites section, (keeping them toward the bottom of the favorites list like below sent items and deleted items) it does not cause the ordering problem.
One more thing found during testing, if you add the imap account and restart outlook to find the order has changed you can remove the imap account from favorites (be sure not to change the favorites order again) then close and open outlook again, the order will return correctly.
Hopefully this can provide some insight to resolve the problem.
I have also found that if I add my IMAP account to the end of the Favorites list (Gmail), then the sort order remains. Once I move it up the list, the sort order becomes corrupted.