hotmail account not working

Question

i am no longer receiving email, just junk to my junk folder ?

Answer 1

Hi James Fischer,

I understand that your Hotmail account is no longer receiving the messages you expect, while junk email is still arriving.

Please note that this is a user-to-user forum, so contributors cannot access or inspect your mailbox directly.

The Q&A Assist answer provides appropriate checks for an Outlook.com account. Have you had a chance to try those steps, and did any expected messages appear in the Junk Email folder?

I would also like to add one targeted test that was not included in the previous answer:

1. From another email account you can access, send a new, simple test message to your Hotmail address.
2. Check both the Inbox and Junk Email folders.
3. If the message does not arrive anywhere, check whether the sending account receives a delivery-status message and share its wording here without including any email addresses or other personal information.

Please also clarify whether legitimate messages are being moved to Junk Email, or whether only junk messages arrive while legitimate messages are completely missing. This distinction will help determine the correct next step.

I hope this test helps narrow down where the message delivery is being interrupted.

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Answer 2

Try these checks in Outlook.com on the web:

1. Check Junk Email and Other.
   • If wanted messages are in Junk Email, select them and choose It’s not junk or Mark as not junk.
   • This moves the message back and helps improve filtering.
2. Add expected senders to Safe senders and domains.
   • Go to Settings > Mail > Junk email.
   • Under Safe senders and domains, select Add safe sender, enter the sender address or domain, then select OK and Save.
3. Check Blocked senders.
   • In Settings > Mail > Junk email, make sure the sender is not blocked.
   • If blocked, remove it and add it to Safe senders instead.
4. Check for mail rules.
   • Review Inbox Rules to make sure no rule is moving or deleting incoming mail.
5. Check forwarding.
   • If email forwarding is enabled, messages may be going elsewhere.
6. Check message sorting.
   • If mail seems missing, restore the list to chronological order with Filter > Sort > Date.
7. Check storage.
   • If Microsoft cloud storage is full, Outlook.com cannot send or receive email, and messages sent during that time are bounced back to the sender and are unrecoverable.
8. If mail is being permanently deleted in Outlook desktop, check the junk setting there.
   • In Outlook, open Home > Junk > Junk E-mail Options.
   • On the Options tab, clear Permanently delete suspected junk e-mail instead of moving it to the Junk E-mail folder.

If only junk mail is arriving and normal mail is not, the most relevant checks are Junk Email settings, blocked senders, rules, forwarding, and storage.

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References:

• Can't send or receive email in Outlook.com
• Filter junk email and spam in Outlook
• Mail goes to the Junk folder by mistake
• Junk e-mail messages are permanently deleted
• Email is missing from your Outlook.com inbox