How to get rid of the clutter folder

Temporarily enable Focused Inbox, delete the now-standard Clutter folder, and then turn Focused Inbox off again.

Remove Clutter and its folder

1. In Outlook.com, open Settings (gear icon) → Mail → Layout → Focused Inbox.
2. Select Sort messages into Focused and Other and save the setting.
3. Refresh Outlook.com. Enabling Focused Inbox automatically disables Clutter and converts the Clutter folder into a normal folder that can be renamed or deleted.^1^
4. Move any messages you want to keep from Clutter to the Inbox or another folder.
5. Right-click Clutter in the folder list and select Delete folder.
6. Return to Settings → Mail → Layout → Focused Inbox, select Don’t sort my messages, and save.
7. Refresh Outlook.com again. New mail should now remain in the regular Inbox without Focused/Other sorting or Clutter filtering.

The missing Automatic processing option is consistent with Microsoft’s documented behavior: Clutter settings do not appear while Focused Inbox is enabled. When both features are disabled, both normally appear in Mail settings.^2^

If messages continue moving to Clutter

Check Settings → Mail → Rules and disable any rule that moves messages into that folder.^3^

For a managed Microsoft 365 work or school mailbox, an Exchange administrator can explicitly disable Clutter if the UI remains unavailable:

Connect-ExchangeOnline
Get-Clutter -Identity "[Email]"
Set-Clutter -Identity "[Email]" -Enable $false
Get-Clutter -Identity "[Email]"

This requires an account with at least the Exchange Administrator role and permission to connect to Exchange Online.^2^ This administrator fallback does not apply to a personal Outlook.com account.

References

1. Configure Focused Inbox for everyone in your organization
2. Configure Microsoft 365 Clutter for your organization
3. All email goes to junk folder - Microsoft Q&A