Fixes or workarounds for recent issues on Outlook.com

ISSUE:

Focused Inbox separates your inbox into two tabs—Focused and Other. If Outlook.com freezes when the Focused Inbox notification appears, try turning off Focused Inbox.

WORKAROUND:

Turn off Focused Inbox:

1. Open a new browser window.

2. Go directly to your Focused inbox settings.

3. Select Don't sort messages.

For more information about how to use Focused Inbox, see Focused Inbox for Outlook.

You might see this error if your primary alias's name is the same as an existing work or school account in Office 365 or Azure Active directory.

To resolve this error, try any of these steps:

• Rename your account to something else. For information on how to do this, go to Rename your personal account.

• If you have more than one alias, set one of your other aliases as the primary alias. For information on how to do this, go to Manage aliases on your Microsoft account.

• Add another alias to your account and make it the primary alias. For information on how to do this, go to Manage aliases on your Microsoft account.

For more information, go to the ADDriverStoreAccessNonLocalException troubleshooting article.

This error could occur if you have a non-Microsoft email address as the primary email address on your account.

To resolve this issue, set your Microsoft email address as the primary email address:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft account website.

2. Select Your info.

3. Select Manage your sign-in email or phone number.

4. Select Make primary next to the alias you want as your primary. The alias has to be a Microsoft email address, such as an email account that ends @outlook.com or @hotmail.com or @live.com.

To learn more about managing your aliases, go to Manage aliases on your Microsoft account.

These instructions only apply if you have connected your Outlook.com account to an Office 365 work or school mailbox via Outlook on the web. As part of the Outlook.com upgrade, we will be moving you to a more secure and reliable infrastructure. Once your Outlook.com account has been upgraded, your Outlook.com email will stop syncing to your Office 365 mailbox.

To resolve this issue, follow these steps to reconnect your Outlook.com account:

• Wait until you have been migrated to the new Outlook.com. To check if you have been migrated, read this Get help with Outlook.com article.

• Log in to Outlook on the web to access your Office 365 work or school account.

• Choose Settings (the cog wheel at top right corner)> Mail > Connected accounts to access the connected accounts options page.

• Select your connected Outlook account and click the trash can icon to delete it.

• Reconnect your Outlook account by clicking on the plus (+) icon.

For more detailed instructions on how to add a connected account, go to Connect email accounts in Outlook on the web (Office 365). If you experience any other issues, use the Contact Us link at the bottom of this page to contact support.

We apologize for the temporary inconvenience this may cause and we're excited for you to enjoy the benefits of the new Outlook.com.

If you're trying to add a Google Connected account to your Outlook.com account using POP, you may have encountered an error. This is due to security settings that is preventing the connection. Please follow the instructions from Google detailed in this article: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255?hl=en

Please follow these steps, one at a time, to fix issues with your POP account. If these steps don't help resolve your issue, please search for your specific issue in the Outlook.com community forums or contact support.

Step 1: Update your POP account settings

1. Go to https://outlook.live.com/owa/?path=/options/connections.

2. Sign in with your Microsoft account.

3. Under Manage your connected accounts, find your POP account. A status of "Update failed" should appear next to the POP account with issues.

4. Double-click the account or select the account and click on the pencil icon to get to the Edit connected accounts page.

5. Update the account password and click Save.

6. The account status should now show "Pending update" and should eventually change to "Up to date".

If the account status is stuck on "Pending update" for a long period of time, or it changes to "Update failed", or it changes to "Up to date" but you continue to experience issues, try the next step.

Step 2: Enable mail provider settings

If updating the password for the connected POP account didn't resolve the issue, you may need to change certain mail provider settings to enable a connection that could be blocked.

• For Gmail POP accounts, follow these steps: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255?hl=en

• For Yahoo POP accounts, follow these steps: https://help.yahoo.com/kb/account/SLN27791.html?impressions=true

• For any other email providers, contact them for steps on how to unblock the connection.

If you're mail provider isn't blocking the POP connection or following the unblock steps doesn't work, try the next step.

Step 3: Remove the connected POP account and reconfigure it as an IMAP connection

If the first two steps don't help resolve the problem, and your email server supports getting emails through IMAP, you should consider switching to IMAP instead. IMAP provides several advantages over using POP, including the ability to sync changes across all your devices and to all of your mail folders (not just the Inbox). To remove the failing POP account and add IMAP, follow these steps:

1. Go to https://outlook.live.com/owa/?path=/options/connections.

2. Sign in with your Microsoft account.

3. Under Manage your connected accounts, select the POP account and click on the trash icon to remove it.

4. Click Yes in the Remove connected account? dialog box.

5. Once the account is removed, try adding it again and select Create a new folder for imported email, with subfolders like the account you connect option under the You can choose where the imported email will be stored section.

If none of these steps help resolve your issue, please contact support for further assistance.

Connection error: You may receive a connection error if you configured your Outlook.com account as IMAP in multiple email clients. We’re working on a fix and will update this article when we have more information. For now, try the following workaround:

1. Go tohttps://account.live.com/activity and sign in using the email address and password of the affected account.

2. Under Recent activity find the Session Type event that matches the most recent time you received the connection error and click to expand it.

3. Select This was me to let the system know you authorize the IMAP connection.

4. Attempt to connect to the account via your IMAP client.

   For more information on how to use the Recent activity page, go to What is the recent activity page?

GoDaddy accounts: If you use Outlook.com to access a non-Microsoft domain, you might not be able to sync your accounts using IMAP. To resolve this, remove the connected IMAP account in Outlook.com and reconfigure it as a POP connection. For instructions about how to reconfigure your GoDaddy domain, go to Add your other email accounts to Outlook.com.

If none of these steps resolve your issue, or you need to have IMAP enabled (it's disabled by default), contact GoDaddy support.

To learn more about IMAP and POP, see What are IMAP and POP?

For more information about issues with shared calendars, see Known issues with shared calendars in Outlook.

Last updated: January 9, 2017

ISSUE

When connecting your Outlook.com account to Outlook 2016 or Outlook 2013, you are prompted to log-in multiple times.

STATUS: WORKAROUND

If you setup two-step verification on your account you will need to create an App Password to add the account in Outlook.

ISSUE

When adding an Outlook.com account either automatically or manually, Outlook 2016 or Outlook 2013 crashes.

WORKAROUND

We are actively working on a fix. In the meantime, you can add your account using the Control Panel Mail Applet:

1. Go to Control Panel.

   • Windows 10: Click the Windows Search Bar and type "Control Panel".

   • Windows 8 or 8.1: Press and hold the Windows key + X, then click Control Panel.

   • Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP: Start > Control Panel.

2. In the search box at the top of the window, type "Mail" and click the Mail icon.

3. Choose Show Profiles... > Properties.

   

4. Click Email Accounts... and then in the Account Settings dialog box, click New...

5. Choose E-mail Account, and then enter your name.

   

6. Enter the address and password of the email account that you want to add.

7. Retype your password, and choose Next.

8. When you see Congratulations! in the window, choose Finish.

ISSUE

After connecting to Outlook for Windows (Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010 versions) to your Outlook.com email account, your may experience the following:

• Your email account name shows up as outlook_[long series of letters and numbers]@outlook.com in the Folder Pane and when composing emails using Outlook for Windows.

• Recipients will also receive the email from the sender with the outlook_[long series of letters and numbers]@outlook.com format.

• When recipients reply to the email, the email bounces and you may receive the message “Undeliverable message when you send Internet mail in Outlook.”

This issue only impacts customers using Outlook for Windows. Emails sent via Outlook.com on the web works correctly and emails will be sent with the correct email address.

WORKAROUND

This issue occurs for users with multiple account aliases. We are actively working on a fix. In the meantime, to fix this issue, please do the following:

1. Go to https://account.live.com/names/Manage and sign in to your Outlook.com account.

2. Set your Outlook.com email as the primary alias.

3. In Outlook for Windows, remove and re-add the account. See the steps in this article: Add your Outlook.com account in Outlook for Windows

Last updated: January 24, 2017

ISSUE

When sending email to a Contact Group in Outlook, Outlook displays an error “An unexpected error has occurred."

STATUS: WORKAROUND

We are actively investigating this issue. As a workaround, you can click the + icon to expand the Contact Group and then send the email.

Last updated: January 24, 2017

ISSUE

When sending email to any contacts from your address book in Outlook, some recipients receive a winmail.dat file attachment that shows up in some clients such as Gmail and Yahoo web mail. In Outlook, the attachment icon is displayed but no attachment shown.

STATUS: INVESTIGATING

We are currently investigating this issue. This issue does not occur when sending emails from Outlook.com on the web or using Outlook app for Windows mobile or iOS.

Last updated: January 24, 2017

ISSUE

Contacts stored in Outlook with Outlook.com connected accounts lose their information entered in the Company name field after syncing to server.

STATUS: INVESTIGATING

We are currently investigating this issue and will provide an update as soon a fix is in place.

Last updated: April 24, 2017

ISSUE

When replying to an email with multiple recipients, your email address gets added to the To line.

STATUS: FIXED

This issue has been fixed in Outlook 2016. The fix for Outlook 2013 has also been released in the security update on April 11, 2017.

Last updated: May 19, 2017

ISSUE

If you have multiple email accounts connected in Outlook, the Outlook.com account always becomes the default sending "from" account when replying or forwarding from another non-Outlook account (such as Gmail or Yahoo).

STATUS: Fixed

The fix for this issue has been released. Please install the latest Office updates by going to File > Office Account > Update Options > Update Now.

Last updated: February 8, 2017

ISSUE

If Outlook is connected to a primary Outlook.com account that is also connected to other secondary non-Microsoft accounts (such as Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), when sending an email in Outlook, you are not able to choose the other secondary connected account as the "From" sending account.

If you manually type in the secondary connected account email address in the "From" field, the email is sent as "On behalf of" your primary Outlook.com account.

STATUS: WORKAROUND

Outlook supports sending from a secondary connected account for Microsoft owned domains such as @outlook.com, @live.com, @hotmail.com but has not implemented this functionality for third-party domains.

The Outlook team is listening to your feedback and investigating adding this functionality to future updates. Please vote up the request and add any feedback on UserVoice: Option to make Microsoft Outlook 2016 work with Outlook.com connected. In the meantime, please use the following workaround:

WORKAROUND

You can also add the secondary connected accounts (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) in Outlook.com as additional accounts in the Outlook profile.

1. In Outlook, choose the File tab.

   

2. Under Account Information, choose Add Account.

   

3. On the Auto Account Setup page, enter your name, email address, and password, and then choose Next.

   Note: If you receive an error message after choosing Next, double check your email address and password. If both are correct, see the next section.

4. Choose Finish.

For more information, please see Outlook email setup.

Last updated: January 24, 2017

ISSUE

When connecting in Outlook as an Exchange account, you are unable to configure your personal custom domain email account.

WORKAROUND

1. Add a CNAME record to your DNS settings at your domain registrar. A CNAME record is needed for Outlook to configure the account using Autodiscover. The only record you need to add is for Host Autodiscover.

   Record type	Host	Points to	TTL
   CNAME (Alias)	autodiscover	autodiscover.outlook.com	1 hour

2. Verify your MX record is still configured for Hotmail. An MX record ensures you can receive email from other people.

   When you originally setup your Domain settings for Outlook.com an MX record was added to your DNS settings. This record has some unique numbers and/or letters followed by *.pamx1.hotmail.com and it needs to be preserved. You can confirm the MX record is still configured properly by looking up your domain at https://mxtoolbox.com. This record should be listed before any other MX records for this domain. For example, this is what it should look like on https://mxtoolbox.com:

   Pref	Hostname	IP Address	TTL
   10	123456789.pamx1.hotmail.com	65.54.188.109	60 min	Backlist Check	SMTP Test

Last updated: May 2, 2017

To ensure that your calendars and email sync correctly, reconnect your Outlook.com account to Outlook for Windows. For detailed instructions, see Reconnect Outlook 2016 or Outlook 2013 to Outlook.com for uninterrupted email access.

Last updated: May 2, 2017

Currently, you can't use Outlook on Windows to edit calendars that are shared with your Outlook.com account, even if you've reconnected your Outlook.com account to Outlook. We're working to make it possible to edit shared calendars in Outlook 2016 for Windows.

To edit a shared calendar, go online to your own Outlook.com calendar, open Calendar for Windows 10, or use a mobile device. Read how to Add your Outlook.com account to another mail app.

Last updated: May 2, 2017

ISSUE

When you try to accept a shared Outlook.com calendar using your Office 365 for business account in Outlook 2016, you might receive the "Something went wrong" error or your sign-in might fail.

STATUS: WORKAROUND

To access the calendar shared with your Office 365 for business account, you’ll need to accept the invitation from Outlook on the web . If you've already clicked the Accept button in Outlook 2016, you won't be able to re-accept the invitation in Outlook on the web. The person who sent you the invitation will need to remove your permissions and then send a new invitation.