What to Do When Emails Get Stuck in Outbox?

Read time 10 minutes

You may sometimes have noticed that your emails are not displayed in Sent items even after sending them. Or simply, the email was not delivered to the recipient. The situation may remain the same even after multiple sending attempts. And it badly impacts email communication. Let us understand it with an example. Imagine a situation, a postman is trying to pass through a door opening and he is stuck. His inability or failure to pass through the door can be presumed for the reasons like, the door closed before he could pass through or the door is locked and not opening or the door opening but getting closed before could pass through or his bag of letters and parcels is too big to cross the door opening or he is not able to walk for some reason or the time of opening of the door is already fixed for a later time and so on.

Similar is the situation for Outlook emails that get stuck in Outbox. This blog lets us understand why this happens and how can it be overcome. Emails stuck in outbox means the message you wish to send is not being sent and also not being received by the recipient.’

Emails getting stuck in Outbox is a very common issue faced by many Outlook users. And many times, the email sending process takes a lot of time, and the message gets trapped in Outbox. Sometimes, Outlook displays error messages. Also, this issue is seen in all Outlook versions.

Why do Emails Get Stuck in Outbox?

There are many possible reasons for Outlook not being able to send emails.

Here, we have noted the most common reasons why emails get stuck in Outbox.

• Emails get stuck due to large attachments i.e. the size of the attachment exceeds the size limit allowed and that either halt or slow down the sending.
• Due to email authentication settings.To screen forged emails i.e. verifying or checking that the email is from the actual sender only, the malicious or deceptive emails are blocked.
• Opening and viewing that very message or email in Outbox which is in process of sending.
• The email is marked as viewed in the Outbox due to an installed add-in.
• The Outlook account is not authenticated by the mail server.
• The mail server or Outlook becomes offline.
• The send/receive settings are incorrect, and the email sending gets halted.
• Outlook is in use with another program. This means the existence of any software on your system which has access to your Outlook data files.
• The password you typed is wrong or you have changed your email account password.
• Absence or non-existence of default email account.
• Antivirus or anti-spam on your system is scanning outgoing mail.

How to Send Emails that Got Stuck in Outlook Outbox?

After knowing all the possible causes of the problem, let’s see how to resolve it easily. Let’s try these methods one by one.

Before you start with any of the given methods, ensure that the internet connectivity is good. Slow or poor connectivity may hinder sending emails, especially, emails having large attachments.

Method 1: Change the Outlook connection status:

Before moving to the resolution, check the state of the mail server. If the mail server is offline, your email messages will remain in the Outbox folder until the server state changes from offline to online status.

You can quickly check and change the state of the mail server within a few simple clicks.

Step 1: Look in the right-hand corner of Outlook. You will see Connected or Connected to Microsoft Exchange. If it is “Connected,” then the problem is not related to the server status.

Step 2: Suppose the state is Working Offline, then go to Send/Receive tab and click on Work Offline to disable it. After doing this, you will have to send the email again.

Step 3: If the status is Disconnected, check the internet connection and set it right.

Method 2: Try Resending the Email:

If the email is stuck in the Outbox folder, you must try sending it again. If it leaves the Outbox folder successfully, then your problem is solved.

Method 3: Check the email settings

You may even check the email setting whether you have set the mode of ‘send later’ or ‘delayed sending’. Such delayed sending setting will result in the showing of Outlook emails stuck in Outbox. Either remove this setting or wait till the time of sending is reached.

Method 4: Look for changes in the password

When the password of your email account and Outlook account do not match, then, Outlook emails are stuck in Outbox. Thus, if you change the password for your email account then you must change the password of your Outlook account as well. Changing of password for either Outlook or your internet email account or outlook data file follow the under given process to do this:

1. Open Outbox.
2. Click on File.
3. Click Account Settings.
4. Click on the account of which you wish to change the password.
5. Click Change.
6. Enter the new password.
7. Click Next.
8. Click Finish.

The process to be followed to change the password for the Outlook data file:

1. Open Outlook.
2. Right-click on your email account.
3. Click Data file properties.
4. Click Advanced.
5. Click Change password.
6. Enter your Old password.
7. Enter your new password.
8. Confirm your new password.
9. Click Ok.
10. Exit all windows.

Method 5: Try an OST Conversion Tool:

There are many other manual methods apart from the ones mentioned above, like reducing the size of attachments and inputting the password every time you change it. You can also try Inbox Repair Tool as Outlook stores all the information in the OST file.

If none of the manual methods works well to resolve the problem, using the Kernel for OST to PST tool is highly recommended. The tool works proficiently to resolve corruption and damages in OST files. The OST to PST converter tool works effectively even on large-size OST files and splits them as per the requirement of the user.

Get an idea of the Kernel for OST to PST software working with these procedural steps.

1. Launch the installed Kernel for OST to PST tool on your system.
2. On the Welcome Screen, click Browse to add your OST file directly from the system folder location or use the Search option to find the file in the specific drive.



3. Once the OST file is successfully added, click Next.



4. All the mailboxes’ content within the OST file will get retrieved. Select any OST file folder item to view its complete content preview. After this, click the Save option from the top menu.



5. Select PST from the list and click Next.



6. Now, add desired filter options like metadata, item type, and date range to move only specific data to the PST file. Then click Next.



7. Use the Split option to split your converted PST file into multiple small-sized PST files with a specific size interval, attach a prefix to converted files if you want, and click Next.



8. Next, click on the Browse option to provide the saving location for the converted file, choose Saving Preferences and click Finish.



9. The conversion of the OST file to the PST file will start and be completed soon.

The process is easy to perform, and you can try it using the free trial version available to download on the software website.

Conclusion

In this blog, we discussed the situation when emails get stuck in Outbox. After explaining the issue briefly, we discussed the reasons due to which it may occur. When Outlook users try to send emails, sometimes they get stuck in Outbox without being sent. This error may occur due to many reasons like incorrect Send/receive settings, offline mail server or Outlook, Outlook in use with another program, and so on. They may get error messages too. We then discussed the solutions to emails get stuck in the Outbox error one by one. Users can try to resend emails, try to change the connection status of Outlook or any manual method that fixes their issue. If not, they can try OST to PST conversion tools to fix the issue. Hope this blog helped you fix your issue.

Watch Video: To Fix MS Outlook Emails Get Stuck in Outbox