E-mail messages disappear from your Inbox after you read the e-mail messages in Outlook

E-mail messages may disappear from your Inbox in Microsoft Outlook 2002 and in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003. In some cases, this behavior may occur only after you read the messages.

Two possible causes for this behavior are as follows:

• You have a filter that applies to display only unread messages.
• You are looking at a Microsoft Exchange Mailbox and you have an instance of Outlook running that has delivery set to a Personal Folders (.pst) file.

Use one of the following methods to work around this behavior.

Cause 1

To remove all filters, follow these steps:

1. In Outlook 2002, on the View menu, point to Current View, and then click Customize Current View.
   
   In Outlook 2003, on the View menu, point to Arrange By, point to Current View, and then click Customize Current View.
2. In Outlook 2002, the View Summary dialog box, click Filter.
   
   In Outlook 2003, in the Customize View dialog box, click Filter.
3. In the Filter dialog box, click Clear All, and then click OK two times.

All e-mail messages, both read and unread, are now visible.

Cause 2

If both the Exchange Server and Personal Folders (.pst) services are included in your profile, ensure that the default delivery location for new e-mail is set to your Exchange Server mailbox. Otherwise, e-mail will be moved from the Exchange Inbox to the Personal Folders Inbox. To do this, perform the following steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
2. Click View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
3. Verify that the Deliver new e-mail to the following location option is set to your mailbox, and then click Finish.
4. Restart Outlook.
   
   NOTE: After making the Exchange mailbox the default delivery location, you can move e-mail from the Personal Folders (.pst) Inbox back to the Exchange Inbox.