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Problems with Windows 10 mail app

Having upgraded to Windows 10 on two devices I have discovered a problem with syncing mail using the native app.

Problem:

After setting up Exchange and POP accounts I couldn't get either of them to sync.  

There appears to be some limited connectivity happening for the Exchange account, in that it retrieves the folder structure and my contacts, but neither messages or calendar are syncing.  

Similarly; the POP account refuses to sync anything.

For the avoidance of doubt - the Mail, People and Calendar apps all start correctly and are otherwise stable i.e. no crashes, or error messages thrown.

Observations:

The fact that my Exchange folder structure and contacts both sync seems strange as it is my understanding that Mail, People (contacts) and Calendar are all components of the same app?

When adding the Exchange account a dialogue reports that it has been added successfully.

All of these functions worked flawlessly using the Mail app in Windows 8.1 and there are no impediments at the server end.  

I also have another computer running Windows 10 and both Exchange and POP accounts are working perfectly on that machine.

Solutions tried so far?

  • Removed and re-added these accounts several times.  Being careful to stop the mail service in Task Manager beforehand, and restart Windows on each occasion.
  • Added both accounts manually using the Advanced Set-up menu.
  • Working on the assumption that perhaps the version of Mail in the release is defective I used Power Shell to delete the Mail/People/Calendar package and reinstalled it from the Store.
  • Checked that the Mail app is allowed through the firewall.
  • Checked that anti-virus software is not interfering with execution of commands in the Mail app.

I guess this sort of thing is apt to happen with new software, but having invested quite a lot of time upgrading it's pretty frustrating to be without a key bit of functionality.

Would be grateful if anyone could suggest other avenues to explore.

Thanks and regards,
Sean

Answer
Answer

So having browsed all the other threads about this issue I have finally found a solution and Mail is now syncing.

But first some context which may be useful in determining whether this will fix your Windows 10 Mail sync problem:

When the upgrade to Windows 10 first arrived I set about changing various settings to customise the system to my requirements.  In doing so I changed several privacy related settings relating to apps which are allowed to access calendar and contacts.  

Sounding familiar to anyone else?

So the short answer is that while there is nothing that explicitly says "Don't mess with these settings because turning them off will **** up syncing" it turns out that for some reason altering these settings does seem to interfere with Mail sync functionality.

So how to fix it?

Simple:-

  1. Go to Settings
  2. Open the Privacy tab
  3. Open the Contacts sub-menu
  4. In the list of apps check that access for "App Connector" and "Mail and Calendar" are turned on
  5. Open the Calendar sub-menu
  6. Check the "Let apps access my Calendar" option is turned on
  7. In the list of apps check that access for "App Connector" and "Mail and Calendar" are turned on

Hope this might be helpful to someone else.

Cheers

Sean

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Last updated March 28, 2022 Views 27,446 Applies to: