Can't send or receive emails in Outlook

Question

Can't send or receive emails in Outlook. It shows up in my gmail account but I keep getting a send/receive error.

Answer 1

Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.

To help narrow down the issue:

1. May I know what troubleshooting steps have you already taken? This will help me avoid recommending them again.
2. Also are you using a personal Microsoft account or work or school account?

In the meantime if you haven’t already:

• I recommend checking out this Microsoft support article: "Can't send or receive email in Outlook.com" https://support.microsoft.com/office/can-t-send-or-receive-email-in-outlook-com-d39e3341-8d79-4bf1-b3c7-ded602233642
• Please scroll down and take a look at the sections titled "Can’t send mail in Outlook.com" and "Can’t receive mail in Outlook.com". It walks you through some helpful steps that usually resolve this kind of issue.
• Make sure your Focused Inbox is turned off, so all messages show in one place.
• Check your mailbox settings to confirm nothing is filtering or blocking those emails. If your mailbox is near or over the storage limit, new emails might not arrive in your inbox https://onedrive.live.com/managestorage in the same page, please check your OneDrive storage as it's linked to your Microsoft account and can sometimes affect email services if it's full.

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Let me know how it goes or if you have any further questions or concerns.

Click "Add comment" to let me know.

Regards,

John J.D.

Answer 2

Follow these steps in classic Outlook for Windows:

1. Check Outlook’s connection status
   • Look at the bottom of the Outlook window.
   • If it shows Disconnected, Working Offline, or Trying to connect…, go to the Send/Receive tab on the ribbon and select Work Offline once to toggle back online.
   • After it reconnects, select Send/Receive to sync again.
2. Confirm the PC is online
   • Open a browser (Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome).
   • Browse to http://www.microsoft.com or http://www.bing.com.
   • If these sites do not load, fix the network first using the steps in Fix network connection issues in Windows, then return to Outlook and try Send/Receive again.
3. Check for large or stuck messages
   • In Outlook, open the Outbox folder.
   • Open the oldest message that has not been sent.
   • If it has large attachments (for many providers, over about 20 MB), remove the attachment or replace it with a smaller file or a cloud link. See Reduce attachment size to send large files with Outlook.
   • Send the message again, then use Send/Receive.
4. Manually sync if mail is delayed
   • Go to the View tab on the ribbon.
   • Select the Sync button to force a manual sync.
   • Watch the status bar at the bottom for sync progress or errors. For more detail, see Sync to manually check for new mail and to send messages in Outlook.
5. If the problem continues
   • If the Gmail messages appear in the Gmail web interface but Outlook still shows send/receive errors after the steps above, repair Outlook and the Outlook profile:
     • Run an Office repair: follow Repair an Office application.
     • If needed, repair or recreate the Outlook profile using Fix your Outlook email connection by repairing your profile.

If antivirus email scanning is enabled, temporarily disabling that feature (in the antivirus settings) can also help if it is blocking send/receive.

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References:

• I can't send or receive messages in Outlook
• Can't send or receive email in Outlook and "Metered Connection Warning" is triggered