Office Professional 2021 cannot connect to server for Microsoft 365 email purchased through GoDaddy

Question

This began around 3pm PST on June 15, 2026. I contacted GoDaddy who hosts my domain. They said to delete the profile in Microsoft Office Professional 2021 and reinstall. GoDaddy support is lousy.

I deleted the primary profile today and reinstalled 5 email accounts to the new primary profile. I was able to download emails and send until about 3pm on June 16, 2021. Now, every time I try to send/receive email from the default account, I get an error saying Outlook cannot connect to the server.

I manage 5 emails in the profile. 3 go to the same domain, 2 go to another domain. I have no problem accessing the server when checking 2 of the emails.

The error message I receive says error (08004011D): 'The server is not available. Contact our administrator if this condition persists.' and ' Sending reported error (0x80040115): 'We can't complete this because we can't contact the server right now. Please try again later." At the bottom of my emails are two lines of text, unclickable, that say "There are more items in this folder on the server" and "Connect to the server to view them". Under that, there is a "Disconnected" icon and word.

I have spent hours and tried so many things to resolve this:

Repair

Verify Work Offline was not checked

Toggle network

Check server status

Flushed DNS cache

Start Outlook in Safe Mode and remove all Add-ins

Run GetHelpCmd (which I couldn't get to work as the path to the files kept coming back as incorrect)

Clear stitched credentials via Credential Manager > Windows Credentials

Create a new profile

I am bamboozled by this.

I like Office Professional 2021 because I am offline about 70% of the time. I haven't used Microsoft Office 365, and I'm worried that its online connection could cause issues based on my offline use. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this single email account to connect to the server? Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi @PasadenaBill

Thank you for the detailed description and the troubleshooting steps you’ve already completed that helps narrow this down quite a bit.

Since other accounts in the same Outlook profile are working, this indicates the issue is not related to Outlook itself, your Office version, or the local installation, but is instead isolated to the affected domain accounts or their synchronization or authentication with the mail server.

Recommend checks:

1.Log in to webmail for one of the affected accounts.

• If webmail works, the issue is local (Outlook sync/cache).
• If webmail fails, it’s a server-side/domain issue (contact GoDaddy).

2.Compare settings for affected accounts against the working ones:

• IMAP vs POP setup
• Incoming/outgoing server hostnames, ports, SSL/TLS
• Authentication method (password, app password if required)

3.Rebuild Outlook cache

Error 0x80040115 often points to a corrupted cache.

• Close Outlook.
• Navigate to %localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook\.
• Locate OST files for the affected accounts.
• Rename them (e.g., account.ost.old).
• Restart Outlook to trigger full resynchronization.

4.If the issue persists:

• Remove the three affected accounts from Outlook.
• Restart Outlook.
• Re-add the accounts fresh into the same profile.

Please try these steps and let me know how it goes.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".       

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.  

Answer 2

Based on the symptoms and what has already been tried, the remaining effective options from the provided material are:

1. Repair or recreate the Outlook profile (full reset)
   A damaged profile is a common cause of “Disconnected” and “server not available” errors for a single account while others work.

• In Outlook, select File → Account Settings → Account Settings.
• On the Email tab, select the problematic account and choose Repair if available, then follow the wizard and restart Outlook.
• If the issue persists, fully recreate the profile from Control Panel:
  1. Exit Outlook.
  2. Open Control Panel → search for Mail → open Mail.
  3. Select Show Profiles.
  4. Select the existing profile and remove it (only after confirming other accounts can be re‑added).
  5. Select Add, name the new profile, and run the Add Account wizard to add the Microsoft 365/Exchange account and the other accounts.
  6. In Mail, choose Always use this profile and select the new profile.
  7. Start Outlook and confirm that the problematic account connects and syncs.
  This aligns with the documented guidance to fix connection issues by repairing or recreating the profile.

2. Run the automated Outlook connectivity troubleshooter (Support and Recovery Assistant)
   The official tools can detect and repair several connection issues that manual steps miss.

• Use the Support and Recovery Assistant for Microsoft 365 for classic Outlook connectivity issues:
  • From the documentation, select Support and Recovery Assistant for Microsoft 365 under “Let us fix your issue”.
  • Run the Outlook User Connectivity diagnostic.
  • Follow the automated steps it suggests.
• Alternatively, for classic Outlook on Windows, run the classic Outlook for Windows connectivity troubleshooter:
  • From the documentation, select Start under “Use the classic Outlook for Windows connectivity troubleshooter”.
  • Open Get Help when prompted and follow the guided steps.

3. Check for software update issues
   Out-of-date Outlook or Windows can cause connection problems.

• Run Windows Update to install all pending updates.
• Install the latest updates for Office/Outlook as described in Install Office updates.
• Restart the computer and test Outlook again.

4. If the mailbox was migrated or moved (GoDaddy → Microsoft 365 change)
   If GoDaddy or the provider recently changed how the mailbox is hosted (for example, a migration to Microsoft 365), Outlook might be using cached Autodiscover data that points to the old server.

In that case, the supported fixes are:

• Option A – New profile (already done, but must be created after any provider-side change is complete and DNS is correct).
• Option B – Registry flag to ignore the last known good Autodiscover URL (admin-level change):
  • Configure the registry value ExcludeLastKnownGoodUrl to 1 under:
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Autodiscover (for Office 2016/2019/2021/Microsoft 365), or
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Autodiscover.
  • This prevents Outlook from using the pre‑migration Autodiscover URL and forces it to discover the current server.
  • After setting the value, restart Outlook and, if needed, recreate the profile again via Control Panel → Mail → Show Profiles.

5. If multiple users are affected (same tenant)
   If other users on the same Microsoft 365 tenant also cannot connect with Outlook, an Exchange Online service issue is possible. An admin should:

• Check Microsoft 365 Service health status under Exchange Online for any ongoing incident.

If only this one mailbox is affected and other accounts in the same profile and tenant work, focus on the profile reset and Autodiscover steps above.

These steps are compatible with using Outlook in largely offline mode: once the profile and connection are healthy and the mailbox is fully cached locally, Outlook can continue to function offline as designed.

---

References:

• Fix your Outlook email connection by repairing your profile
• Fix Outlook connection problems for Microsoft 365 account
• Outlook doesn't connect or web services don't work after migration to Microsoft 365