The profile default is a blunt instrument: one setting for every POP account. Change Folder is the scalpel - it aims a single account at a single Inbox. It is the fix when the default is right but one account disagrees, and it is also the hidden override that explains most "I set the default and nothing changed" stories. This page covers the clicks, the restart, and the button honest limit.
One warning before the clicks: this setting wins over the default. If a stray Change Folder choice is your real problem, no amount of default-switching will beat it - you have to open this dialog and look. Fortunately it takes under a minute.
Example dialog. The selected Inbox under the correct file is the entire fix - everything else about the account stays untouched.
The profile default steers every POP account at once. Change Folder steers one account. Reach for it when the default file is correct for the profile but a single account still delivers elsewhere, or when you deliberately want two POP accounts delivering into two different files. It overrides the default for that account - and that override is also why it is the usual suspect when setting the default "did not work".
Used on purpose, this setting is genuinely useful: a personal POP account delivering into a Personal.pst while the office POP account delivers into Office Archive.pst keeps two lives cleanly separated in one profile. The setting only becomes a villain when it changes by accident - during a PST swap, a profile repair, or a restore. If you use it deliberately, write the arrangement down; future-you, mid-repair, will be grateful.
Select an IMAP or Exchange account and the Change Folder button simply is not offered. That is not a fault and not a missing feature: those accounts sync into their own stores, so there is no delivery folder to choose. If the account you are trying to fix has no Change Folder, you are looking at the wrong account type for this fix - re-check the Type column before going further.
The full fix, shown live in Outlook - the account settings screens, the delivery location and the test mail arriving - is in the video above.
Watch Full VideoAlmost certainly not. Change Folder exists only for POP accounts. IMAP and Exchange accounts deliver into their own synced stores, so Outlook offers no delivery choice for them. Check the Type column on the E-mail tab - if it does not say POP3, this fix does not apply to that account.
The usual cause is a skipped restart - delivery settings load when Outlook starts, so close it fully and reopen. If it still misdelivers after a restart, check whether a rule is moving the mail after arrival; delivery and rules are separate systems, and a move rule can imitate a wrong delivery location almost perfectly.
You can select other folders in the dialog, and some people deliver a low-value account straight into a named folder. The Inbox is the sane default: unread counts, notifications and search habits all assume new mail lands there. Whatever you choose, pick deliberately and note it down.