How to Find Folder Paths in Outlook Mailboxes

We receive a lot of questions asking how to search for folders or get folder paths in Outlook. Unfortunately, it's not possible to search for folders and when you search for contents of a folder, Outlook doesn't show the folder path in the search dialog, only the name of the folder the item is in. The folder name is also shown on the File tab of an opened message, next to the Move to folder command (Outlook 2010 and newer).

Only the name of the top folder is visible in the details of an opened Email.

If you don't need to locate the folder a message is stored in very often, you can use Advanced Find to see where the folder a particular message is stored in. Even if it is stored in many subfolders.

Using Advanced Find to Show the Folder PathTo find the folder a message is stored in when using Outlook, use Instant Search to find a message that is stored in folder then use Advanced Find (Ctrl-Shift-F) to see where the folder is.

1. Run an Instant Search (or Advanced Find) to find an e-mail in the "target" folder. Don't forget to select All Mail items (Current Mailbox or All Mailboxes in Outlook 2013/2016) or All Subfolders from the Search toolbar.
2. Open (double-click) a message you know is in the folder.
3. Press Ctrl-Shift-F to open Advanced Find.
4. Click the Browse button to reveal the full path to the e-mail.

With Ctrl-Shift-F - Browse you can see the full path to the email