Can't send or receive email in Outlook.com

Can't send mail in Outlook.com

• If a message has an attachment larger than 25 MB, Outlook cannot send the message.​​​​​​​

  Tip: See also Unable to attach files in Outlook.com.

• If you attempted to send an email and received a non-delivery receipt, but you've confirmed the recipient's email address is correct, please go to Sender Support in Outlook.com.

• There are several other reasons you might receive a non-delivery receipt, and the email will usually include a reason for the issue. Common reasons include:

  • Invalid email address - The recipient's email address does not exist.

  • Mailbox full - The recipient's mailbox is full and cannot accept new messages.

  • Server issues - The recipient's mail server is down or experiencing problems.

  • Spam filters - The email was flagged as spam and blocked by the recipient's server.

• If you recently created a new Outlook.com account, a low sending quota is a temporary restriction which is upgraded to the maximum limit as soon as you establish credibility in the system. For more information about sending limits, please go to Sending limits in Outlook.com.

• If you have a signature in your email, signatures can sometimes impact the ability to send mail. If an error occurs, remove the signature from the email and re-send.

• You might need to have the email recipient add your email account to the safe senders list. For more information, please go to Safe Senders in Outlook.com.

• Make sure that the people you send emails to are added to your Contacts on Outlook.com.

Can't receive mail in Outlook.com

• Check your Other tab and ensure there are no filters preventing you from accessing all your messages.

• If you are not receiving a specific email, and there is no error message visible, please contact the sender and ask them to refer to Sender Support in Outlook.com for more information.

• Check your Junk Email settings and your Junk Email folder. If there are messages that shouldn't have been marked as junk, to move them back to your inbox, right-click each email message and then choose Mark as not junk.

• Check to see if messages are appearing out of order in the message list. You can restore the message list to chronological order by selecting   Filter > Sort > Date.

• Check if you have email forwarding enabled.

• Check there are no email rules that are preventing you from seeing the email you want.

• If you use a third-party mail service, it needs to support modern authentication and IMAP to work correctly with Outlook Mobile and Desktop. For more information, please go to Modern Authentication Methods now needed to continue syncing Outlook Email in non-Microsoft email apps.

  • If IMAP or POP are active, it could be causing an issue with the connected app. Disable IMAP and POP and try again. For more information, please go to POP, IMAP, and SMTP settings for Outlook.com.

• If you get the error message "The recipient server did not accept our requests to connect," you'll need to update your email address. For more information, please go to Add or remove an email alias in Outlook.com.

If these tips don't help, try our interactive troubleshooter below.

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