Sending, receiving, and organizing email in Outlook.com
If Outlook.com suddenly stopped receiving or syncing mail, check these common causes in this order:
- Check whether cloud storage is full. If Microsoft cloud storage is full, Outlook.com cannot send or receive email, and messages sent during that time are bounced back to the sender and are unrecoverable.
- Check whether the account was blocked or needs verification. If unusual sign-in activity was detected, the account can be temporarily blocked. If the password was changed recently, update it everywhere and use the Microsoft account sign-in helper if sign-in is failing.
- If sign-in works but mail is missing, check Outlook.com settings:
- Other tab
- Junk Email settings and Junk Email folder
- Filter > Sort > Date
- Email forwarding
- Mail rules
- If the mailbox had not been used for a while, Outlook may have stopped syncing due to inactivity. After more than 10 days of inactivity, syncing pauses until the next session. After 30 days of inactivity, the account is logged out and must be signed in again.
- If the username or password suddenly stopped working, recover the account:
- Verify the correct email domain is being used, such as
.comvs.co.uk - Try another alias or phone number on the account if the email name is not recognized
- Use the account recovery flow to receive a security code and set a new password
- Verify the correct email domain is being used, such as
- If there was unusual activity or concern that someone accessed the account, review recent sign-in activity here: https://account.live.com/Activity
If none of those steps restore mail flow, contact Microsoft support through the Outlook.com or Account & Billing support options.
References:
- Can't send or receive email in Outlook.com | Microsoft Support
- I haven't used Outlook for a while. Why are my messages taking a long time to sync on my Gmail or Exchange accounts? | Microsoft Support
- My username and password have stopped working | Microsoft Support
- Email is missing from your Outlook.com inbox | Microsoft Support