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Outlook jams up constantly and shows an ever-increasing number of messages queued to be received

Hi folks

We have a problem with Outlook continually jamming up and not allowing all the emails to be received to one of 2 computers. We are using Office 365 & Windows 10 on two computers. Mine is connected to husband's pc and his pc is the main one for receiving emails. I receive all the emails correctly but he only receives about 5 emails at any one time and only if he has pressed Send/Receive. When he does that, he only receives a handful of the latest ones in - not those that came in say a little earlier in the day. So, no matter how many times we use the Send/Receive button, there are always gaps in what he receives on his pc.

When we open the Send/Receive progress window it is constantly hung-up on a "receiving" task. The Send/Receive progress bar is showing a huge amount of emails queued to be received. We have had this problem for a couple of weeks. One day out of the blue, his Outlook went from working correctly to being jammed up and showing 400 messages currently queued to be received. Each day, the number of emails in the queue increases and today it shows 900 messages in the queue. In the Send/Receive progress window, we have tried cancelling all the sending/receiving tasks. This seems to work but as soon as we again press the Send/Receive button, the receiving number of emails jumps back to 900. He doesn't receive emails automatically for some reason.

I hope someone has an answer for us - this is driving us crazy. Thank you.

Hi Linda,
Is this happening with an outlook.com account (this is the outlook.com forum) or with an IMAP or POP account?

If you don't hit Send/Receive, does the mail ever download on its own?
--
Diane Poremsky
M365 MVP, specializing in Outlook, Exchange, and Microsoft 365 apps.

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Hi Linda,
Is this happening with an outlook.com account (this is the outlook.com forum) or with an IMAP or POP account?

If you don't hit Send/Receive, does the mail ever download on its own?
Thanks Diane. It is a POP account. We have to hit Send/Receive to receive emails. Am I in the wrong forum?

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It's better to use the correct forum, but I can move it for you.

Go to Send & Receive settings - Ctrl+Alt+S - is it set to check for new mail? Default is check every 30 min, but that is a bit slow - set it to 5 - 8 minutes. Definitely no less than every 5 min.

I don't think there are any send/receive issues with pop accounts, but will check with support.
--
Diane Poremsky
M365 MVP, specializing in Outlook, Exchange, and Microsoft 365 apps.

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It's better to use the correct forum, but I can move it for you.

Go to Send & Receive settings - Ctrl+Alt+S - is it set to check for new mail? Default is check every 30 min, but that is a bit slow - set it to 5 - 8 minutes. Definitely no less than every 5 min.

I don't think there are any send/receive issues with pop accounts, but will check with support.

Thanks Diane. Yes, the settings are correct - I've got it set at 5 mins.

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Find the last message that was downloaded - then go to web mail and move or delete the next message.
--
Diane Poremsky
M365 MVP, specializing in Outlook, Exchange, and Microsoft 365 apps.

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Thank you Diane! While deleting the last email released some of today's emails, it jammed again. Your suggestion to go into Webmail prompted me to look at the number of emails sitting on the server. Lo & behold, there was over 900 there, the same number in fact that my husband's pc is trying to download. Strange that I don't have the problem on mine. Anyway, as I do have them all on my pc, I have deleted everything off the server and hubby's outlook has gone back to normal. My ISP told me that it was our problem, nothing to do with them! 

Many, many thanks for looking at this for us.

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You're welcome!

Let us know if there's anything else. If you don't have any more questions, feel free to choose a rating. Thanks!
--
Diane Poremsky
M365 MVP, specializing in Outlook, Exchange, and Microsoft 365 apps.

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Oh dear Diane. We have just received some 10 new emails on webmail and I got them but hubby's pc is jammed again, trying to receive them. May still have the problem, just not as big! Went back into the server to delete the first of the new ones, nothing changed. We'll try a reboot of his pc.

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How many accounts are in his profile?

Do you both have the same Security / Antivirus software? If its 3rd party, disable it and enable Defender and the Windows Firewall.

What about addins? Does it work correctly in Safe mode? He'll need to reenter all of the account passwords while in Safe mode. To open Outlook in Safe mode: Close Outlook then hold Ctrl as you click on the Outlook icon. You'll get a message asking if you want to start in Safe mode. Click Ok.
--
Diane Poremsky
M365 MVP, specializing in Outlook, Exchange, and Microsoft 365 apps.

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Last updated September 30, 2021 Views 375 Applies to: