Share this article

Improve this guide

Outlook Search for Blank Category [How to]

Give a try to these quick methods now

4 min. read

Updated onOctober 4, 2023

updated onOctober 4, 2023

Share this article

Improve this guide

Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial teamRead more

Key notes

A great number of users have reported not being able to search for a blank category (no value set) inside Outlook.

Here is what one user had to say about this issue on theMicrosoft Answersforum:

InOutlook2016, search does not show flags or categories in the results list. These columns are blank even foremailsassigned to a category or are flagged. Flags and categories are still seen in the preview pane.  This is only a problem with search; when looking at theinboxor other folder without searching flags and categories show in the list as they should.

For these reasons, in this article, we will explore some of the best methods to try and fix this issue once and for all. Read on to find out how to do it.

How to search for a blank category in Outlook?

1. Choose a single view

2. Use brackets in your search query

Here are some examples of this method:

3. Switch your email client

How often do you struggle to discover essential communication quickly or fail to follow up after an event? How many newsletters do you get every day that further fill your inbox?

Email is frequently mentioned in productivity publications as a time-consuming issue. And this often appears to be the case. The issue is not emailed itself, it’s a technology that altered the game in communication and introduced millions of opportunities for fast sending and receiving information.

The absence ofsuitable email efficiency toolsand awareness of managing your time. Simply said, email productivity solutions like Mailbird help professionals be more productive while using email.

With Mailbird, you can manage your emails better, synchronize all contacts and accounts in a single inbox and even customize the app to enhance productivity.

Mailbird

4. Use the Advanced Find option (applies to Outlook 2007 and previous)

5. Rename all existing categories

In this article, we explored the best methods to deal with the issue caused by your Outlook software being unable to search for items without values.

You might also be interested in checking our article onhow to create and use categories in Outlook.

We encourage you to use the comments section below for any questions or suggestions.

Vladimir Popescu

Being an artist his entire life while also playing handball at a professional level, Vladimir has also developed a passion for all things computer-related.

With an innate fascination for research and analysis, and realizing many other people share his passion for this subject, he delved into writing Windows-related articles, so other people can also benefit from the acquired information.

When not writing kick-ass articles, Vladimir likes to spend his time doing Crossfit and creating art.

User forum

0 messages

Sort by:LatestOldestMost Votes

Comment*

Name*

Email*

Commenting as.Not you?

Save information for future comments

Comment

Δ

Vladimir Popescu

Reviewed byAlex Serban