Outlook 2016 keeps hanging on send/receive/synchronizing folders

Hi Amy,

Based on your description, I got to know that Outlook used to work fine until the Windows update last week, right? In this situation, please make sure you’ve installed the latest Windows and Office Updates at first. If the issue persists, I’d like to narrow down the issue with the following details:
1. The detailed version of the Outlook client. (In FILE> Office Account> Update Options.)
2. If you configure another personal account like an Outlook.com account in the Outlook client, does the issue persist?
3. Start Outlook in safe mode to check the issue. For your reference: In Windows 7, choose Start, and in the Search programs and files box, type Outlook /safe, and then press Enter.
4. Although you’ve tried deleting the email account and setting it up again, we would still recommend you create a new profile and configure your account in it as the old one might be corrupt.

You can also find more troubleshooting steps in the following articles:
"Outlook not responding" error or Outlook freezes when you open a file or send mail
Outlook not responding, stopped working, freezes, or hangs

Let me know if anything is unclear.

Thanks,
Sam

Thanks for trying to help. Alas, it's still screwed up.  "Synchronizing folders" remains stuck.  Yes, I've checked for updates every day of this disaster of an experience.  

1. Product Info -- Microsoft Office Home and Business 2016. My updates download & install automatically, but as noted above, I've been updating daily in hopes that Microsoft issues a fix for this problem. Office Updates: "Version: 16.0.1010.2033"

2. I configured a second account in Outlook client, creating a new email with @outlook.com extension (costing me a ton more time, and having to give my info to yet another provider, declining a large number of Microsoft solicitations and "free offers" -- thanks, but no thanks -- and certainly resulting me enduring additional solicitations and associated nonsense) and the synchronization folder is hanging for the new email account.  

3. Safe mode does not prevent the synchronized folders hang.  I've tried that multiple times. 

4. I created a new profile and opened email through this new profile.  Same problem.  

So, I have literally wasted hours and hours on this problem, which still exists.  I cannot begin to articulate my frustration with Microsoft.  I have been a customer for many years, despite the burden of weekly updates (or, "fupdates", as I call them), which often screw up something with my computer.  I have spent a lot of money on Microsoft products.  This time, contrary to previous versions, I can say without hesitation that Office 2016 has caused me more problems than it has solved.  

Hi Amy,

Based on your updates, I manage to determine that the affected Outlook 2016 client is downloaded from Microsoft Office Home and Business subscription.

Since you had posted to the "Office 365 for business" category, I am going to move this thread to Office >Office 365 Home, Personal and University> Microsoft Office Outlook category for proper handling.

Regards,
Sam

Control Panel>Programs & Features>MS Office.............what version # is shown?

Within Outlook, File>Account settings.........is the outlook.com mail account type EAS or Exchange?

If you access your outlook.com mail account via web browser does the blue menu bar show 'Outlook.com' or something else?

As mentioned above, the Product Version is 16.0.7070.2033 .

The Outlook email (which I do not use -- I only set it up per the instructions of the other person above who was trying to help me -- see above, please) is Microsoft Exchange.  My work email address, which is the one having all the problems in Outlook 2016, is not an outlook.com address. 

When I attempt to logon to the Outlook email via web browser (https://outlook.live.com/owa/?path=/mail/inbox), I don't see any messages, even the test ones I sent yesterday and today.  When I try to send an email from that email account via Web browser, it gives me an error message.  When I send an email to the outlook address from my non-outlook email address, the message appears in the outlook email inbox in my Outlook app email inbox, but the Outlook inbox via web browser is still empty.  Same with when I send an email from my outlook email address to my outlook email address, from the Outlook app (and not via web browser outlook), the email shows up only in the Outlook app inbox. 

Also, I have an older machine that is running outlook 2010.  When I turned it on after updates, it too is hanging on syncrhonized folders.  Makes me think even more this is an updates problem now that I have the same issue on two different machines running two different versions of outlook.  

Both systems are now sending and receiving messages, but the synchronized folders remain hung.  

I wanted to check the version shown in Programs & features, that it matched.

This is all somewhat confusing;

The link https://outlook.live.com/owa/?path=/mail/inbox is for an Outlook.com mail account.

And if you cannot send a mail via that web interface it has nothing to do with MS outlook, or your win version.

Win Key+X>Control Panel (View by large icons)>Mail applet (32bit) double click, in the resulting window>Show Profiles, add a new profile, with prompt for profile selected, then Email Accounts, add your IMAP mail account in the auto set page, and test the account, assuming OK, finish the process then start Outlook under this new Profile, does it sync?

Not helpful.

I've had the very same issue.

An update came through nearly 6 months ago that caused this problem and it is still not fixed, which to be frank is fairly poor on behalf of Microsoft.

I've switched my email client to Mozilla Thunderbird now because of the problem, but it's cost me hours and hours of time. We literally have hundreds of clients that we principally communicate with via email, and so I've had to re-create the address book in Mozilla, and I'm still transferring those emails months later.

Given that we have to pay such a large price for a product you would think that Microsoft would resolve this issue within days, not weeks or in our case months!!!!!!

It's had a severe detrimental impact on our business.

I have used Outlook for over 10 years to manage my email accounts.  I have also had to deal with this same problem of Outlook freezing on send-receive for 10 years.   I have opened multiple cases with Microsoft as an MSDN member on this problem, and explored varous solutions in detail.  All "solutions" offered by Microsoft have been just work-rounds.

I am working in Windows 10 pro, anniversary version with Outlook 2016, and with Windows 7 enterprise and Outlook 2013.  I have made this problem more manageable by disabling all automatic send-receive, and I use manual send-receive so I can control when the problem occurs when I have time to manage it.

I am not using an exchange account, but my configuration probably stresses out Outlook more than most.  From the late 1990's to  the present the number of different email addresses I manage with outlook has varried from about 30 to about 70.  Until 2007 or 2010 (I forget) version I had so many email accounts that Outlook was unable to display them all in the send-receive list because the capacity was not that great - at least that problem seems mostly solved.  All my email accounts are pop3 accounts, and cover the full gamut of email providers.  

The problem used to be much worse; the solution to a send-receive freeze that worked before Outlook 2010 was to delete Outlook configuration files and restart.  At least now the solution is just to delete the Outlook process and restart Outlook 2016.  Same solution worked for me in Outlook 2013 and I think in Outlook 2010 - although that was a long time ago and I've forgotten when it was no longer necessary to delete and recreate configuration files.

My experience has been that Outlook send-receive will be working in send-receive mode and will process correctly 10-30 email accounts, then freeze.  The freeze appears to correspond with some communication problem Outlook is having with one of the email accounts.  Sometimes an error is generated, but sometimes not.  A distinguishing feature of this problem that corresponds exactly is that Outlook process is STILL RUNNING even when I cancel the send-receive process and then exit Outlook.  But after I cancel the Outlook process in task-manager, Outlook (2013 and) 2016 will start up just fine (In the past before Outlook 2007 or 2010 Outlook would sometimes try to repair the pst file on startup, but that problem doesn't happen anymore). 

The interesting thing is that after I restart Outlook 2016 (or 2013) and rerun send-receive the problem may recur but it will usually freeze at a different email account each time.  If the freeze is on a particular same email account each time, then logging in directly in a browser to that account and fixing it will almost always fix the problem (for example when Microsoft updates Outlook.com and turns off POP3, then if I re-enable it the problem is fixed).

Because I manage multiple email accounts, it is clear that Outlook is working fine and the problem is always communication with a particular email account.  It seems to me that in these situations the Outlook process gets locked in to managing that communication and even trying to cancel send-receive and exiting Outlook does not disengage Outlook from the lock-in.

I am open to comments and suggestions, but I have basically given up on this.  IMO there are some programming/design errors in Outlook that are causing this problem, and I don't believe it has anything to do with settings or add-ins. 

Finally i solved my problem today. but i don't know whether apply to your case. I deleted my IMAP email and change to POP setting. The reason here is when i import the PST file into my outlook, it will concurrently retrieve the email to the web mail and caused the webmail memory burst for IMAP. So today i tried to set up POP for my outlook and import the PST, so that my webmail wouldnt retrive the PST email which i imported. Now everything is syncs smoothly  and my webmail wouldn't burst cause it wouldn't retrive the mail i imported. But the disadvantage is the webmail and outlook wouldnt sync together for POP setting.

MAP and POP are two different protocols. There are many differences between these two. The main difference is that IMAP(Internet Messaged Access Protocol) always syncs with mail server so that any changes you make in your mail client (Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird) will instantly appear on your webmail inbox.

On the other hand, in POP(Post Office Protocol), your mail client account and mail server are not synced. It means whatever changes you make to your email account in the mail client will not be transferred to the webmail inbox.

In simple terms, if you are using IMAP and mark a mail as read, it gets marked as read in your web based inbox too (because the changes are happening on the server). However, this won’t be the case if you are using POP, because the mails are downloaded to your PC and the changes won’t reflect on the server.