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I have an ongoing issue that when I receive new, unread email, taskbar icon does not change to signify this. The main outlook icon in the taskbar should show a folder icon on top of the blue Outlook icon, which should disappear once all of the mail has been read.

I am not talking about the small icon in the notification area on the far right side of the taskbar. I do not want that to display. I also do not want the flyout/snackbar notification on the far right side. I want that turned off.

I have already checked the Taskbar settings: "Use small taskbar buttons" option is turned OFF. "Show badges on taskbar buttons" is turned ON. I have tried many times toggling these and then setting them back to the correct option, but that does not fix the issue.

The Outlook setting Mail - Options - Message Arrival - "Show an envelope icon in the taskbar" is turned ON. I have also tried toggling this off and back on again, that does not fix the issue.

Rebooting does not fix the issue. Closing and reopening Outlook does not fix the issue. Keeping only one, or keeping multiple instances of Outlook open does not change this behavior.

Sometimes this works fine, and the taskbar icon shows the badge as expected. But then all of a sudden, it stops working. Sometimes for a short time, sometimes for many days. Then all of a sudden it will stop working again. I am constantly missing time sensitive emails because I cannot keep bringing focus to the Outlook application every single minute to manually check if I've gotten new emails.

This has been an ongoing issue for me for many years. I had the same problem on three different laptops, at a completely different company. I had the issue on an old Microsoft account at my current company. After they changed me to a different account, I still have the same issue.

How can I fix this? Is this an Office, Outlook, or Windows issue?

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  • @John, there is no option Show New Mail Alert when I right click the icon.
    – Bernoulli Lizard
    Commented Nov 16, 2023 at 17:24

2 Answers 2

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It sounds like you're doing everything right in terms of settings:

  • Outlook Options > Mail > Show an envelope icon in the taskbar: ON
  • Taskbar Settings > Small taskbar icons: OFF
  • Taskbar Settings > Show badges on taskbar buttons: ON

Some other less likely reasons the badges might not show up (not tested):

  • The new message was not sent to your "focused" mail (if Show Focused Inbox is enabled in Outlook)
  • The message was moved/affected by certain types of Outlook rules
  • Focus Assist was enabled in Windows
  • Taskbar animations were disabled in Advanced System Settings > Performance
  • A laptop on battery can disable many weird features to save power

Another troubleshooting step to try is setting Outlook to play a sound or one of the other message arrival options. If the sound plays, but the badge icon doesn't show up, then it's probably buggy behavior that you can't really control.

As an alternative for persistent alerts, I'd suggest the Desktop/notification center alerts with banners turned off, or using an Outlook rule to make new messages display in the New Item Alert window.

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  • I think maybe I don't have Focused Inbox enabled? I tried to follow the Microsoft docs instructions to enable showing it, but I don't even see that option. This happens for regular all emails, including emails that get sent to my normal inbox with no filters. My laptop is plugged into the charger, so I don't think power is the cause in this situation. "Animations in the taskbar" in Performance settings is checked. Focus assist is turned off
    – Bernoulli Lizard
    Commented Nov 16, 2023 at 17:34
  • Is a "New Item Alert" the popup in the lower corner? If so, I do not want that on. It's far too distracting for me, and since it is only temporary, it does not work since there's a high chance I would just miss it.
    – Bernoulli Lizard
    Commented Nov 16, 2023 at 17:37
  • @BernoulliLizard Those popups are called "Banners" in the windows notification options. You can turn those off for individual applications there (then notifications only show a little number in the very bottom right). In the Outlook 'Create Rule' menu, one of the actions is 'Display in the New Item Alert window'. That one is probably more distracting, but you can filter so it only applies to important messages.
    – Cpt.Whale
    Commented Nov 16, 2023 at 18:02
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I found a similar thread that mentioned that when he changed the settings for sending and receiving to "Download full items", it worked. enter image description here

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  • Unfortunately that didn't work either. Download Full Items was already checked. I unchecked On Slow Connections Download Only Headers, but that did not solve the problem.
    – Bernoulli Lizard
    Commented Nov 17, 2023 at 21:04

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