Ignore a Conversation in Outlook – Instructions

Ignore a Conversation in Outlook: Video Lesson

            This video lesson, titled “Ignoring Conversations,” shows how to ignore a conversation in Outlook. This video lesson is from our complete Outlook tutorial, titled “Mastering Outlook Made Easy v.2019 and 365.”

Ignore a Conversation in Outlook: Overview

            You can ignore a conversation in Outlook that you no longer want to see in your Inbox. This is a helpful feature if you are no longer a part of an email conversation. While this feature ignores any new emails in the conversation stream, it doesn’t block or ignore emails from any senders or other recipients. It only blocks or ignores future emails in the same conversation stream.

            To ignore a conversation in Outlook, find and click on the conversation in the Inbox pane of the folder that contains the message. Then click the “Ignore” button in the “Delete” button group of the “Home” tab in the Ribbon. Alternatively, select the message and press the “Ctrl” + “Delete” or “Ctrl” + “Del” keys on your keyboard to ignore the conversation. You can also right-click a message and select “Ignore” from the pop-up menu.

Ignore a Conversation in Outlook – Instructions: A user ignoring a conversation in Outlook by selecting “Ignore” from the pop-up menu.

            A message box then appears, asking you to confirm you want to delete the selected conversation and send all future conversations in this thread to the Deleted Items folder. Click “Ignore Conversation” to confirm this is what you want to do. You can check the “Don’t show this message again” checkbox to ignore any future conversations without seeing the confirmation box.

            This action does not “block” emails, as in refusing to receive new conversations in this thread; it simply sends the future emails it receives in the thread to the “Deleted Items” folder. You can easily open the Deleted Items folder and view the ignored conversations, if needed.

            To stop ignoring an email conversation, open the Deleted Items folder and find the conversation you originally ignored. Right-click the message and select the “Ignore” option from the pop-up menu. A “Stop Ignoring Conversation” message box then appears. Click the “Stop Ignoring Conversation” button to move this conversation, and any future emails in the thread, back into the Inbox folder.

Ignore a Conversation in Outlook: Instructions

1. To ignore a conversation in Outlook, select a conversation and click the “Ignore” button in the “Delete” button group of the “Home” tab in the Ribbon.
2. Alternatively, you can also select the message and press the “Ctrl” + “Delete” or “Del” keys on your keyboard to ignore a message.
3. Alternatively, you can also right-click a message and select “Ignore” from the pop-up menu.
4. A message box appears, asking you to confirm you want to delete the conversation and ignore all further messages in this conversation.
5. Click “Ignore Conversation” to confirm.
6. To not see the confirmation box in the future, check the “Don’t show this message again” checkbox and then click “Ignore Conversation.”
7. This does not block the sender from emailing you. It simply moves this conversation thread to the Deleted Items folder. Future emails in the same thread are automatically moved to the Deleted Items folder.
8. To stop ignoring a previously ignored conversation, open the Deleted Items folder and find the message you ignored.
9. Right-click the message and click “Ignore.”
10. A “Stop Ignoring Conversation” message box then appears.
11. Click the “Stop Ignoring Conversation” button to move the conversation, and any future emails in the thread, back to the Inbox folder.