Does this ever happen to you? In Outlook, you create an email, hit Send, then wander off to do a few other things. Hours later, you get a phone call from the client who’s waiting for your message, and you realize that the email is still in the Outbox.
The only solution to the stuck email seemed to be copying its contents to another message, deleting the original, and sending the new message. Who has time for all that, especially when a client is waiting?
Stay Away From the Outbox
After unsent Outlook messages happened to me a few times, I finally figured out that the problem occurred if I clicked on the Outbox folder, before the message was sent.
So, I try to avoid clicking on the Outbox folder, but I accidentally click on it now and then.
Advice From the Experts
An Outlook message got stuck in the Outbox again today, so I Googled to see if anyone else had the same problem, and had posted a solution. The Google search turned up a page on the Slipstick site, owned by Outlook expert, Diane Poremsky – Email Won’t Send – Common Causes.
Her advice? Stop looking in the Outbox. 😉 Well, that’s the recommended quick fix. There’s also a longer article on the problem: After viewing the Outbox, the messages in it won’t send.
Apparently some add-ins mark the outbound messages as Read, if you peek in the Outbox, and that prevents them from being sent. Maybe I have one or more of the add-ins that are in that long list.
Okay, I’ll Stop
Anyway, it’s reassuring to know that other people have the unsent Outlook messages problem, and I can avoid it by staying out of the Outbox.
Next time I accidentally hit the Outbox (oh, I will), I’ll try marking the message as Unread, to see if that will fix the problem, and let me send it.
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