Simple fixes to try when Outlook emails get stuck in Outbox

Ashish Singh

Updated On - February 28, 2024

When you try to send an email, and it gets stuck in the Outbox, it means that the message is not being sent or the recipient is unable to receive it. It is a common problem that can cause a lot of frustration, especially when you need to send emails urgently. In this situation, it is necessary to understand the common causes of Outlook emails being stuck in the Outbox error and learn about the best solutions to tackle it.

Why Outlook emails get stuck in Outbox?

There can be various reasons why emails get stuck in Outbox. Some of them are discussed below:

• Outlook is on the setting, ‘work offline.’
• The size of the attachment to your email exceeds the allowed size limit.
• There can be some technical error.
• Opening and viewing the message or email in Outbox, which is in the process of sending.
• The password you typed is wrong, or you have changed your email account password.
• Absence or non-existence of default email account.
• Existence of any software on your system which has access to your Outlook data files.
• Antivirus or anti-spam on your system is scanning the outgoing mail.
• Email is shown as already read or viewed.

Lets discuss the possible solutions for the issue of emails getting stuck in Outbox.

Note: Ensure that the internet connectivity is good as slow or poor connectivity may hinder sending emails, especially when emails having large attachments.

Before focusing on techniques for resolving the problem, you can check out the mail server’s state. If your mail server is offline, your email messages will remain stuck in the outbox folder until the server’s state comes back online.

To change the state, follow the simple steps:

1. Check the status of your outlook at the bottom right-hand corner. If the status says “Connected”, then the issue is not related to the server state.
2. If the status says, “Working Offline” go to the “Send/Receive” options and click on the Work Offline to turn it off.

This should bring your mail server back online and allow you to send your emails.

If you receive an error message while operating the task ‘Send/Receive email,’ then follow the given steps to examine the ISP.

• Check if the port number for the outgoing mail server is blocked by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). For this update, go to the settings of your email server. Change in port numbers and methods of authentication according to your mail server provider.
• Check that your email sending limit (hourly/daily) has not exceeded the limit set by your email server provider. In such a case, you can wait and send emails later.

Check out the email setting and see whether you have set the mode to ‘send later’ or delayed sending. Such delayed sending settings will result in the showing of Outlook emails stuck in the Outbox. So, to fix it, you have to either remove this setting or wait till the time of sending. You can also resend the emails.

In most cases, when the password of your email account and Outlook account do not match, then Outlook emails are stuck in the Outbox. Thus, if you change the password for your email account, you must change your Outlook account password as well. Consequently, the error might be resolved.

Follow the given process to manage password:

1. Open Outlook. Click on File > Account setting>Manage Profiles.
2. Go to Email Accounts in the Mail Setup Window.
3. Select the account and click on the Change option.
4. Enter a new Password and click on Next followed with Finish.

Running Outlook in safe mode allows users to diagnose issues caused by add-ins and open the application safely. Follow the simple steps to open Outlook in safe mode.

1. Press the Windows + R key and type Outlook.exe /safe.
2. Click Ok to the execute the command.

Using outdated version of Outlook and Office apps might be the reason of the issue . So, updating Office apps is one of the preferred solution to fix the most errors including ‘Outlook emails get stuck in outbox’. Lets discuss the simple steps to execute it.

1. Open Outlook and go to File > Office Account.
2. Tap on the Office Updates options and click on Update Now.

Occasionally, configuring a new profile is also an effective way to fix many Outlook errors. It even resolves the issue of corrupted OST files to some extent. Follow the simple steps to configure the new profile.

1. Open Control Panel and go to Mail.
2. Tap on Show Profiles
3. click on the Add option to create a new profile.

If the above method won’t work, then you might be facing this issue because of corrupted emails. In that case, you certainly need an efficient third-party tool to resolve your issue without any damage to your data. Recoveryfix for Outlook PST Repair is an advanced tool that repairs corrupt PST files expeditiously and recovers all the mailbox items to PST, MSG, EML, and DBX formats.

The software also allows you to split large PST files into small PST files of the desired size. It also deal with PST corruption issue and proves to be an indispensible tool to fix the issue of PST corruption. With this software, you can also overcome other problems like how to resolve Outlook 2016 Search Greyed Out Error.

Conclusion

In the above blog, we discussed the reasons and possible solutions to the problem of Outlook emails getting stuck in Outbox. We also have recommended a tool to fix the same problem when nothing proves to be helpful. Recoveryfix for Outlook PST Repair works without compromising the quality, safety, format, and security of the data.