Work Emails not coming to Outlook but do go to auto forward account

Question

I have a business email set up on my Windows 11 laptop. I use Outlook 365. Ive used Outlook for 20 years. About a year or so ago i set up my business emails to be forwarded to my gmail account as emails were disappearing after 2 weeks (finally have that fixed). Recently we started getting inundated with SPAM emails (another issue). However to my work account i do have 2 other general emails forwarded to me (our business ******@...com and a ******@...com as well as our inquiry forms). Lately ive noticed many emails are not coming through to Outlook or even my Android email app. They do come through on our web mail and get forwarded to gmail still. i've spoken to our server IT who have tightened up SPAM rules but now even inter office emails arent going through. My partner has noticed some issues too.

Any thoughts at what is causing this.

Answer 1

Hi @Nolan Moore,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A Forum.

In general, when transport rules or spam filtering block email delivery after receipt, the impact is typically consistent across users and devices within the tenant. However, in your scenario, messages are still visible in webmail and are successfully auto‑forwarded, yet they are not being delivered to the Exchange mailbox itself. This indicates that the issue goes beyond standard client behavior and requires deeper investigation than simply reviewing Outlook settings.

At this stage, it is important to thoroughly review message traces, mail flow (transport) rules, quarantine and spam policies, as well as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC alignment, particularly for forwarded messages and shared mailboxes.

Because this situation may involve multiple underlying factors and potentially tenant‑ or domain‑level conditions, I strongly recommend contacting Microsoft Support. They will be able to perform a backend review and verify whether your tenant or domain has been flagged or affected by any service‑related issues that are not visible from the client side. Your IT admin can reach out to Microsoft Support through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center so Microsoft can collect logs and investigate. 

Microsoft also provides customer service phone numbers based on your region. You can find the appropriate contact number here: Customer service phone numbers - Microsoft Support 

This route ensures that a Microsoft support engineer can initiate a remote session to investigate backend configurations, run advanced diagnostic tools, and, if necessary, escalate the case to specialized teams with access to internal systems and logs. These backend resources are essential for resolving issues that go beyond what’s visible in the user interface.

As community moderators, we’re here to guide you, but due to privacy and security limitations, we don’t have access to the backend tools required for a full resolution. For this reason, contacting Microsoft Support via the Admin Center is the most secure and efficient way forward.

 

I hope this helps you resolve the issue quickly. I’m glad to assist and truly hope the information provided has been useful. Please feel free to reach out anytime if you need further assistance.  

If you find my post helpful, kindly consider marking it as the accepted answer. Doing so can assist others in the community who may have similar questions in finding solutions more quickly.  

Thank you for your kindness and contributions to the forum.

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Answer 2

The symptoms indicate that mail is still arriving correctly at the mailbox (webmail and forwarding to Gmail work), but something on the client side (Outlook on Windows and Android) is preventing messages from appearing or staying visible. Based on the provided context, focus on these areas:

1. Verify whether the issue is Outlook/app or server-side
   • Sign in to Outlook on the web for the affected business mailbox and confirm that:
     • All expected messages (including inter-office mail) are present.
     • Messages are not being moved to Junk, RSS Feeds, or other folders by rules.
   • If Outlook on the web shows messages correctly but Outlook for Windows and the Android app do not, the problem is almost certainly with the local clients rather than the server.
2. Check for hidden or misconfigured rules in Outlook
   • In classic Outlook for Windows, check for rules that might be diverting or hiding mail (for example, moving messages to RSS Feeds or other folders):
     • File → Manage Rules & Alerts.
     • Look for any rules that move, delete, or redirect messages, especially rules recently created to combat spam.
     • Disable or delete suspicious rules and test again.
   • A similar scenario in the context was resolved when a rule was diverting all new mail to the RSS feed folder.
3. Confirm that the view/folder being checked is correct
   • Make sure the Inbox view is not filtered to a past date or a subset of messages.
   • In Outlook, reset the view on the Inbox:
     • View → View Settings → Reset View.
   • Ensure the Favorites or focused view is not set to an old date or filtered folder (as in the example where the Favorites Inbox was set to “Tuesday,” hiding current mail).
4. Test Outlook profile and client health
   • Use Outlook on the web as the baseline; if it is fine, then:
     • Run the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant (SaRA) on the affected Windows 11 PC to detect and repair Outlook profile or account issues. This tool can fix profile corruption, sync issues, and some configuration problems.
     • If SaRA does not resolve it, create a new Outlook profile and connect only the business mailbox, then test send/receive.
5. Consider interaction with forwarding and spam controls
   • Because forwarding and stricter spam rules were recently configured on the server side:
     • Ask the server IT to verify that server-side spam filtering or transport rules are not quarantining or dropping internal messages before they reach the mailbox.
     • Confirm that no server-side rule is moving messages to non-standard folders that Outlook or the Android app may not be syncing.
6. Check Android email app configuration
   • Ensure the Android app is configured with the same protocol and settings as Outlook on the web (preferably Exchange/Modern authentication or the provider’s recommended settings).
   • Remove and re-add the account in the Android app to clear any sync or filter issues.

If, after these steps, Outlook on the web consistently shows all messages while Outlook for Windows and Android do not, continue using Outlook on the web as the reliable reference and work with IT to review client-side rules, profiles, and any recent changes to spam/transport rules that might affect how clients sync or display mail.

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References:

• Find and fix email delivery issues as a Microsoft 365 for business admin
• Issues sending and receiving email
• Connected email accounts like Gmail and Yahoo not working in Outlook.com
• Turn on automatic forwarding in Outlook
• Not receiving emails in a timely manner. - Microsoft Q&A
• Stopped receiving emails on my account. - Microsoft Q&A