All emails marked as all read by mistake

[MissVick]

I am using Microsoft Outlook.
I have many emails that were still unread to read later.
In a hurry I meant to mark one message back to unread and ended up hitting
"Mark as all read" by mistake. All messages in my box are now marked as
read.
Is there a way to reverse this, to go back to the previous way it was before
that?
If not this is an area that could use some escape built in.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Restoring from backup is the only way I know.
Personally I never use the menu to mark my items as read but use CTRL+Enter
instead. CTRL+Q is also an option, double clicking it to open, right
clicking it and there are some settings to automate marking messages as read
as well. Not really an escape to the "Mark all as read" option but good
methods to never ever come close to that button again. You can also remove
or relocate the "Mark all as read" option by editing your Toolbar. This way
you can continue using the menu option without fearing to touch the "Mark
all as read" button.

 

[VanguardLH]

I am using Microsoft Outlook. I have many emails that were still
unread to read later. In a hurry I meant to mark one message back to
unread and ended up hitting "Mark as all read" by mistake. All
messages in my box are now marked as read. Is there a way to reverse
this, to go back to the previous way it was before that?

Did you try selecting all e-mails, right-clicking, and marking unread?
And why are you saving all your e-mails in the Inbox folder, especially
those you already read or those you never intend to read (oh yeah, I'll
get to that 1400th e-mail ... someday)? Very bad, VERY BAD.

Use a separate storage folder to retain old e-mails. In fact, I have a
catchall rule at the end of my rules list that, if the e-mail survives
my rules, will save a copy of inbound e-mails into a Received Items
folder which is a subfolder under Sent Items. I can then delete my
e-mails from my Inbox knowing that the [survived] ones are available in
the other folder. When I do a search, I start at the Sent Items
folder, include all subfolders, group by conversation in the results
list, and I can see all my conversation for both received and sent
e-mails. But that's just me. However, saving all e-mails in the Inbox
can promote corruption of the .pst file and you lose your message
store. Don't store old e-mails in a folder that gets highly reindexed
due to a high volume of traffic into it.

If not this is an area that could use some escape built in.

How many times do you want to flip that wall light switch before the
room light actually comes on or goes off? There was no critical loss
of data with the single action that got committed by marking all as
read. Fess up to your clumsiness and don't require others to control
you despite yourself (and incur a pain to the rest of us). I've
fat-fingered lots of actions that I realized was a mistake, but they
were MY mistakes.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

However, saving all e-mails in the Inbox

can promote corruption of the .pst file and you lose your message
store. Don't store old e-mails in a folder that gets highly reindexed
due to a high volume of traffic into it.

The inbox is no more prone to corruption than any other folder. That said,
I move messages I'm done with (using Auto-Mate addin) just to keep my inbox
small - it currently has 300 unread items, going back 90 days. Anything
older s automatically moved to a managed folder by Exchange 2007, otherwise
I'd have more like 2000 unread items.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



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I am using Microsoft Outlook. I have many emails that were still
unread to read later. In a hurry I meant to mark one message back to
unread and ended up hitting "Mark as all read" by mistake. All
messages in my box are now marked as read. Is there a way to reverse
this, to go back to the previous way it was before that?

Did you try selecting all e-mails, right-clicking, and marking unread?
And why are you saving all your e-mails in the Inbox folder, especially
those you already read or those you never intend to read (oh yeah, I'll
get to that 1400th e-mail ... someday)? Very bad, VERY BAD.

Use a separate storage folder to retain old e-mails. In fact, I have a
catchall rule at the end of my rules list that, if the e-mail survives
my rules, will save a copy of inbound e-mails into a Received Items
folder which is a subfolder under Sent Items. I can then delete my
e-mails from my Inbox knowing that the [survived] ones are available in
the other folder. When I do a search, I start at the Sent Items
folder, include all subfolders, group by conversation in the results
list, and I can see all my conversation for both received and sent
e-mails. But that's just me. However, saving all e-mails in the Inbox
can promote corruption of the .pst file and you lose your message
store. Don't store old e-mails in a folder that gets highly reindexed
due to a high volume of traffic into it.

If not this is an area that could use some escape built in.

How many times do you want to flip that wall light switch before the
room light actually comes on or goes off? There was no critical loss
of data with the single action that got committed by marking all as
read. Fess up to your clumsiness and don't require others to control
you despite yourself (and incur a pain to the rest of us). I've
fat-fingered lots of actions that I realized was a mistake, but they
were MY mistakes.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

The most you can do is select all and mark all items unread then sort by
icon and mark all replied and forwarded messages read. You'll need to mark
any other read items read individually - there is no easy way to identify
what was marked read previously. (I prefer using Ctrl+Q to mark read.)

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

 

[VanguardLH]

The inbox is no more prone to corruption than any other folder. That said,
I move messages I'm done with (using Auto-Mate addin) just to keep my inbox
small - it currently has 300 unread items, going back 90 days. Anything
older s automatically moved to a managed folder by Exchange 2007, otherwise
I'd have more like 2000 unread items.

Hmm, I must've migrated the advice for OE regarding its inbox.dbx
corruption when storing large number of mails in that folder but then it
is a separate database file whereas Outlook's message store is just one
..pst file with records within it. It was 3AM and too late for coffee if
I wanted to get a few hours of sleep.

I do know in trying to help other Outlook users at their desk that
having to wade through thousands of old unread e-mails (that the user is
never likely to bother to read and instead will someday they will just
waste a gob of time deleting them all) is like diving into a dumpster to
wallow in the trash to find your lunchtime apple. Yuck.

Auto-mate looks interesting but $40 for an Inbox re-filer is just too
pricey for my own pocket. I couldn't tell from MissVick's post that she
was using Outlook in a business where the company might fork out the
cost for the plug-in. SperrySoftware's Incoming Mail Organize is $10
cheaper. However, being neat, I find the extra few seconds to cleanup
with deletes or moves when I go reading my e-mails is better spent than
wasting time wallowing through a mess of old mails or having to waste a
morning at some point doing all the cleanup. Typically my rules have
already performed a large percentage of that organization already.