I’m actually not sure on their default behavior, to be honest. Since the folder will no longer exist, Outlook may freak out and handle those emails poorly, or it may create the folder if it doesn’t exist. Look for any rules in the list that filter incoming messages into the inboxes you are planning to delete. The first thing you should do is go into your outlook rules by clicking on File and then Manage Rules. Though, I also semi-aggressively delete old messages I know I won’t need, so it’s easier to manage when I don’t have 100,000 messages a year clogging up the archive. Personally, I feel like having everything in one inbox is easier, because Outlook’s search is good enough to find anything I’m looking for. You can do this to cease filtering items into folders, or you can move everything from an existing folder into an archive folder or into your inbox. Maybe at some point in the past you set up a bunch of filters or rules to segment your Outlook inbox into multiple folders, and now you want them all combined back into one.

Related posts: Combine Multiple Folders into One Inbox with Rules To create a unified inbox with all of your archived mail, you will need to merge PST files as well, which is a whole other issue. Just remember that many of them, particularly the ones that work with Outlook Rules, will only apply moving forward. Outlook doesn’t provide an easy merge feature, which is a bit of a disappointment, but I suppose keeping everything segmented is a powerful organizational tool for businesses.

It’s worth noting that there will be different methods of combining inboxes, with varying levels of complexity and effectiveness. Just pick what task you’re trying to accomplish, and follow the steps. It’s not difficult to set up, but figuring out exactly which method you need to use can be a little tricky. It also has tools to merge inboxes into one, so you can manage everything from one place.

Outlook has a lot of features to split your inbox up into different inboxes, which you can use for different purposes.

Outlook personal folders inbox