Tip 1113: Icons missing in Outlook 2013?

The envelope will not appear in the screen unless I reply or forward to an email. I removed the icon column and added it back in. I removed all add-ins and that did not work either.

It's not an addin or corrupt view that removed the icon and you can't "fix" it. It's the new Outlook look, with minimal distractions. In Outlook 2013, Unread messages have a vertical bar on the left and the text is bold, replies and forwards display an icon.

What happened to my folder icons? I see the folder icons when I use the Folder list pane but not when I'm in the Mail pane.

The folder icons were removed to "clean up" the interface and remove distractions. While the folder icons help identify the Deleted Items, Junk mail and other folders, you'll need to look at folder names in Outlook 2013. To make it easier to find your most used folders, you can drag them to the Favorites list or drag to re-order folders in the folder list (as I've done in the screenshot).

For comparison, below is a screenshot of Outlook 2010's Mail navigation module and message list.

My preference? I like Outlook 2013's cleaner message list, but would like bolded folder names, not just bolded unread message counts. I don't need the extra icons.

Published October 24, 2013. Last updated on October 24, 2013.