Hide blank emails in outlook Search Folders from PersonMetadata folder

Question

I created a Search Folder in Office 365 Microsoft Outlook (version 1906) and it shows a lot of what looks like blank emails that I don't see in any other folder. I found out more info on where they came from and how to hide them that I'm posting as an answer for others with this issue.

Answer 1

I have some users with hundreds of subfolders, so instead of un-checking search subfolders and selecting each and every subfolder you want, and if adding a new subfolder, remembering to include that can be a real bother, instead, I modified the criteria.

Leave search subfolders checked, and in the search criteria, add one field "From" "is not empty".

This works because all of the PersonMetadata messages have an empty From field. (To: and Cc: and Bcc: and Subject: are empty for the PersonMetadata messages, but I have valid emails with those fields empty too, such as drafts, and people who sent an attachment with no subject.)

Note: this may also eliminate some error and synch folder messages - the ones that log "couldn't sync with OneDrive" etc.

(You might try "In folder" "does not contain" "PersonMetaData", but I couldn't get that to work right, and didn't bother to debug it.)

Answer 2

I found this page with this information:

Outlook search folders show unexpected mail items with an empty subject

Summary: When you create a search folder for all mail items in Outlook 2013, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2019 or Outlook for Office 365, the folder may include unexpected items with a blank subject. If you move the mouse over these items, the following information is displayed:

In folder: PersonMetadata

More Information: The PersonMetadata folder is created and used by the Outlook Customer Manager (OCM). The folder is normally hidden from other parts of the Outlook user interface. However, search folders include mail items from this folder.

Although these items have a blank subject, they are actively used by OCM and should not be deleted or modified.It is a search folder limitation to include mail items from hidden folders.

There was no solution listed on how to hide them though, so here's what I came up with:

If you right-click on the Search Folder, click Customize This Search Folder, click Browse, and deselect the option to Search Subfolders (and manually select the folders you wish to include), it will avoid listing the 'blank emails' from the hidden subfolder.

Answer 3

The Microsoft document mentioned by @gamingexpert13 in 2019, has been updated in 2024.

It now indicates the same workaround given by @gamingexpert13 to filter out these blank emails from the search folder, but it also indicates some methods to delete the blank mail items in case the user has a "folder item limit" notification. Here is an overview of the updated document:

• Update about OCM:

  "Although the OCM service was deprecated in June 2020, Outlook still uses this folder."

• The PersonMetadata folder and the items that are created in it will be removed from the service in the future.
• Workarounds:
  1. Don't use the option "Search Subfolders", instead manually select the folders that you want to include.
  2. If the user has a "folder item limit" notification ("approaching the 1-million-item limit"), delete the mail items by using one of these two methods:
     1. If few users, run MFCMAPI on the affected user's computer
     2. If many users, download and install the EWS Managed API, download the EWS script (PowerShell script), then run different cmdlet and the script as an administrator, on each computer.

NB: the 2024 Microsoft document says that the mail items can be deleted by the tools above but doesn't say if they can be deleted manually now. It just says that these mail items are planned to be "removed from the [OCM] service" in the future". So, in case you display these blank emails (by creating a custom search folder with the advanced filter "Subject Is Initial") and delete them manually, it's your own responsibility if there are some side-effects.