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Outlook keeps playing sound when email arrives even though I disabled it [Solution]

Anonymous
2025-05-25T13:53:26+00:00

For those people who didn't get an answer to https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/outlook-keeps-playing-sound-when-email-arrives/f7d34c3d-1a30-49ca-b608-77e4672a9cf4 ,

the likely cause is that even though you have correctly set notifications in Outlook, you may have had to open the web version of Outlook to do one of the various things that cannot be done in the app. It is that web Outlook tab in a browser somewhere that is ignoring your preferences and making sounds.

* Original title: Incomplete answer in locked thread

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-27T07:19:14+00:00

    Hi TomRCollins,

    Thank you so much for your thoughtful follow-up and for raising such a great point.

    You're absolutely right, the original answer in the locked thread didn’t fully address the issue, and it’s unfortunate that I can’t unlock that thread myself, as I’m a moderator assisting in other areas of the community.

    However, if you found my reply helpful, marking it as “Helpful” (marked answer) would be a great way to boost its visibility. When a response is marked helpful, it gets ranked higher in search results, making it easier for others facing the same issue to find a working solution.

    I really appreciate your initiative in sharing your experience, it helps make the community stronger and more useful for everyone. If there’s anything else I can do to support or pass this along to the right team, I’d be happy to help!

    Sincerely,

    Jeanie-H - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist.

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-26T17:17:33+00:00

    Yes, I had already figured this out. What would be helpful is to attach this to the locked thread (or to any other threads where someone asked the question). The answer that was given didn't make much sense, implying that someone would have gone out of their way to create a custom action to make sounds, even though they didn't seem to be the sort of person who liked that sort of notification.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-25T23:36:02+00:00

    Hi TomRCollins, 

    Thank you so much for your thoughtful message and for sharing your insight, you’ve raised a very good point. 

    It’s true that even when sound notifications are disabled in the Outlook desktop app, the Outlook Web App (OWA) might still be active in a browser tab and continue to play sounds for incoming emails. This can happen quietly in the background, especially if the web version was used recently for tasks that aren’t available in the desktop app. 

    To make sure this isn’t the cause, here’s a quick step you can try: Turn off sound notifications in Outlook Web: 

    1. Go to https://outlook.office.com
    2. Click the gear icon in the top-right corner > View all Outlook settings
    3. Navigate to Mail > Notifications
    4. Uncheck Play a sound when a message arrives

     

    Once you’ve done that, please close any open Outlook Web tabs and see if the issue improves. 

    I truly appreciate your patience and the care you’ve taken to troubleshoot this. If the sound still persists afterward, I’d be more than happy to help you explore the next steps. 

    Wishing you a smooth resolution and a great rest of your day! 

    Sincerely, 
    Jeanie-H - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist.

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