Sending, receiving, and organizing email in Outlook.com
For Outlook.com, use this checklist in order:
- Check mailbox storage first. 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 the account state. If the password was changed recently, update it. If unusual sign-in activity was detected, the account might be temporarily blocked and may need to be unblocked.
- If sign-in itself is failing, use the Microsoft account sign-in helper.
- For missing incoming mail, check the Other tab, then check Junk Email settings and the Junk Email folder. If a message is there by mistake, right-click it and choose Mark as not junk.
- Check whether the message list is sorted incorrectly. In Outlook.com, select Filter > Sort > Date.
- Check whether email forwarding is enabled.
- Check whether any email rules are moving or hiding messages.
- For sending problems, remove attachments larger than 25 MB.
- If a send fails with a non-delivery receipt, common causes include an invalid recipient address, the recipient mailbox being full, recipient server issues, or spam filtering.
- If the account is new, a temporary low sending quota can apply until account credibility is established.
- If a signature is configured, remove it from the message and try sending again.
- Add recipients to Contacts in Outlook.com.
- If a specific sender’s message is missing and no error is shown, ask the sender to review Sender Support in Outlook.com.
If email works in Outlook.com on the web but not in the Outlook app, the issue is likely app sync or profile related. For Outlook on Windows, Microsoft recommends running the classic Outlook troubleshooters for classic Outlook, and if needed, contacting support.