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How to stop Outlook from automatically marking emails as read?

Generally speaking, when you switch unread emails in the mailing list with the Reading Pane turning on, the emails will be marked as Read automatically. Sometimes, you may just want to switch emails but not read them. In this article, I will introduce the solution to stop Outlook from automatically marking email as Read when you clicking them in the mail list.

Stop Outlook from automatically marking emails as read


Stop Outlook from automatically marking emails as read

To stop Outlook from automatically marking emails as read when switching them in the mail list, you need to change the options of Reading Pane.

1. In the Mail view, click View > Reading Pane > Options. See screenshot:

2. In the Reading Pane dialog box, please uncheck both Mark items as read when viewed in the Reading Pane and Mark items as read when selection changes options. See screenshot:

Note: Alternatively, you can also specify the options as follows: (1) check the Mark items as read when viewed in the Reading Pane option, (2) enter the average time you spend on reading an email, and (3) uncheck the Mark item as read when selection changes option. See screenshot:

3. Click the OK button to save the changes.

From now on, when you switch unread emails in the mails list with the Reading Pane turning on, these emails will not be marked as Read automatically.


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Comments (23)
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This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Maybe my company is restricting my ability to change this option I am totally not able to access any controls that allow me to change the delay of a selected mail to be mark as read. I have to do this manually. I would like at least a 5 second delay as I am scrolling through email so not everything is marked as read.

John
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
This is perfect example, but what i need is:

I want all the emails that come to land on 'INBOX' besides the fact that i have rules for all the different customers. Can you help me with that?

Hope i explaines it well!!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
What i mean is,

i want it to be me to uncheck the email and only after it goes to the 'folder' of the customer. I can check and uncheck it but the email goes straight to the folder of the customer instead of firstly land on 'INBOX' and only after i uncheck it it follows to lhe right folder.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Microsoft Outlook currently has no options or registry keys to disable automatic making as read, the existing settings only apply when reading mails using the preview pane. When mails are opened in a new window they are marked ad read, ignoring any settings. This is especially problematic when accounts are shared with multiple users. I know this setting does work properly in the Thunderbird email client. I have not tried the Linux Evolution client yet but I know that integrates well with office365 accounts and also supports the open Maildir format for local storage of email. If anyone knows a good Windows mail client I'd like to hear about it.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
HI, It seems that when the email arrives on my phone, outlook automatically shows the email as read? how do i change that... i have already changed the setting in outlook as suggested thanks
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I am using POP. It did fix the issue once I enabled the Reading Pane and then disabled it. I never use the reading Pane so, I had it turned off originally. Thanks.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I did seem to fix this issue.
I changed the email in Outlook to an IMAP account (from POP) and that seems like it may have fixed the issue. Try that and let me know if that works.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
The proposes solution which claimed unchecking the box within the Reading Pane options has NOT worked for my Outlook 2021. I even turn off the reading pane and it still marks newer emails as read when I read a single older one. Has anyone really solved this issue?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi,

If it's not working by uncheking the options, please try the alternative option: (1) check the Mark items as read when viewed in the Reading Pane option, (2) enter the average time you spend on reading an email, and (3) uncheck the Mark item as read when selection changes option.

https://www.extendoffice.com/images/stories/doc-outlook/stop-auto-read/doc-outlook-stop-auto-read-3.png
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
It worked for me. I guess Reading Pane must be on when unchecking the boxes, so something else was the culprit. Thanks.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Glad to help 😄
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
ขอบคุณค่ะ ข้อความนี้เป็นประโยชน์ตามที่ต้องการหาข้อมูลเลยค่ะ
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
This hasn't worked for me either. It still marks everything as read even without a preview pane. They show as unread on my phone. I have turned off email on my phone and it continues to change each email to read.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I finally did figure something out. I have a 1 year old laptop, and I’m not sure if it’s the operating system or an MS thing, but I would get a little pop out notification for mail and it had the first couple lines on it, and it turned out it was THAT that was making Outlook think I had read it. Try turning that off. The little notifications in the bottom right tray with the calendar. It’s not the phone.
MS has made a complete mess of this sort of crap, and ESPECIALLY Excel!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
This obviously has NOT worked for a number of people. I have tried everything INCLUDING turning off the preview pane, and it STILL marks it read at 5 minutes. Someone said somewhere that it's being marked read on your phone, but that's not it EITHER. My phone marks read AFTER outlook marks it read. I've unchecked all the boxes, still marks read. I "mark item as read when selection changes" and it marks it read even if I don't touch that particular email but just change from one email to another elsewhere.
It's bloody ridiculous.

I have to say, I've been working in MS 365 for about a week now, after a multiple year break using an open source program, and I HATE IT. I used to LOVE Microsoft way back when, but they've made so many changes that are HORRIBLE. You can't add custom keyboard shortcuts in EXCEL (apparently you can in Word, but no, why would be need it in Excel???).
Also Excel: add the little arrows back to skip to the first or last page. Who at Microsoft makes these decisions? Seriously. I'd like to throat punch them.

NO MATTER WHAT I DO, OUTLOOK MARKS THE EMAILS AS READ. PERIOD.
If someone has an actual answer for this issue, please put it out there somewhere!!!!!!
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