How can I find a lost folder in Outlook?

Question

How can I find a folder that was accidentally moved into an unknown folder in Outlook? I can find messages in the folder and looking at their properties gives me the name of the folder but not where it is located.

I would like to avoid having to manually look in every folder in the hierarchy.

Answer 1

Try this:

1. Find the folder name by searching for the mail item and looking at its properties
2. Select the Go menu, choose Folders at the bottom
3. In the window that appears, find the folder in the drop-down box
4. Press Ok and Outlook should open to that folder

The above did not work for Outlook 2007. The following should:

1. Search "All Mail Items" for an email that you know is in the folder.
2. Right click and select "Find All" then "Related Messages"
3. On the box that pops up, one of the search options is "In:" with a Browse button. Press that button and it will show you which folder the mail item is in and where it is in the folder tree.

Answer 2

If you're in Office 2007 Outlook, this should work. Go to Tools. Click on Mailbox Cleanup. Then click on View Mailbox Size. You'll get a list of all your folders, and if you work down it, you should find the missing one - maybe somewhere quite unexpected!

Answer 3

Microsoft didn't provide the tools so I wrote one. Free with no catch available here:

How to search Outlook for a folder name

Answer 4

I have had success with this method:

1. Search for message (or other document). Use the normal quick search, searching for "all files and folders"
2. Open the message/document (double-click)
3. With the message open in i separate Window: Hit Ctrl+Shift+F to open Advanced Search.
4. Advanced Search will open with the folder of the open message selected.
5. Click Browse (top right) to see where that folder is.

This was in Outlook 2010.