Sending, receiving, and organizing email in Outlook.com
For Outlook.com, start with these checks in order:
- Check Microsoft cloud storage and mailbox space. If Microsoft cloud storage is full, Outlook.com cannot send or receive email, and messages sent while storage was full are bounced back to the sender and are unrecoverable. Check mailbox storage and remove items if needed.
- Check whether the account is blocked or the password changed. If the password was changed recently, update it. Outlook.com accounts can also be temporarily blocked because of unusual sign-in activity; use the account unblock flow if applicable.
- Check stuck messages and attachment size. Open Drafts or Outbox. If a message has an attachment larger than 25 MB, remove it and resend with a smaller file or upload it to OneDrive and attach a link instead.
- Check receiving-side filters. In Outlook.com, review:
- Other tab
- Junk Email settings and Junk Email folder
- Filter > Sort > Date
- Email forwarding
- Email rules
If a message was incorrectly marked as junk, right-click it and choose Mark as not junk.
- If using Outlook on PC or Mac with an Outlook.com account, force a send/receive. Go to Send/Receive > Send/Receive all folders.
- If only one device is affected, remove the device partnership from the mailbox. This often fixes sync issues for that device.
- If sign-in is failing, use the Microsoft account sign-in helper.
- If Outlook and OneDrive are both affected at the same time, check whether there is an active Microsoft service issue.
If mail still is not sending or receiving after these checks, use the Outlook.com support entry point from Help and the interactive troubleshooter.