Email isn't supposed to be rocket science; you write a message, click send, and the message should be sent more or less instantly and arrive in the recipient's inbox at just short of the speed of light. And usually, it works just like that.
But every Outlook user has probably suffered through the mysterious and frustrating experience of Outlook inexplicably not sending emails. Messages sit unsent in the outbox while you get increasingly agitated that you can't communicate with the outside world. This problem is more common than you think, so here are five ways to troubleshoot and solve a clogged Outlook outbox.
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Resend the message
There are a lot of reasons why your email might not be sending, but the easiest potential solution is to try resending it. A momentary glitch or sync problem could have consigned the email to the outbox for longer than usual.
To resolve it, click the outbox in your folder list and double-click the email that won't leave. Click Send a second time and wait a few moments to see if that works. If not, you might try deleting the message and rewriting it from scratch. If you send this second message and it still won't budge, then move on to the next troubleshooting step.
Make sure Outlook isn't offline
Outlook could have been accidentally set to offline mode. This can happen if there's a temporary problem with your internet connection, for example, and Outlook fails to go online again after connectivity is restored. Check the status at the bottom right of the Outlook window — you should see Connected. If it says Offline, click the Send/Receive tab in Outlook's ribbon menu and then click Work Offline. This should de-select the mode and you should see the status revert to Connected.
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Ensure you're connected to the internet
If the status remains offline, you might have an internet connection issue. See if you can go to a web page in a browser on the same computer. If you can't access the internet at all, reboot your WiFi network (unplug the internet modem and WiFi router, leave them powered off for at least two minutes, and then plug them back in again). Check your status after the network fully resets.
Close and restart Outlook
If you have a reliable internet connection but the email still won't leave your inbox, close and restart Outlook. You can't simply close the Outlook window, because Outlook leaves services running in the background. To make sure Outlook is fully closed, use the Task Manager.
1. Click Start and then type "task manager."
2. Click Task Manager in the search results when you see it appear.
3. Click Microsoft Outlook and then click End task.
4. Start Outlook again.
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Repair Outlook or your profile
Microsoft offers some tools that can repair Outlook if certain aspects of the program get corrupted. If you still can't send email, it might be time to try to repair Outlook. This is a time consuming process (it can take up to an hour) so save this for a last resort.
Click Start and then choose Settings. In the Settings app's search box, type "apps" and then choose Add or Remove programs when it appears in the search results. Scroll down the app list and find Microsoft Office (depending on your version of Office, it might be labeled differently, like Microsoft 365). Click the three-dot menu to the right and choose Modify. Choose Online Repair and then click Repair.
If this doesn't fix the problem, you can also try to repair your email account profile. In Outlook, choose File, then Account Settings and then choose Account Settings again from the drop-down menu. In the Accounts Settings dialog box, click the email account that won't send mail and click Repair.
Freelance Writer
Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.
