Emails sent to me keep bouncing back to the sender

Question

Emails sent to me keep bouncing back to the sender

gloria reeday 0

Every email sent to me keep bouncing back to the sender. Although I can still read them when I receive them. But the sender thinks I haven't got them.

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2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Emmanuel Santana 40,210 Independent Advisor

Hello. Is the account you're having trouble with an Outlook.com or Hotmail account?

Also, could you ask the sender to send you the exact bounce-back message they receive when they try to email you? That should give us a better idea of what's causing the problem. Just make sure any personal or private information is hidden before posting it here.

gloria reeday 0 Reputation points

2026-08-10T11:57:34.3433333+00:00

Hi my email address is ******@hotmail.co.uk maybe send me an email.and you will see the message that comes back you
Emmanuel Santana 40,210 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-10T16:59:28.39+00:00

For security and privacy reasons, please do not post your email address here. I’m also unable to send a test email to you directly from the forum.

What I need to confirm first is whether this happens with everyone who emails you, or only with one particular sender. If possible, please ask one of the affected senders to share the bounce-back message they receive after emailing you.

You can then post the error message here, but please remove or cover any email addresses, names, or other personal information before posting it.

The exact wording or error code in that bounce-back message is important because it should tell us why the sender is receiving a delivery failure even though the message is still reaching your inbox.

Answer 2

This usually points to mail forwarding or inbox rules that are sending a copy of incoming mail to another address that is failing. When that forwarded copy can’t be delivered, a bounce message is generated, even though the original message still reaches the inbox.

Check these settings in Outlook.com:

Open Outlook.com in a browser.
Select Settings > View all Outlook settings.
Go to Mail > Forwarding and check whether forwarding is turned on.
If there is an unfamiliar address there, turn forwarding off or remove that address.
Go to Mail > Rules and review any rules that automatically forward or redirect messages.
Delete any rule that was not intentionally created.

Also check whether the account has unusual activity:

If the password was changed recently, update it on all devices.
If the account was temporarily blocked because of unusual sign-in activity, unblock the Outlook.com account.

If the bounce messages mention a specific address that is not recognized, that is another sign that forwarding or a rule was added and should be removed.

If mail is only failing for certain senders, ask one sender to share the full bounce message, because the NDR contains the diagnostic details needed to identify the exact cause.