My focused/other email box is not updating

Question

Hello,

I changed my hotmail password on Wednesday and since then I have not received any emails in my focused/other box, but I can see that my junk box has been updating. I am able to send emails and send one to my husband but when he replied his email isn't showing in my inbox.

Thanks,

Andrea

Answer 1

Hello, can you confirm if you are accessing your mailbox only through a browser and not any mail apps?

Open Outlook on the web, go to Settings, then Mail, then Sync email, and check if any connected accounts or forwarding is enabled, turn off forwarding and remove any connected accounts you do not recognize, then save. After that, go to Settings, then General, then Storage and clear up space if the mailbox is near limit, then sign out and back in. This will stop messages being redirected and ensure new emails deliver properly to your inbox.

Answer 2

Try these checks and fixes in Outlook.com in this order:

1. Check Junk and Other
   • Open Outlook.com and check the Junk Email folder to see if the replies are going there.
   • Also check the Other tab (if Focused Inbox is on) and ensure there are no filters hiding messages.
2. Check Junk settings and rules
   • Go to Settings → Mail → Junk Email.
   • Review Blocked senders and domains and Safe senders and domains to ensure your husband’s address or domain isn’t blocked and that you haven’t added an overly broad safe entry (like an entire TLD) that might affect filtering.
   • Check for any rules that might be moving or diverting messages (for example, to RSS or another folder) and remove or adjust any that look incorrect.
3. Reset spam handling (to refresh filtering)
   • In Outlook.com, go to Settings → Email → Junk Email and temporarily set Incoming mail handling to Strict.
   • Save changes and sign out of Outlook.com.
   • Sign back in, return to Settings → Email → Junk Email, and set Incoming mail handling back to Standard.
   • Save changes. It can take a few hours for junk/inbox routing to normalize after this change.
4. Confirm password and sign‑in
   • Since the password was changed, make sure Outlook.com is fully signed in with the new password on all devices and apps. If any app is still using the old password, remove and re‑add the account or re‑authenticate so it doesn’t interfere with syncing.
5. Ask the sender to verify delivery
   • For specific missing messages (like your husband’s replies), ask the sender to confirm they are not seeing bounce errors and, if needed, have them review Sender Support in Outlook.com for any sender‑side issues.

If, after these steps and a few hours, new messages still do not appear in Focused/Other but Junk continues to update, contact Outlook.com support from the web interface so they can review the mailbox configuration on the service side.

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References:

• Can't send or receive email in Outlook.com
• Where are my email messages or calendar events in Mail and Calendar for Windows 10?
• I can't send or receive messages in Outlook
• Outlook.com doesn't send any emails to junk folder - Microsoft Q&A
• Stopped receiving emails on my account. - Microsoft Q&A
• Not receiving emails in a timely manner. - Microsoft Q&A