Stop outlook labeling all my emails as "promotions"

For a Microsoft 365 business mailbox, ask your administrator to create a mail-flow rule that sets X-MS-Exchange-Organization-BulkStamping to 0 for your address; this is Microsoft’s documented method to prevent messages to specific recipients from receiving the Promotions tag.^1^

Administrator fix

In the Exchange admin center, create a mail-flow (transport) rule with these settings:

1. Name: Prevent Promotions tag
2. Apply this rule if:
   The recipient → is this person → select your mailbox.
3. Do the following:
   Modify the message properties → set a message header
4. Enter:
   • Header: X-MS-Exchange-Organization-BulkStamping
   • Value: 0
5. Under the rule settings, ensure Stop processing more rules is not selected.
6. Save and enable the rule, then test with new incoming messages.

The header is removed during transport, so it will not appear in the delivered message’s headers. The same rule can instead target particular senders if the administrator does not want to exempt all mail delivered to your mailbox.^1^

What changed

This is a Microsoft Defender for Office 365 feature being rolled out to organizations. Messages identified as promotional bulk mail automatically receive the Promotions tag. If Bulk moves enabled is turned on in the applicable anti-spam policy, those messages are also delivered to a Promotions folder instead of the Inbox.^1^

If messages are being moved into a Promotions folder, rather than merely showing the tag, the administrator can also:

• Turn off Bulk moves enabled in the anti-spam policy applying to your mailbox, or
• Place your mailbox in an opt-out group associated with an anti-spam policy where that setting is disabled.

Turning off bulk moves prevents movement to the folder, but the mail-flow rule above is the documented control for preventing the tag itself.

Actions available without administrator access

• Move incorrectly classified messages out of the Promotions folder and back to the Inbox. The system learns from messages moved into or out of that folder and remembers the choice for future mail.^1^
• Check Settings → Mail → Rules for any personal rule that applies a Promotions category or moves messages. Disable that rule if present.
• If “Promotions” is only an ordinary category that somebody created—not the Defender Promotions tag—right-click a message and select Categorize → Manage categories, then delete the category.^2^

Deleting or renaming the Promotions folder is not a reliable fix: it remains active when moved or renamed, and soft-deleting it can cause future messages to be delivered to the copy under Deleted Items.^1^

References

1. Bulk email detection and bulk complaint level (BCL) in cloud organizations
2. [Outlook on the web](https://support.microsoft.com/outlook/use-categories-in-outlook#instructions-for-classic-outlook-on-the-web)