Cant recieve emails in Outlook.com with hotmail address

Question

I am contacting on behalf of my nan.

She is able to send but not receive any email. I have logged her in on my laptop, her laptop, my phone and nothing works.

I have synced email and still nothing. I have tried to follow the trouble shooting guide and that does not help either.

We do not use the app on the laptop and all emails for both of us is done through the web (unless i am on my phone).

She has no rules that will affect her not receiving emails. She can send emails. She cant recieve emails from anyone including myself. I did also add my email to her safe senders list and still would not work. she is unable to receive emails from everyone. she doesn't even get any junk mail at the moment.

I am unable to go through to microsoft support as the troubleshooting keeps taking me round in circles.

Answer 1

Please note that this is a user-to-user community. As moderators, I have limited access to internal development details. My role is to direct users to the appropriate support channels and resources. While I cannot provide backend analysis, I will do my best to assist you within my responsibilities.   

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Hi Ian-Lee Reddall

Please reply with:

• Is mailbox or Microsoft storage full or near full?
• Does a sender receive a bounce-back when emailing her?
• Are there any rules or forwarding entries listed?
• Does the mailbox receive Microsoft security or password reset emails?

Also try the steps below:

1) Check storage first 

If an Outlook.com mailbox or Microsoft storage is full, mail may stop arriving. In Outlook.com, go to Settings > Account > Storage and free up space if needed.

2) Search all folders and tabs 

In Outlook.com, check:

• Inbox
• Junk Email
• Deleted Items
• Archive
• Other
• Any custom folders

Also make sure the message list is not filtered to show only Unread, Flagged, or another filtered view.

3) Check rules, Sweep, and forwarding again 

In Outlook.com, go to:

• Settings > Mail > Rules
• Settings > Mail > Forwarding

Disable anything that could move, delete, archive, or forward incoming messages.

4) Check blocked senders and safe senders 

Go to Settings > Mail > Junk email.

• Remove any incorrect entries from Blocked senders and domains.
• Add trusted senders to Safe senders and domains if needed.

Please note that Safe Senders will not help if the message is being rejected before it reaches the mailbox.

5) Ask one sender to check for a bounce-back 

Ask one sender to send a test message and confirm whether they receive a delivery failure or bounce-back message. If they do receive one, please provide the exact error text.

6) Try Outlook.com in a private browser window 

Open Outlook.com in an InPrivate or Incognito window and sign in directly.

• If mail appears there, clear browser cache and cookies for Outlook.com.
• If mail still does not appear there, the issue is likely not limited to the browser or Outlook app.

7) Contact Outlook.com support from inside the mailbox 

If storage, rules, forwarding, blocked senders, folders, and private browser testing do not help, please contact Outlook.com support: In Outlook.com, select Help, search for not receiving email, then choose Still need help? > Yes if shown.

Please tell me how it goes. If the problem persists, please don’t hesitate to reply to this thread and I will be happy to help. Have a lovely day!  

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