My Outlook emails are not being sent

Question

I have set up a new Outlook email address. This will be my second outlook email address. This morning I tried sending an email, blind copied to 36 members of a society that I belong to, to inform them that I have changed email address. I also sent it to myself. It was not received by any and received an error code [0x80004005-0x00000b22-0x00000501]. I also received this email from outlook

Hello George Prosser,

The daily message limit helps us free the world from spammers--we're sorry that it's getting in your way.

Thanks, The Outlook.com Team

This was my 2nd email of the day. what is the daily limit?

I only set up this new email address because, Microsoft had started blocking emails sent from my original email address. They classed it as a legacy address and didn't like it any longer.

What can I do?

I am a private individual, my inbox has less than 20 emails in it, the deleted and Junk folders are empty.

Have I wasted my time setting up a new outlook address?

Answer 1

Hey there, George Prosser

When you send multiple emails, or have multiple recipients that the email is going to be sent to, the system may flag this. Especially if the account has just been created. This is why you got an email from Outlook telling you that their is a daily limit on the number of emails you can send.

This will also depend on if the previous emails you have sent have been marked as junk/spam and if they have been reported. This feeds into how the system evaluates your profile and whether it has a good standing or not. This is to help combat spam that is being sent on Outlook by others. Shamefully the actions caused by a group of people have now impacted everyone else.

This was my 2nd email of the day. what is the daily limit?

If you have subscribed to Microsoft 365, then Microsoft have published the daily limits. This limit is 500 recipients per message. However, I suspect you haven't subscribed to Microsoft 365, thus your daily limit may be lower. You can find out more about these limits here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/sending-limits-in-outlook-com

I suspect the reason why the limit increases when you are an Microsoft 365 subscriber is because spammers are less likely to purchase a Microsoft 365 subscription to then send spam to multiple users.

As you have tried sending an email with 36 recipients, but ran into a block. Please can you try sending an email with about 20 recipients and see if this goes through. If it doesn't, try with 10 and see if that goes through. Once you find out the number of recipients you can send an email to, this will be your limit.

When people get your email, please ask them to not mark it as spam or report it, as this will only impact your ability to send out more emails. This is because the system will think you are spamming multiple people. Instead, if they add you as a safe sender, this may help with how the system reviews you.

Have I wasted my time setting up a new outlook address?

No, you haven't wasted your time.

Because other people have used Outlook to send spam to other users, Microsoft has put limits in place to help prevent spam being distributed from their services.

Hope this helps,
Nathan

Answer 2

The error and the message from Outlook.com indicate a temporary outbound anti-spam or sending-quota block on the new Outlook.com account, not a mailbox storage problem. A new Outlook.com account can have a low sending quota at first, and that temporary restriction is increased after the account establishes credibility in the system.

What to do:

1. Stop retrying the same send for now. Repeated attempts can keep the restriction active longer.
2. Send in much smaller batches instead of one Bcc to 36 recipients.
3. Avoid heavy Bcc use if possible.
4. Check whether the message has a signature and remove it for a test send.
5. If the message includes attachments, remove them. Outlook.com cannot send messages with attachments larger than 25 MB.
6. Add the recipients to Contacts in Outlook.com.
7. Make sure account security information is fully set up and current. For new Outlook.com accounts, the low sending quota is temporary and is upgraded as credibility is established.
8. If a non-delivery receipt is generated and the recipient address is correct, use Sender Support in Outlook.com.

About the daily limit: the provided material does not give a numeric daily limit. It only states that new Outlook.com accounts can have a temporary low sending quota that increases later.

This does not mean setting up the new address was pointless. It means the new account is currently being treated cautiously by Outlook.com. The practical workaround is to wait for the restriction to clear and send to smaller groups rather than a single bulk Bcc message.

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