My hotmail account is not receiving email to inbox

Question

I have not received an email to my inbox since Monday evening. I normally receive around 150 emails per day. However, I do still receive the same type of junk emails and amounts as normal.

Answer 1

Let me know how it would go. Thanks.

Answer 2

Since your storage is fine and sending works, the issue is often with your mailbox safety filtering.

Go to Settings, then Mail, then Junk email, and review both Safe senders and domains and Blocked senders. Add a trusted sender or your own test email address to Safe senders, then ask them to resend. Also check Settings, Mail, then Sync email and confirm your account is still active and connected.

If emails still do not arrive, sign out, clear your browser cache, sign back in, and test again, as this refreshes your mailbox connection and filtering behavior.

Answer 3

Please let me know if you need more assistance. Thanks and keep safe.

Answer 4

Hi,

Does your Outlook.com storage show full or over quota right now?

Open Settings, go to General then Storage, delete emails from Inbox, Sent, Junk, and Deleted Items, then open Deleted Items and select Recover items deleted from this folder and clear everything there, after that sign out and sign back in, because when storage is full your account blocks new emails from reaching your Inbox until space is freed.

Answer 5

Work through these checks in Outlook.com to restore mail to the Inbox:

1. Check Focused/Other and filters
   • At the top of the message list, switch between Focused and Other to see if mail is being sorted there.
   • Select Filter above the message list and choose All and Sort > Date so no filter hides recent mail.
2. Check Junk Email and rules
   • Open the Junk Email folder and see if normal messages are there. If so, right‑click a message and choose Mark as not junk to move it back to Inbox and train the filter.
   • Go to Rules settings and review Inbox/Sweep rules. If a rule is moving all new mail to another folder (for example, RSS or Archive), edit or delete that rule.
3. Check forwarding settings
   • If mail forwarding is enabled, verify whether the option to keep a copy of forwarded emails in Outlook.com is turned on. If it is off, messages can be forwarded to another account but never appear in the Outlook.com Inbox. Turn it back on so copies stay in the Inbox.
4. Check Archive and other folders
   • Open the Archive folder and other custom folders to see if messages are being moved there. If so, select the messages and choose Move to > Inbox.
5. Check blocked senders / junk configuration
   • In Junk Email settings, review Blocked senders and remove any legitimate addresses or domains that might be blocked.
   • If junk filtering seems incorrect, temporarily set Incoming mail handling to Strict, save, sign out, sign back in, then set it back to Standard and save. Allow a few hours for filtering behavior to normalize.
6. Check sign‑in activity and account status
   • If there is any concern the account was accessed by someone else, review the Recent activity page and follow the guidance there to secure the account.

If after these checks normal mail is still not arriving in the Inbox but is being delivered elsewhere (for example, to a forwarded address), focus on forwarding and rules. If mail is not arriving anywhere, contact a sender and ask them to review Sender Support in Outlook.com and confirm any error they see when sending.

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References:

• Can’t send or receive email in Outlook.com
• Email is missing from your Outlook.com inbox
• Where are my email messages or calendar events in Mail and Calendar for Windows 10?
• I haven't received any email in Outlook for several months - Microsoft Q&A
• Stopped receiving emails on my account. - Microsoft Q&A
• Outlook.com doesn't send any emails to junk folder - Microsoft Q&A