not receiving emails

Hi @Cyndie Blanford,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

I understand how worrying it can be when you’re not receiving emails, and I’m happy to help you investigate this further.

To help narrow down the possible cause, could you please clarify a few details below?

1/ Are you seeing any error messages or error codes?

If so, please feel free to share a screenshot, making sure any personal or sensitive information is removed.

2/ Do any messages appear in Junk Email, the Other tab, or another folder (even briefly), or does nothing change at all when emails are sent to you?

3/ Are you still able to send emails successfully, or is the issue only affecting incoming messages?

4/ Does this happen with emails from everyone, or only from a specific sender?

5/ Which Microsoft 365 license are you using (for example, Business Basic, Business Standard, or E3)?

If a mailbox reaches its storage quota, Exchange will stop accepting new emails until space is freed, even though sending emails may still work.

You can check your license by signing in here: https://portal.office.com/account/?ref=Harmony#subscriptions and reviewing the Licenses section.

While we’re waiting for your response to the questions above, you may also want to try the following steps, as they often help identify where messages are going:

• Use Search in Outlook on the web to look for a message from a sender you’re expecting, and check Junk Email, Deleted Items, Archive, as well as both Focused and Other tabs (if Focused Inbox is enabled). Reference: Focused Inbox for Outlook.
• Review your Inbox Rules by going to Settings > Mail > Rules, and temporarily disable any rule that moves, deletes, or forwards incoming emails. References: Manage email messages by using rules in Outlook / Turn on automatic forwarding in Outlook.
• Check your Junk Email settings and add the sender to Safe senders if needed.
  
• Try accessing Outlook on the web using an InPrivate/Incognito window, clear your browser cache and cookies, or test with a different browser to rule out a browser‑related issue.

If emails still do not appear anywhere after these checks, please contact your Microsoft 365 administrator and ask them to run a message trace. This can confirm whether emails are reaching your mailbox and help determine where they may be getting routed or blocked. You can find more detailed instructions here: Message trace in the new Exchange admin center in Exchange Online.

Please try them and let me know how it goes. If the issue continues, feel free to share any error messages or additional details, and we can continue working through this together.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any further questions or need more assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m happy to help and look forward to continuing the conversation.

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Work through these checks in Outlook on the web to identify why messages are not arriving:

1. Confirm the account is working

• Sign in to Outlook on the web/Outlook.com directly and verify there are no error banners about storage being full, sign‑in issues, or a blocked account.
• If sign‑in fails or the account appears blocked, use the Microsoft account sign-in helper or unblock flow referenced in the Outlook.com article.

2. Check storage and account status

• If Microsoft cloud storage is full, new email cannot be received and messages sent to the account are bounced and unrecoverable. Use the mailbox storage page referenced in the Outlook.com article to confirm there is free space.

3. Look for messages in other folders or views

• Check the Junk Email folder. If legitimate messages are there, right‑click them and choose Mark as not junk so future mail from those senders goes to Inbox.
• Check the Other tab (if Focused Inbox is enabled) and ensure no filters are hiding messages. Restore chronological order with Filter > Sort > Date.

4. Review junk and blocked settings

• In Outlook.com/Outlook on the web, open Settings and review Junk Email settings.
• Make sure the senders or domains you expect mail from are not in Blocked senders. If they are, remove them so their messages can arrive in the Inbox.

5. Check rules and forwarding

• In Outlook.com/Outlook on the web, review Rules and disable or delete any rule that moves or deletes incoming messages unexpectedly (for example, diverting all new mail to another folder or RSS feed, as seen in a similar case).
• Check if Email forwarding is enabled and pointing to another address. If so, turn it off or correct the forwarding address.

6. If only some senders are affected

• Ask the affected senders to confirm they are not receiving bounce messages. If they are, they should follow the guidance in Sender Support in Outlook.com referenced in the Outlook.com article.
• Also verify their addresses are not on the blocked senders list as described above.

7. If using Outlook clients in addition to the web

• If mail appears in Outlook on the web but not in a desktop or mobile client, remove and re‑add the device partnership or account in that client as described in the Outlook.com sync guidance.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, use the Outlook.com interactive troubleshooter and in‑product Help → Still need help? to contact support for account‑specific investigation.

References:

• Can't send or receive email in Outlook.com
• Where are my email messages or calendar events in Mail and Calendar for Windows 10?