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Outlook Exchange not fetching mail

Tom Girvan 0 Reputation points
2026-04-24T02:18:43.7566667+00:00

Hi, outlook exchange is not fetching new emails unless we close and restart the application.

Have tried toggling 'working offline' mode on and off, however when doing this it just stays on.

Have gone through advice of unchecking 'cache' box in account settings and still doesnt fix the issue

Emails are coming through to my phone fine.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For business

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  1. Q&A Assist
    2026-04-24T02:18:54.8733333+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    Use targeted troubleshooting to get Outlook back online and syncing without needing restarts.

    1. Verify Outlook is not stuck in Offline mode
    • On the Send/Receive tab, select Work Offline once to toggle it.
    • If it will not toggle, start Outlook in Safe Mode to rule out add-ins:
      • Press Windows key + R.
      • Type outlook.exe /safe and select OK.
      • In Safe Mode, try toggling Work Offline again.
    • If it works in Safe Mode, disable or remove problematic add-ins in normal Outlook.
    1. Check whether only recent mail is syncing (Cached Mode sync window) If Outlook is connected but only shows new mail after restart or only a subset of items, increase the amount of mail kept offline:
    2. In Outlook, go to File → Account Settings → Account Settings.
    3. On the E-mail tab, select the Exchange account and choose Change.
    4. Move the Mail to keep offline slider to a longer period or to All.
    5. Select Next → OK when prompted to restart Outlook → Finish.
    6. Close and restart Outlook.

    This forces Outlook to maintain a larger local cache and can resolve issues where only a subset of mailbox items are synchronized.

    1. Recreate the Outlook profile if sync remains unreliable If Outlook still fails to fetch new mail until restarted, recreate the profile (this also rebuilds the .ost cache):
    2. Close Outlook.
    3. Open Control Panel → Mail → Show Profiles.
    4. Select the current profile and choose Remove (this deletes local cached data, not server mail).
    5. Select Add, name the new profile, and follow the Add Account wizard to re-add the Exchange account.
    6. In the Mail dialog, select Always use this profile and choose the new profile.
    7. Start Outlook and allow it to fully synchronize.

    If the issue persists after these steps and mail continues to arrive on the phone but not in Outlook without restart, involve the Exchange administrator to check server connectivity and any throttling or connection issues on the server side.

    References:

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