Incoming email refused

Question

Incoming mail to my mailbox [PII: Removed] as well as to mailbox [PII: Removed]

have been returned to sender, notification "relay access denied.

Can this be solved?

Answer 1

Hi Jos Engelaer,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

I understand how concerning it is when incoming emails suddenly start bouncing back, especially when everything was working normally until recently.

Before going further, it is important to clarify that contributors and moderators on the Microsoft Q&A forum do not have access to Microsoft’s internal mail systems and cannot make changes on the server side. However, I can help identify the likely cause and guide you on the correct next steps.

Based on the message you described, “relay access denied” is generated at the mail server level and is not controlled by the Outlook desktop application. This usually indicates that the receiving mail system rejected the message during delivery, rather than Outlook blocking it locally. The fact that this affects more than one mailbox also suggests this is not related to Outlook rules, Junk settings, or a local Outlook profile.

To narrow this down and point you in the right direction, could you please confirm the following:

1. Are the affected email addresses Outlook.com or Microsoft account addresses, or are they custom domain or ISP‑provided mailboxes added to Outlook?
2. Does the returned message indicate it was rejected by Outlook.com servers, or does it reference another mail provider?

In the meantime, there are a couple of important points to be aware of:

• Reinstalling Outlook or recreating the Outlook profile will not resolve this type of issue, as the rejection occurs before the message reaches Outlook.
• If these are non‑Microsoft mailboxes, the relay restriction must be reviewed by the email hosting provider, as only they can adjust server‑side relay and authentication settings.
• If these are Outlook.com addresses, this type of rejection is typically tied to temporary server‑side protection or mail‑flow policies, which cannot be adjusted from the client side.

Once you confirm the type of account involved, it will be much easier to advise on the most appropriate next step.

I hope this helps clarify what is happening, and I’ll be glad to assist further once we have that information.