My peer's email suddenly can't send or can't be sent email

Question

Greetings,

I suddenly receive a report from my peer that their email suddenly can't send or can't be sent any emails. They can still access the account (in this case, their outlook account), but they just can't do anything with it. On their email compose screen, an error message shows up that says "This message can't be saved right now. Please try again later." and when they try to send the email, an error message shows up that says, "couldn't send this message." When we tried to send them an email, an error message that says, "Your message can't be delivered, email was not found at [domain name]" shows up.

Problem is, when we tried checking out the email in Admin Center, the email is still in the Active User list. Not only that, when they tried opening the email via mobile, it says that the email has been blocked, even though the admin did no such thing to the account.

Has anyone encounter this problem before? And if yes, how to solve this problem?

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Dear @Devin Adam Sanubari,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Based on your description, the user can sign in to Outlook but cannot send or save emails. External senders receive “email not found at domain,” and Outlook mobile shows the account as blocked, even though the user is still listed as Active in Admin Center and no admin block was applied.

For better understanding your situation, please confirm for me some information as:
Has your peer encountered this issue before, or is this the first time it has happened?

Have you tried contacting your company’s IT team to have them check it’s possible that the user’s Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online license was removed or changed? which can cause the mailbox to become unavailable even though the account still appears active.

Have you checked with other users to see if they are experiencing the same issue, or is this problem only affecting that specific Outlook account?

In the meantime, here are some suggestions you can try:

Check internet connectivity

Disable spam filters in Anti-virus apps

Please understand that the more information you provide, the more effectively I can support.

Looking forward to your update.

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Answer 2

It sounds like your peer is experiencing several issues with their email account. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot the problem:

1. Check for Account Issues: Since the user can access their account but cannot send emails, it might be worth running the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant. This tool can help identify and fix various issues affecting Outlook or Microsoft 365.
2. Verify Email Status: Ensure that the email account is indeed active and has not been inadvertently blocked. You mentioned that it appears in the Active User list, which is a good sign, but double-checking permissions and settings in the Admin Center may be necessary.
3. Use Outlook on the Web: Have the user sign in to Outlook on the web to see if they can send emails from there. If they can send emails via the web but not through the desktop app, the issue may be with the email app itself.
4. Check for Licensing Issues: Sometimes, email delivery problems can stem from licensing issues. Ensure that the user has the appropriate license assigned to their account.
5. Look for Blocked Status: Since the mobile app indicates that the email has been blocked, check if there are any restrictions or policies applied to the account that might prevent sending or receiving emails.
6. Review SMTP Settings: If the issue persists, consider checking the SMTP settings and ensuring that the email configuration is correct.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, it may be necessary to contact Microsoft Support for further assistance.

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References:

• Find and fix email delivery issues as a Microsoft 365 for business admin
• Troubleshooting