Resetting the Navigation Pane in Outlook 2012

Outlook is supposed to show the Inbox, Drafts, Sent Items, and Deleted Items folder at the top of the navigation pane. All other folders (not including subfolders of the inbox) fall below these four, in alphabetical order. In July of 2012 Outlook started showing these four at the bottom of the pane rather than at the top. I found a solution at :

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Command Line Switches

You can control how Outlook starts, and do some nifty troubleshooting, by using some of the built-in Command Line Switches for Outlook. To use a command line switch just exit Outlook (if it's already running) and then click Start | Run. In the Run dialog box that appears type "Outlook" followed by a space and then the switch you want to use. For example:

Outlook /cleanreminders

Here are a few of the particularly useful command line switches you might want to use:

  • /Cleanreminders - If you have pesky calendar issues, especially with ghost reminders, start Outlook with this switch and it will delete all of the reminders from you profile and then recreate them from your items.
  • /CleanViews - Resets the Outlook views to the default set that Outlook comes with. CAUTION: any custom views you've created will be lost if you do this and you'll have to recreate them. Still, this is often a way to fix Outlook startup crashes.
  • /Resettodobar - Problems with the To Do Bar in Outlook 2007 or 2010? This switch is handy if you're seeing problems like duplicate items or formatting problems with the To Do Bar. It cleans and regenerates the To Do Bar.
  • /Resetfoldernames - If you somehow managed to rename one of your default folders you can use this switch to have all of your default folders changed back to their original names. This doesn't affect the content of the folders, just renames them.
  • /Resetfolders - If you did more than just rename the folder but actually DELETED one of the default folders...this will recreate any missing default folders at their original location.
  • /ResetNavPane - Cleans and regenerates the navigation pane. If you're not seeing what you expect to see in your navigation pane this will reset it and can fix quirky problems with the Nav pane. This can also be the cure for unexpected startup failures in Outlook on occasion.

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July, 2012

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