How to hide messages in "sent mail" folder from Converstation Thread

Question

How to hide messages in "sent mail" folder from Converstation Thread

John 60

With group by conversions enabled and "show deleted items" disabled in Outlook for Web settings, I noticed that when viewing conversation in my Inbox, my replies to the conversation that are in the sent items folder appear in the conversation.

I don't want messages from deleted items or send items to appear in the conversation, is there a way to hide them? I've scoured the settings and the Web for a solution, and haven't found one.

To summarize:

I clicked on "inbox"
I clicked on the conversation.
I clicked on the down arrow to expand the conversation
I see messages from "sent items" folder in the conversation.
I don't want to see messages from "sent items" or "deleted items" folder.

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Answer 1

Hi @John,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

Thank you for reaching out and for clearly describing the behavior you’re seeing in Outlook on the web. I appreciate the detailed steps you’ve shared. I understand how having messages from Sent Items appear within a conversation thread can affect how you prefer to review conversations - especially when your settings are intended to focus only on inbox content.

At this time, Outlook on the web doesn’t allow Sent Items to be hidden within a conversation. Conversation view in the web app is designed to display all related messages across folders (including copies stored in Sent Items) when a thread is expanded in the Inbox. While there is a toggle to hide messages from Deleted Items, there is currently no equivalent option for Sent Items in Outlook on the web.

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Here are workarounds that do hide Sent Items in the thread

1/ Turn off conversation view in Outlook on the web

Settings (gear icon) > Mail > Layout > Message organization > select Do not group messages
or, in some tenants/UI versions: Filter (top-right) > Show as > Messages
This disables cross‑folder threading, so messages from Sent Items and Deleted Items won’t be pulled into the Inbox thread.

For your reference: View email messages by conversation in Outlook.

2/ Use classic Outlook for Windows and disable “Show messages from other folders”

In classic Outlook for Windows: View > Show as Conversations (enabled) > Conversation Settings > uncheck Show messages from other folders
This setting directly controls whether messages from Sent Items are included in the conversation. When unchecked, sent messages are hidden from the thread.

Note: The newer Outlook for Windows (New) and Outlook on the web don’t currently expose the Show messages from other folders option. It’s only available in classic Outlook for Windows.

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I genuinely appreciate you raising this concern. It’s practical, highlights a real usability and accessibility gap, and is exactly the type of feedback that helps the product team better understand user needs.

To ensure your feedback reaches the right audience, I strongly recommend submitting it through Microsoft 365 Feedback Hub > Send Feedback, and include as much detail as possible. This is the most effective way to have suggestions reviewed and considered for future updates.

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