How to Resolve when Outlook Cannot Send/Receive Emails?

While working with Microsoft Outlook, users sometimes experience an issue where they cannot send and receive emails on their system. This leads to disruption in communication and might impact their productivity. This problem happens due to several reasons, including damaged or corrupted Outlook data file, wrong email account settings, conflicting applications and connectivity errors. In this article, we will discuss why users sometimes experience this issue in Outlook and suggest troubleshooting methods to resolve it.

Reasons Why Outlook Cannot Send/Receive Emails

You might face sending/receiving issues on Outlook due to some common factors, such as unreliable connectivity or large attachments. However, you may experience this issue due to several underlying factors listed below:

• Incorrect email account settings, such as port number, server address and authentication.
• Outdated version of Outlook.
• Conflicting security applications, such as antivirus software or Firewall.
• Corrupted Outlook profile installation.
• Damaged or corrupted Outlook data file (PST) due to various factors, such as abrupt system or application shutdown, large file size and malware attacks.

Methods to Resolve the Outlook Cannot Send/Receive Emails Issue

Here are the methods you can use to fix send/receive issue in Outlook:

Method 1: Check Connectivity and Outlook Version

Several times, a slow or inconsistent internet connection can prevent Outlook from sending and receiving emails. Therefore, it is recommended to check your internet connection health. If it is not up to the mark, you can try restarting your router or contacting your internet service provider.

Furthermore, it is critical to check whether you are using the latest version of the Outlook desktop application. Although Outlook is set to auto-update by default, if you want to update it manually, you can navigate to the following location in Outlook:

File > Office Account > Update Options > Update Now

If this doesn’t work, you can move on to the next method.

Method 2: Check Account Settings

Mail server can fail to recognize the contact details of the receiver if your email account settings, such as port number and server address, are incorrect. In such case, you can check your account settings in Outlook using following instructions:

1. Open the Outlook application and navigate to File > Account Settings > Account Settings.
2. Select the email account and click ‘Change’. This will open the ‘Server Settings’ window.
3. In Server Settings, click ‘More Settings’ and choose ‘Advanced’.
4. Here, you can check and correct your server configuration settings. You can find the default Outlook account settings on the Microsoft website.

Note: If you are using your organization’s system and don’t have the access to these settings, you should contact your network administrator and check whether they have made any changes to the server settings.

Method 3: Check for Conflicting Applications

During scanning process, security applications, like your antivirus application or Windows Firewall, can accidently recognize your Outlook data file as a threat and lock it. This can also prevent Outlook from sending or receiving emails.

To inquire if such application is behind the send/receive issue, you can disable your antivirus application and Firewall temporarily and then try sending a test email. If the email goes through, this indicates that your antivirus software or Firewall is conflicting with Outlook and resulting in the issue.

To fix this, you can add Outlook and related processes as exception in your security software or purchase an Outlook-compatible application.

Method 4: Repair/Reinstall Microsoft Office

Since Outlook is a part of the Microsoft Office suite, sometimes damaged or corrupted installation files of Microsoft Office can also prevent Outlook from sending or receiving messages. In such a case, you can try to repair or reinstall Microsoft Office by using the in-built repair feature in Windows through the following steps:

1. Open Control Panel on your system.
2. On the Control Panel window, select Programs > Programs and Features.
3. From the list of programs, find your Microsoft Office version and right-click it. Then, click Change.
4. After that, select the Repair option and follow the prompts to complete the repairing process.

Now open Outlook and try sending a test mail. If this doesn’t resolve the issue, then you can completely uninstall Microsoft Office and install it again by using the Office Deployment Tool (ODT).

Method 5: Create a New Outlook Profile

Corruption or damage in Outlook profile can also cause Outlook to stop receiving or sending emails. As a solution, Microsoft recommends creating a new Outlook profile and replacing it with the old corrupted one. To do so, follow the instructions given below:

1. Close your Outlook application and open Control Panel on your system.
2. On the Control Panel window, click Mail. In the Mail Setup window that opens, click Show Profiles.
3. Click Add to create a new Outlook profile.
4. In the New Profile dialog box, enter a name in the Profile Name field and click OK. You can provide any name to the profile.
5. In the Add Account window that appears, enter the name, email address, and password of your account. Then, click on Next.
6. On the next window, check the Change account settings checkbox and then click on Next.
7. Now, you can select your old profile and click Remove to remove it.
8. After that, select the Always use this profile option, choose the new profile name (you just created) from the dropdown, and click OK.
9. Restart Outlook and check if you are able to perform send/receive operations.

Method 6: Repair Outlook Data File using Inbox Repair Tool

If creating a new Outlook profile doesn’t work, you can use the Inbox Repair Tool, also known as SCANPST.exe, to repair a corrupted or damaged PST file. This tool comes pre-installed on your system with Microsoft Office. To scan and resolve errors in a damaged PST file using Inbox Repair Tool, follow the instructions given below:

1. Close Outlook and locate SCANPST.exe on your system. The location of the tool varies depending on the version of Outlook.
2. Open SCANPST.exe and click Browse.
3. Now, browse and locate your PST file, and click Open.
4. Click Start to start the scan of the corrupted PST file. The time taken by the Inbox Repair Tool to scan and detect issues in the file depends on the size of the PST file.
5. After the scan is complete, the Inbox Repair Tool will show the number of inconsistencies found in your file. Furthermore, SCANPST.exe also creates a backup file of the PST file in the same folder before executing the repair.
6. Repeat the repair process a few times to ensure that the corruption gets removed from the PST file.
7. Now, restart Outlook and try sending an email from Outlook.

Note: Although the Inbox Repair Tool is a valuable tool to fix corruption in PST files, it comes with a few shortcomings. It can delete unreadable mailbox items while performing repair, which can lead of loss of data. Besides, it can remain stuck for hours if the PST file size is large and might even fail to handle a higher level of corruption. When the Inbox Repair Tool fails to fix the corruption in the PST file, you can choose a professional Outlook PST repair tool to repair your Outlook data file. This tool can efficiently fix corruption on a damaged PST file in a few clicks and split it if it has nearly reached its maximum file size. Through its easy-to-use graphical user interface, a user with limited technical knowledge can also perform repair operation easily.

Conclusion

Outlook users are sometimes unable to send or receive emails in Outlook. This can happen due to various factors, including wrong email account settings, connection problems, damaged or corrupted Outlook data file or corrupt Outlook profile. If you’re facing such issues, you can try resetting your connection, correcting your mail account settings, repairing/reinstalling Microsoft Office or repairing your Outlook data file using SCANPST.exe. If this tool fails to repair the file, you can use a specialized Outlook PST repair tool, such as Stellar Repair for Outlook and fix the problem.