Using Classic Outlook on Windows for personal email, calendar, and contact management
If Hotmail is not working properly and the support chat disconnected before resolution, use these steps based on the symptom:
- If the issue is sign-in related, recover the account:
- Select Recover your account.
- Enter the email address, phone number, or Skype name used to sign in.
- Verify the email domain is correct, such as .com vs .co.uk.
- If the address is not recognized, try another alias or phone number on the account.
- Choose where to receive the security code, enter it, and set a new password.
- If Outlook.com cannot send or receive mail:
- Check whether Microsoft cloud storage or mailbox storage is full.
- If the password was changed recently, update it.
- If the account was temporarily blocked because of unusual sign-in activity, unblock the Outlook.com account.
- Use the Microsoft account sign-in helper if sign-in fails.
- If mail is not being received in Outlook.com:
- Check the Other tab.
- Check Junk Email settings and the Junk Email folder.
- Restore sorting with Filter > Sort > Date.
- Check whether email forwarding is enabled.
- Check for email rules hiding messages.
- If using a third-party mail service, ensure it supports modern authentication and IMAP.
- If IMAP or POP are active, disable them and try again.
- If using classic Outlook for Windows and it shows Disconnected, Working Offline, or Trying to connect...:
- Open the Send/Receive tab.
- In Preferences, select Work Offline to switch back online.
- Then try Send/Receive again.
- If support chat disconnected:
- In Dynamics 365 chat scenarios, returning within three minutes can continue the same conversation; after three minutes, reopening starts a new chat.
- For Outlook.com support, use the official support entry point and, if self-help does not solve the problem, select Still need help? > Yes.
- If sign-in is failing, use the alternate support path provided for users who cannot sign in.
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