cannot receive emails on my hotmail account

Question

cannot receive emails on my hotmail account

Chris Jarvis 0

On August 29 my hotmail account was hacked from someone in Nigeria. Microsoft shut down my account. Which was the last date I received emails. Since then i have relogged in, changed my password and had the account re-activated. I am receiving junk emails, I can send emails, but nothing arrives in my email in box. I have sent in a Microsoft account recovery form request form. I really need this email functioning, I use it to raise monies for non-profit veteran organizations. Please Help!

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2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

GsN5034 - IA 77,470 Independent Advisor

Hello,

Did you check your email forwarding rules to see whether all of your incoming emails are being forwarded to the hacker's address?

Open this link in a private browsing tab and sign in with your Microsoft account: https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/options/mail/forwarding
If your emails are being forwarded to another address, click 'Do not Forward'.
Save the changes.

And check whether you have enough storage to send or receive emails.

Go to Outlook.com email Settings.
Select Accounts > Storage.
Expand the Microsoft Storage and E-mail storage section.
See whether you have enough storage to send or receive emails.

If you are still having issues,

Try sending a test email from one of your Microsoft accounts to the affected email address. If you receive any bounce-back error message, share the complete error message here.

Chris Jarvis 0 Reputation points

2026-09-17T03:22:43.1933333+00:00

I found all my emails in the deleted folder that should have been in my in box,
GsN5034 - IA 77,470 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-17T03:28:30.6733333+00:00

Hello, select all the emails from the deleted folder and click 'Move to Inbox'.

Then, check if you have any email rules that automatically move all of your incoming emails to the 'Deleted Items' folder.

https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/options/mail/rules

Delete all the email rules.

Answer 2

Since the account was hacked and can now send mail but not receive inbox mail, use this order:

Check storage first. If Microsoft cloud storage or mailbox storage is full, Outlook.com cannot send or receive email, and messages sent while storage was full can bounce back and be unrecoverable.
Check Outlook.com on the web for mailbox settings that commonly get changed after a compromise:
- Mail > Rules: remove any rule that deletes messages, moves them to another folder, or redirects them.
- Mail > Forwarding: make sure forwarding is not enabled.
- Check Junk Email settings and the Junk Email folder.
- Check the Other tab, Archive, and Deleted Items.
- Check message sorting: Filter > Sort > Date.
Review account security after the hack:
- Run a full malware scan on the PC before changing the password again: Windows Security > Virus and threat protection > Scan options > Full scan > Scan now.
- Then change the password again if needed.
- Check account settings that are often reset or changed after compromise, including connected accounts, forwarding, and automatic replies.
- Review recent sign-in activity on the Microsoft account.
If the account was temporarily blocked because of unusual sign-in activity, use the sign-in helper to unblock it: Sign-in Helper
If mail still does not arrive in Outlook on the web after rules, forwarding, junk, archive, sorting, storage, and security checks, Microsoft Support needs to check for a mailbox-level issue such as an inbound mail restriction or unauthorized forwarding left behind after the compromise. In Outlook.com, select Help on the menu bar, enter the issue, and if self-help does not solve it, scroll to Still need help? and select Yes. If sign-in is a problem, use the support option provided for that case.