Nov 25 2019 11:02 AM - last edited on Nov 09 2023 11:08 AM by
Lately, I experience more an more customers calling me because Emails are stuck in Outlook's Outbox.
The problem can be overcome by creating a completely new message, copying the content over and send that message off. All while many other messages went out the Outbox without issues.
I've had that behavior before now and then over the years and usually "fixed" it by deleting the local .OST file or even creating a new Outlook Profile. This did it for most users, but I now get cases where I had done that "fixing" before already.
I looked into it once again and found that
By the way, SARA (https://aka.ms/sara_home) provides a new function to try to fix issues with sent messages. However, SARA won't find the messages stuck in the Outbox (albeit I can see and open them) in my cases and thus can't fix, apparently.
What could be the reason of those stuck messages and how can I finally fix that issue?
It occurs across different tenants. The most common denominator seems to be Office 2016, although I've had the problem also with other versions of Outlook.
Thanks
Dan
Nov 28 2019 06:19 AM
@DanHuberI have seen this on several customers. Try with turning off "Download Shared Folder" in:
File-->Account settings-->Account settings...-->Change-->More Settings-->Advanced-->uncheck "Download shared folders"
There has never been one and same solution to this problem, but this one is more "permanent" solution to try.
Jul 08 2020 12:32 AM
This temp fix works with a PC restart. I hate it but here it is :
Try these on the command prompt - Locate cmd.exe from the start menu - Right Click - Run as administrator.
netsh winsock reset
press enter
ipconfig /flushdns
press enter
Restart your PC.
Open outlook after restart. Let it connect . Your emails will have gone from the outbox.
Sep 10 2020 06:59 PM
@DanHuber - We've hit this twice (sporadically) and of course it's the MD having the issue. When it happens to him, his whole Outlook app becomes unresponsive and both times we haven't been able to recover the emails as the only option was to force a shutdown of Outlook. They don't appear in any of the local folders Sent/Drafts/Outbox and nothing in Mail Flow in the 365 Admin Centre.
I did notice (thanks to @Alan_Shaban) that he did have "Download shared folders" selected on his Outlook client, so I've unselected that and hoping for the best.
Any other suggestions that might help me prevent this time-bomb and save me some angst would be very much appreciated.
Sep 16 2020 01:56 PM
Outlook messages remain stuck in the Outbox and I don;t even receive incoming messages until I restart the computer...then income and outgoing messages get sent. I can;t keep restarting my computer 100 times a day.
Sep 17 2020 03:03 AM
@Brian295You might want to try Office uninstall tool and get a fresh Office start:
Oct 20 2020 03:19 PM
May 31 2021 06:54 AM
I've found that forcing a recreate on the data file gets this working. Simply navigate to the file location of the outlook data file and rename the file. I usually add an "_old" at the end. You can then start outlook and it will recreate the data file. Hope this helps.
May 31 2021 08:36 AM
@Whiplash9915
Yes, that is what I am doing as a last resort.
The first thing to try is to recreate the email message and copy/paste the content and subject from the failing email message. Then send that one.
That works too, most of the time.
But those are just workarounds. I was looking for an actual fix :)
Dan
Jul 09 2023 12:47 PM
May 05 2024 07:48 PM
@RAJAT_K Usually work around solution that i will do is by opening outlook in safe mode, send a test mail and the mail will be out from outbox. Close the outlook safe mode and open as normal outlook. Send test mail successful.
Jul 03 2024 12:21 PM
@Saran7980 I am now having this same problem. This is the first time I recall ever having it. this is ANNOYING Microsoft. If it happens again, I'll try some of these suggested workarounds.
Jul 21 2024 08:10 PM - edited Jul 21 2024 08:11 PM
I'm having the same issue on two of my customer's computers, and they're on Exchange Online...
The only reason they're still using Outlook desktop is because they need the mailto: function to send PDFs from their application...
Mails stay in the outbox, even if I send manually. The only thing I noticed is that it doesn't say "Connected to Exchange Online" on the bottom-right, but only "online".
They can receive emails properly, but not send...
Also, not the same issue, but using direct connection to Exchange Online instead of cache is excruciatingly slow...