Why am I not receiving certain messages in Outlook? I have confirmation they were sent and then bounced back to the sender. Not all messages, just a random few.

Question

Why am I not receiving certain messages in Outlook? I have confirmation they were sent and then bounced back to the sender. Not all messages, just a random few.

Sheri Sanders 25

I am not receiving certain messages on Outlook. I am receiving most messages, but a few -- from my bank, Eventbrite, a few vendors -- are never received. I have verified that there are no issues with storage or account set-up, and have confirmation from some of the senders that the messages bounced back to them. It's concerning enough that I've switched to gmail for some threads and may need to abandon hotmail altogether ... but I'm looking for options first. Thanks.

l p 0 Reputation points

2025-09-16T17:43:44.23+00:00

I am no receiving most of my emails from Next Door the social media site that is like face book only local to my area.
Leanne 10 Reputation points

2025-09-16T17:55:41.4333333+00:00

I have had same issue for weeks anything from not receiving invoices to password resets very frustrating might have to close this account and try something that works!!!

Answer accepted by question author

EmilyS726 274.9K Independent Advisor

Hello,

Is there anyway you can get a hold of those bounce back emails and share it? It contains important diagnostic data that helps shed some light of the root cause. Feel free to redact personal information when you share.

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l p 0 Reputation points

2025-09-16T17:43:44.23+00:00

I am no receiving most of my emails from Next Door the social media site that is like face book only local to my area.
Leanne 10 Reputation points

2025-09-16T17:55:41.4333333+00:00

I have had same issue for weeks anything from not receiving invoices to password resets very frustrating might have to close this account and try something that works!!!

Answer 1

Sheri Sanders 25

Unfortunately all I have is a screenshot generated by one vendor's Quickbooks invoicing system.

EmilyS726 274.9K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2025-09-16T01:55:53.7533333+00:00

Without the specific bounc email, I wouldn't be able to tell you for sure, but I can only guess the most common reason, especially if this is sent from Quickbook.

Starting May this year, Microsoft started mandating the configuration of SPF, DKIM and DMARC for high volume senders. See the blog post here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoftdefenderforoffice365blog/strengthening-email-ecosystem-outlook%E2%80%99s-new-requirements-for-high%E2%80%90volume-senders/4399730

These days, many businesses don’t send emails directly from the company that hosts their domain. Instead, they often use third-party services to send email on their behalf. For example, they might use Constant Contact to send newsletters, Square/Quickbook to send receipt and booking confirmation, or Salesforce to send customer service emails. If a company registers its domain (e.g., business.com) with Provider A but uses Provider B to send email on behalf of @business.com, then the company must add Provider B’s SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records into its DNS at Provider A. This ensures that when Provider B sends mail, the messages pass authentication checks and are not flagged as spoofed spam. Since May of this year, Microsoft has been enforcing strict SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks for high-volume senders. If senders fail to configure these records properly, Microsoft may reject their incoming emails.

In short, this issue must be fixed on the sender’s side, not Microsoft’s. Not all email service providers are mandating this as of today, and not all businesses are completely compliant with this requirement either. If your gmail works fine for now, it is probably more practical to use your gmail for these use cases until more and more businesses are caught up with their SPF, DKIM and DMARC compliance. As of a matter of fact, more and more email service providers are moving to the direction of requiring these, simply because spoofing is a real threat and is getting more common, so there's no looking back unfortunately.