outlook issue

Question

outlook giving a send/receive error, wont synchronize folders

Answer 1

Hi Michael Wokurka

Thanks for your post. I understand that you’re facing Send/Receive error and folders not synchronizing

Have you already tried the Q&A Assist suggestions? In addition, please confirm first: Is this Outlook.com / Hotmail account added directly to Outlook, or is it a POP/IMAP account from another email provider?

In the meantime, please try the following.

1, Test Outlook in Safe Mode

This checks whether an add‑in is blocking synchronization.

1. Close Outlook
2. Press Win + R, type outlook.exe /safe, press Enter
3. When Outlook opens, try "Send/Receive All Folders"

Result check: If sync works in Safe Mode > an add‑in is the cause.

2, Temporarily disable antivirus email scanning

• Temporarily disable email scanning (not real‑time protection)
• Restart Outlook and test Send/Receive again

Note: Re‑enable protection after testing.

3, Create a new Outlook profile

This is different from rebuilding the OST and helps confirm profile corruption.

1. Close Outlook
2. Open “Control Panel” > “Mail” > “Show Profiles”
3. Select “Add”, create a new profile, and set it as default
4. Open Outlook and let it fully sync

Result check: If the new profile works > the old profile is corrupted.

4, Try on Outlook on the web

• Sign in at: https://outlook.live.com
• Check whether folders sync correctly there

Please feel free to let me know how it goes. I truly appreciate your time and understanding.

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Answer 2

Use the following steps to troubleshoot send/receive and folder synchronization issues in Classic Outlook for Windows.

1. Manually synchronize folders
   1. In Outlook, select a folder that is not updating (for example, Inbox).
   2. On the ribbon, select Send/Receive.
   3. Select Update Folder to sync just that folder, or Send/Receive All Folders to sync everything.
   4. Watch the status bar in the lower-right corner for sync progress or errors.
2. Check for a synchronization filter on the folder A filter can prevent items from appearing in the offline copy.
   1. Right-click the problem folder (for example, Inbox) and select Properties.
   2. Go to the Synchronization tab.
   3. Select Filter.
   4. Select Clear All, or adjust the criteria as needed.
   5. Run Send/Receive again so the changes take effect.
3. Resynchronize a specific folder (Outlook 2010 and later) If one folder is stuck or mismatched with the server:
   1. Right-click the folder and select Properties.
   2. Select Clear Offline Items, then OK.
   3. On the Send/Receive tab, select Update Folder.
4. Rebuild the OST file if sync still fails If multiple folders won’t sync or you see OST-related errors, the offline data file may be corrupted.
   1. Close Outlook.
   2. In File Explorer, browse to: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
   3. If the folder is hidden, in File Explorer select View → Options → View tab, enable Show hidden files and folders, and clear Hide extensions for known file types.
   4. Rename the OST file for the affected account to .old (for example, ******@domain.com.ost → ******@domain.com.old).
      • If you see a File is in use error, open Task Manager and on the Processes tab end any Outlook.exe and Winword.exe processes.
   5. Start Outlook.
   6. Outlook will show Preparing for first use and download a fresh copy of the mailbox from the server. This can take time depending on mailbox size.
   7. After synchronization completes, test send/receive again.
5. Preserve local-only data before rebuilding OST If there are items stored only locally (for example, items in folders marked as “This computer only”), export them before deleting/renaming the OST:
   1. In Outlook, export those items to a .pst file.
   2. Rebuild the OST as above.
   3. Import the PST using File → Open and choose Do not import duplicates.

If, after rebuilding the OST and clearing filters, send/receive still fails, check whether the same mailbox works correctly in Outlook on the web; if it does, the issue is almost certainly with the local Outlook profile or OST and repeating the rebuild/profile steps is usually required.

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References:

• Synchronization problems occur in Outlook and in Outlook Web App
• Synchronization issues between Outlook and Outlook Web App
• Issues when you synchronize your Exchange Server mailbox with your .ost file in Outlook
• Offline item count for a folder in Outlook differs from the server item count
• Terminated in error found in Outlook Sync Issues log files