Fixes or workarounds for recent issues on Outlook.com
This article is for Outlook.com. If you're using Outlook for Windows, see Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in Outlook for Windows.
If you're having problems accessing Outlook.com, you can see the status of Microsoft Office Online Services at the Service Health portal.
If you're having problems sending or receiving email, read how to Fix Outlook.com email sync issues.
Last updated: 6 January 2021
Outlook.com issues affecting email messages, attachments, and features
Error message "Your message can't be displayed right now" [WORKAROUND]
Last updated: 6 January 2021
ISSUE
We're aware of an issue where some users see the error message "Your message can't be displayed right now".
STATUS: WORKAROUND
To resolve this, please clear your browser's cache & cookies:
Repeated sign in needed with iOS mail app [WORKAROUND]
Last updated: 7 December 2020
ISSUE
If you access your Outlook.com account through the iOS Mail app, you may be repeatedly asked to enter your username and password.
STATUS: WORKAROUND
We recommend using the Outlook for iOS app instead.
Deleted emails reappear [INVESTIGATING]
Last updated: 10 November 2020
ISSUE
Users with Outlook.com accounts are seeing emails they delete from the Inbox reverting back to the Inbox.
STATUS: INVESTIGATING
The Outlook Team is investigating the issue for a fix. We will update this article as soon as we have more information on a fix.
In the meantime, if the emails being reverted are coming from connected accounts you may be able to go to the Inbox of the originating account and delete the email to workaround the issue. For example, if you have a Gmail connected account, go to Gmail.com and delete the email from there.
Family Calendar not visible [WORKAROUND]
Last updated: 7 September 2020
ISSUE
A recent change to the Family Calendar also removed some functionality that allowed the calendar to be viewed as a shared calendar in other applications like the Windows 10 Mail app and the Outlook desktop app as well as some third party apps.
WORKAROUND
None of the events or information was lost in the move to the new calendar. The Family group calendar now appears in the Outlook.com groups area in the left nav on Outlook web and in the groups area of the Outlook mobile app. It is also added to your favorites automatically.
Learn more about using the Family Calendar in Outlook.com.
Images not visible in emails [INVESTIGATING]
Last updated: 13 August 2020
ISSUE
We are aware of an issue where some customers cannot see images or pictures in their emails, or they are corrupted.
We are currently investigating and apologize for the inconvenience.
WORKAROUND
Ask the sender to resend the picture as an attachment.
News folder
Some customers may see a News folder. This is a limited experiment for a sample of customers. Although it’s not possible at the moment to turn the feature off entirely, you can choose to remove it from your favorites list by right clicking the folder and selecting Remove from Favorites.
Unable to view folders or left pane in Outlook.com [FIX AVAILABLE]
Last updated: 12 May 2020
ISSUE
Some users may not be able to see the left folder pane.
SOLUTIONS
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Sign out of Outlook.com
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Clear your browser cache. Learn how to do that for Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari.
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Close all browser tabs and windows.
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Sign in again at www.outlook.com.
Tips: When viewing on a small screen, you may still need to:
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Maximize your browser window, or scroll left to view the folder list.
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Expand the folder pane only when you need it. Select the three line icon
in the left side bar to show or hide folders.
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Open your layout settings and select Hide reading pane then Save. This will give the screen more space to show the folders.
Safari users unable to get support in Outlook.com [WORKAROUND]
ISSUE
We are aware that some users may not be able to get support in the Outlook.com Help pane when using the Safari browser.
WORKAROUND
-
In the Safari app
on your Mac, choose Safari > Preferences > Privacy.
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Uncheck Website Tracking: Prevent cross-site tracking.
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Uncheck Always allow cookies: Block all cookies.
For more information, read Apple's guide to Manage cookies and website data in Safari on Mac.
Unable to receive email from Gmail accounts in Outlook.com [WORKAROUND]
ISSUE
We are aware that some users may not be able to receive email from Gmail accounts. We are investigating a possible problem.
WORKAROUND
Check that you have not accidentally blocked the Gmail domain when blocking one Gmail user.
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Open your Blocked Senders list.
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If Gmail.com is in the list, select the
next to the entry and press Save.
Unable to empty the Deleted Items folder in Outlook.com
ISSUE
Some users may not be able to empty their Deleted Items folder.
SOLUTIONS
-
If you have deleted a lot of email, it may take some time for those items to move to or be deleted from the Deleted Items folder - leave the browser window open while the deleting takes place.
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If the email still fails to delete properly, select a smaller batch to delete.
-
If deleted email comes back, it could be because you have deleted a lot of email recently. Please try again later.
Unable to sign out of Outlook.com [WORKAROUND]
ISSUE
Some customers may not be able to see their Profile, Account or Sign Out options when selecting their picture on the top toolbar.
WORKAROUNDS
Some Firefox users may be able to solve the problem by clearing cookies and site data. Learn how.
If not, you can access your Microsoft account Profile at https://account.microsoft.com/profile/.
You can see all other aspects of your Microsoft Account at https://account.microsoft.com/.
You can also Sign out manually then close all browser windows.
Unable to create a new email address (alias) in Outlook.com [WORKAROUND]
Unable to open Help with Contact Support buttons
ISSUE
Customers using the contact support buttons at the foot of the support pages, or the "email us" links in support Virtual Agent, are unable to open the Help Pane.
RECOMMENDED ACTION
-
Sign in to get Outlook.com support.
Important: If you can't sign in, go to Account support.
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Select the ? at the top of the Outlook.com window. Once you have signed in and have a browser window open, then the links will work.
-
Learn more about how to contact support when using the Help Pane.
Unable to delete items in the Junk Folder
Blocking an item already in your Junk Email folder won't delete it. If you're still receiving email from a sender you blocked, see Receiving email from blocked senders in Outlook.com.
Unable to block senders in Outlook.com
Blocking someone doesn't stop their email from coming to your mailbox, but it does automatically move the message to your Junk Email folder where you can review it (in case it was blocked in error).
Learn more about Receiving email from blocked senders in Outlook.com.
Emails don’t load [WORKAROUND]
ISSUE
Some browsers will have problems loading emails, time-out or run very slowly if advert and pop-up blockers are enabled, specifically:
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AdBlock
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Ublock
WORKAROUND
-
Use Microsoft Edge or another web browser.
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Exclude Outlook.com from the AdBlock settings. At the top right corner of Google Chrome, select AdBlock and then select Don’t run on pages on this domain. Refresh your browser to load Outlook.com again.
-
Remove the problematic ad-blockers by managing extensions in Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome. or Safari.
Inbox empty or not loading [WORKAROUND]
ISSUE
Certain add-ons in the Firefox browser may prevent your Outlook.com Inbox from loading.
WORKAROUND
Visit Firefox support to learn how to Disable or remove Add-ons.
Cannot send email [WORKAROUND]
ISSUE
If you are having issues sending email, this might be due to validation issues with your Microsoft Account.
WORKAROUND
-
Go to https://account.live.com/reputationcheck to validate your Microsoft Account.
-
Ensure your Microsoft Account profile is up-to-date and complete. Make sure you accept the Terms Of Use, if requested.
If you're still unable to send or receive email, read how to Fix Outlook.com email sync issues.
Outlook issues after connecting Outlook to Outlook.com
Outlook.com email account appears as "outlook_[long series of letters and numbers]@outlook.com" in Outlook for Windows [WORKAROUND]
ISSUE
After connecting to Outlook for Windows (Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010 versions) to your Outlook.com email account, your may experience the following:
-
Your email account name shows up as outlook_[long series of letters and numbers]@outlook.com in the Folder Pane and when composing emails using Outlook for Windows.
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Recipients will also receive the email from the sender with the outlook_[long series of letters and numbers]@outlook.com format.
-
When recipients reply to the email, the email bounces and you may receive the message “Undeliverable message when you send Internet mail in Outlook.”
This issue only impacts customers using Outlook for Windows. Emails sent via Outlook.com on the web works correctly and emails will be sent with the correct email address.
STATUS
The Outlook client does not currently support using a non Microsoft domain primary alias. For the time being to get the account to work in Outlook you need to change the primary alias to a Microsoft domain account, such as @outlook.com or @hotmail.com.. The Outlook Team is doing work that will enable some supported use of aliases in the near future. We will update this topic as soon as the functionality is available.
WORKAROUND
This issue occurs for users with multiple account aliases. We are actively working on a fix. In the meantime, to fix this issue, please do the following:
Note: If you do not have another alias, click the link on the page to create one "Click Add email and a new alias". Then choose the option "Create a new email address and add it as an alias"
-
Go to https://account.live.com/names/Manage and sign in to your Outlook.com account.
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Set your Outlook.com email as the primary alias.
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In Outlook for Windows, remove and re-add the account. See the steps in this article: Add your Outlook.com account in Outlook for Windows
Sending an email from an Outlook.com connected account, Outlook sends the email as "On behalf of" your Outlook.com account [WORKAROUND]
Last updated: February 8, 2017
ISSUE
If Outlook is connected to a primary Outlook.com account that is also connected to other secondary non-Microsoft accounts (such as Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), when sending an email in Outlook, you are not able to choose the other secondary connected account as the "From" sending account.
If you manually type in the secondary connected account email address in the "From" field, the email is sent as "On behalf of" your primary Outlook.com account.
STATUS: WORKAROUND
Outlook supports sending from a secondary connected account for Microsoft owned domains such as @outlook.com, @live.com, @hotmail.com but has not implemented this functionality for third-party domains.
The Outlook team is listening to your feedback and investigating adding this functionality to future updates. Please vote up the request and add any feedback on UserVoice: Option to make Microsoft Outlook 2016 work with Outlook.com connected. In the meantime, please use the following workaround:
WORKAROUND
You can also add the secondary connected accounts (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) in Outlook.com as additional accounts in the Outlook profile.
-
In Outlook, choose the File tab.
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Under Account Information, choose Add Account.
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On the Auto Account Setup page, enter your name, email address, and password, and then choose Next.
Note: If you receive an error message after choosing Next, double check your email address and password. If both are correct, see the next section.
-
Choose Finish.
For more information, please see Outlook email setup.
Cannot edit the shared Outlook.com calendar in Outlook 2016 [WORKAROUND]
Last updated: May 2, 2017
Currently, you can't use Outlook on Windows to edit calendars that are shared with your Outlook.com account, even if you've reconnected your Outlook.com account to Outlook. We're working to make it possible to edit shared calendars in Outlook 2016 for Windows.
To edit a shared calendar, go online to your own Outlook.com calendar, open Calendar for Windows 10, or use a mobile device. Read how to Add your Outlook.com account to another mail app.
Error when sharing a calendar from Outlook.com personal or home account to a Microsoft 365 business account [WORKAROUND]
Last updated: May 2, 2017
ISSUE
When you try to accept a shared Outlook.com calendar using your Microsoft 365 for business account in Outlook 2016, you might receive the "Something went wrong" error or your sign-in might fail.
STATUS: WORKAROUND
To access the calendar shared with your Microsoft 365 for business account, you’ll need to accept the invitation from Outlook on the web, iOS, or Android. If you've already clicked the Accept button in Outlook 2016, you won't be able to re-accept the invitation from another Outlook application. The person who sent you the invitation will need to remove your permissions and then send a new invitation.

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