My outlook for emails isn’t working

Because Outlook.com fails across multiple browsers and devices, check Microsoft’s Service Health Status first; only an active incident posted there can provide an official recovery status or estimated resolution time.^1^

1. Check for an Outlook.com outage

Open the Microsoft Service Health Status site.

• If Outlook.com shows an active incident, no local repair is needed. Monitor that page for Microsoft’s updates and any estimated recovery time.
• If no incident appears, continue below. A precise repair time cannot be determined because the issue may be specific to the account or mailbox.

2. Check mailbox and Microsoft cloud storage

Open the mailbox storage page while signed in with the affected account.

If storage is full:

1. Delete unneeded messages, especially messages with large attachments.
2. Empty Deleted Items to release mailbox space.
3. Free space in Microsoft cloud storage if that quota is also full.
4. Sign out of Outlook.com, sign back in, and test sending a short email without an attachment.

A full mailbox or Microsoft cloud storage prevents both sending and receiving. Messages sent to the account while storage was full are returned to the sender and cannot be recovered from the mailbox.^2^

3. Check for an account restriction

If Microsoft reported unusual sign-in activity, follow the Outlook.com account-unblocking procedure and complete its verification steps.

If the password was recently changed, sign out on each device and sign back in with the new password. Temporary account blocks and outdated saved credentials can stop Outlook.com from connecting.^2^

4. Conditional check for advert or pop-up blockers

This is lower priority because the problem occurs on multiple devices, but it still applies if AdBlock, uBlock, or another advert/pop-up blocker is enabled on the tested browsers:

1. Open the blocker’s extension menu.
2. Exclude Outlook.com from blocking—AdBlock labels this Don’t run on pages on this domain.
3. Refresh Outlook.com.
4. If messages still do not load, temporarily disable or remove the blocker and retry.

Microsoft documents these extensions as a cause of Outlook.com messages timing out, loading slowly, or not loading.^3^

5. Escalate an account-specific failure

If service health is normal, storage has available space, and the account is not blocked:

1. In Outlook.com, select Help on the menu bar.
2. Enter a description such as Messages do not load and account cannot send or receive on multiple devices.
3. Scroll to Still need help? and select Yes.
4. Include the exact error message or diagnostic details shown on the failed page.

If Outlook.com cannot load far enough to open Help, use Microsoft’s support contact page, select the appropriate Microsoft product, search for Outlook, and choose Contact support.^4^

References

1. Fixes or workarounds for recent issues on Outlook.com
2. Can't send or receive email in Outlook.com | Microsoft Support
3. Fixes or workarounds for recent issues on Outlook.com | Microsoft Support
4. Can't open outlook.com - Microsoft Q&A