My email account is bouncing some emails

Question

My email account is bouncing some emails

Sandy Howarth 0

My email account is bouncing some particularly important emails, usually from government departments and a lot of them contain password or verification codes.

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Answer 1

Hendrix-V 18,515 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Sandy Howarth,

Based on the information shared, it would be helpful to determine whether these messages are actually being rejected by Outlook.com or being filtered before they reach your Inbox.

Here are some quick checks you can try:

1, Review your Outlook rules

Go to Settings > Mail > Rules.
Temporarily disable any rules that automatically move, delete, or redirect messages.
Ask one of the affected senders to resend the email.

2, Check the Blocked Senders list

Go to Settings > Mail > Junk email.
Review both Blocked senders and domains and Safe senders.
Remove any entries related to the organizations experiencing the issue.

3, Search for the missing messages

Use Outlook.com's search and look for the sender's email address or domain.
Also check Deleted Items and Archive folders in case messages were moved unexpectedly.

If the issue continues, could you please share the exact bounce-back message or error code that the sender receives? That information can help identify whether the message is being rejected, delayed, or filtered during delivery.

Let me know if you need further assistance, feel free to ask me by clicking "Add Comment" or "Add Answer" if you cannot add comment so your response will be visible. Thanks for your effort.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Hendrix-V 18,515 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-04T07:49:03.7766667+00:00

Hi Sandy Howarth,

I just wanted to follow up and check if the information I provided was helpful. If you have any further questions or updates regarding this issue, please feel free to let me know in the Comments section. I'd be happy to assist you.
Sandy Howarth 0 Reputation points

2026-09-04T08:32:43.3466667+00:00

The issue is still not fixed 😐
Hendrix-V 18,515 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-05T03:19:09.5366667+00:00
Hi Sandy Howarth,

Thank you for the update. Since the issue persists after the initial checks, the next step is to determine whether the messages are being rejected before they reach your mailbox or being filtered after delivery.

Please try the following:

1, Ask an affected sender for the bounce message

Request the full non-delivery report (NDR) or bounce-back notification.

Look for any error code beginning with 5.x.x or 4.x.x.

2, Test with a different email account

Have the sender send the same message to another email address you own.

This can help determine whether the issue is specific to your Outlook.com account.

3, Check your Outlook.com Activity

Review recent account activity for any unusual sign-in attempts or security events.

If you see anything unexpected, secure the account and test again.

At this point, the most valuable information would be the exact bounce-back error received by the sender. That error usually identifies whether the message is being blocked, rejected, delayed, or failing due to sender-side configuration.