Why Is My Outlook Not Working and How to Fix Common Outlook Problems on Windows 10?

| Updated on March 1, 2024

Microsoft Outlook is one of the most versatile ‘business’ email client tools available today. That is why the majority of the worldwide organizations and individuals use it every day to send and receive email messages, manage calendar, track tasks, and to store names & numbers of contacts, etc.

However, as an Outlook user you might have come across such situations when Microsoft Outlook does not work and an error message saying—‘Outlook has stopped working’ comes up on the screen. 

Well, it’s simply because Outlook, like any other software or email client tool, isn’t perfect and rather prone to bugs and problems.

Common Outlook Problems

These above-listed problems that occur in Outlook may not only disrupt your email communication but also result in loss of your mailbox items due to causing damage or corruption to Outlook data files (OST/PST).

Hence, in order to avoid data loss, it is way more critical to prevent and fix the common Outlook issues that trouble the Outlook users in 2021.

Notes

You can bookmark this page, so that whenever you face any of these common Outlook problems, you’ll always have a place that helps you in troubleshooting the same.

So, if you’re also one of them, then we’re here to help you in fixing any of these common yet most annoying problems due to which you’re experiencing ‘Outlook Not Working’ issue.

That said, let’s get started with Outlook troubleshooting— 

The first rule of Outlook troubleshooting is to apply these two basic solutions that help you to eliminate the most obvious suspects.

  • Check Your Internet Connection: 

Until and unless your Windows 10 PC is not connected to a proper internet connection, none of your apps including Outlook will be able to work effectively. So, check your internet connection and make sure to get connected with a strong, stable and secure network. In regard with this, you can also consider switching to Google DNS.

  • Look for Temporary Server Issue: 

You need to find out whether the email provider side of Outlook is down or not. For that, review the Microsoft Outlook twitter page, or check at a server checking website like downdetector.com or isitdownrightnow.com.

After this, if no server and no internet issue found, and still Outlook is not working then, you are dealing with one of the many other Outlook issues and thus, require assistance in troubleshooting them separately—

Preview of How to Fix Common Outlook Not Working Problems!

In order to get rid of each and every Outlook problem, you need to apply their respective potential solutions that are listed along with them:

Problem 1: Potential Solutions: 
Can’t Log Into Outlook Email
  • Run Outlook in Safe-Window Mode.
  • Use the Optimized and Updated web browser to log in.
  • Consider Microsoft’s released Outlook App to access your account.
  • Avoid using the autofill-password feature to sign-in.
  • Verify and Update Outlook server settings.
  • Reset your password with the Microsoft Recovery Tool.
Problem 2: Potential Solutions: 
Outlook Won’t Open
  • Check for security program interference
  • Update or if required (Repair) Outlook.
  • Disable Flawed Add-ins and your antivirus software.
  • Check for PST file issues.
  • Create a New Profile for Outlook
  • Repair MS Office Suite using Microsoft Outlook Repair Tool
  • Reset Navigation Pane
Problem 3: Potential Solutions: 

Outlook Is Not Receiving Emails
  • Check if your Outlook inbox has reached the storage limit.
  • Verify whether your Outlook emails are going to Junk Mail or not.
  • Review the number of accounts you have, it must not be more than 20.
  • Check Outlook email rules as well as Blocked and Safe Senders lists.
  • Review Outlook’s email sorting settings.
Problem 4: Potential Solutions: 
Outlook Is Not Sending Emails
  • Check Recipient Email Address properly
  • Verify you haven’t exceeded the daily message limits.
  • Ensure your email isn’t triggering the recipient’s spam filters.
  • Turn Outlook Working Offline Status off
  • Repair Outlook Application
  • Sync Password in Outlook Program.
  • Run Scan and enable TCP/TP Protocol
Problem 5: Potential Solutions: 
Outlook’s Authenticator App Is Not Working 
  • Disable the Authenticator App.
  • Use the Microsoft Recovery tool.
Problem 6: Potential Solutions: 
Outlook’s Search Bar Is Not Working 
  • See if there are files waiting to be indexed and make them visible.
  • Check the location of Outlook Indexing and ensure it is listed.
  • Rebuild your index (catalogue) from scratch.
  • Increase Email Sync Slider
  • Inspect Windows Search Service
  • Repair the MS Office or Outlook Installation &
  • Use Windows Registry Tool 
Problem 7: Potential Solutions: 
Outlook Isn’t Filtering Scam  
  • Manage your blocked and safe senders list.
  • Use any popular anti-spam software to stop spam.
  • Consider using Gmail as your email provider.

Now, let’s scroll down to the section that is covering these issues one-by-one in more detail. 

To be precise, we dive deeper into their respective explanations or step-by-step instructions for your clear understanding of fixing all these afore-listed common ‘Outlook not working’ problems.

Can’t Log Into Outlook /Hotmail Email

Whether you know or not Outlook is the official name of Microsoft’s email service. Besides this, Microsoft has also had email services under the following names: Hotmail, Windows Live, and MSN. From these, not all, but some still exist as legacies. 

But, because most of us have an Outlook or Hotmail email account therefore, it’s better to discuss them only. 

So, if you’re having trouble getting into your email in the first place then, let’s have a look how you can resolve ‘Can’t sign in to Outlook or Hotmail’ issue and successfully get access to your account—

Albeit, you can access these Microsoft’s email services via the following two ways:

However, while trying to login to your Outlook/Hotmail email account, if you receive this error message –“Something went wrong with Outlook and you cannot sign in right now” then, it is mainly related with these couple of reasons—

  • Interference from Antivirus Software, Firewall Settings or other Security Programs and add-ins.
  • Obsolete or Corrupted Web Browser.
  • Wrong Server Settings &
  • Incorrect Username or Password.

Now, considering these factors in mind as the probable reasons why Outlook not letting you sign-in, you can try fixing them in the below-mentioned ways to experience an error-free login to Outlook—

  • You can run Outlook in Safe-Window Mode to avoid interferences from Antivirus Software, Firewall Settings or other Security Programs and add-ins.
  • Instead of using the website version, you can use Microsoft’s released Outlook App for Windows 10.
  • If you want to use the website only then, firstly you’ve to either update your browser or optimize it via clearing its cache, cookies and browsing history.
  • You can also check whether Cookies are enabled or not. If not, enable cookies for both Outlook and Microsoft to probably resolve such Outlook/Hotmail login related problems.
  • In case, you’re experiencing sign-in problem in an email client then, check whether the Outlook server settings match with the following information given in this table—
Email ProviderIMAP SettingsPOP SettingsSMTP Settings
Microsoft 365
Outlook 
Hotmail 
Live.com
Incoming Server: Outlook.office365.com
Server Port: 993
Encryption: SSL/TLS
Incoming Server: Outlook.office365.com
Server Port: 995
Encryption: SSL/TLS
Outgoing Server: Smtp.office365.com
Server Port: 587
Encryption: STARTTLS
  • Next, if you’re habitual to use the autofill-password feature to sign-in to your Outlook/Hotmail account then, you need to check the same auto-sign in settings if you’ve changed the password in the recent past and forget to update it on the same.
  • Last but not least, if nothing works, consider resetting the password of your Outlook /Hotmail account as this is the most effective solution to get rid of sign-in related issues.

Moreover, if you want to learn about these solutions in more detail, you can refer to this “Can’t Access Outlook Email? Here are the Quick Workarounds.”

Outlook Won’t Open

If you try to open your Microsoft Outlook program from the Start menu or using the shortcut icon, and still Outlook won’t open either way then, there are several issues that cause Outlook to open incorrectly or in fact not opening at all. 

Causes of Outlook Not Opening

  • Problematic Add-ins.
  • Damaged PST Files.
  • A Corrupted Outlook Profile.
  • Issues with Navigation Pane.

So, if Outlook is not opening due to any of these issues then, you can use the following workarounds to fix the problem because until and unless you do so, you won’t be able to check your incoming messages or even send an outgoing one from your desktop.  

Open Outlook in Safe Mode

To check whether the issue is likely with a toolbar extension or an add-in, you can open Outlook in safe mode via these steps—

  • Press Win + R shortcut on your keyboard to launch a Windows Run Dialog box.
  • Inside it, type “Outlook/safe mode” and then, hit the ‘Enter’ button. 

In doing so, if Outlook opens in safe mode instead of normal one then, you can consider disabling/removing toolbar extensions or add-ins to make sure it also runs in Normal mode.

Remove Flawed Add-ins

To make your Outlook working again, you can consider removing flawed add-ins via following these steps—

  • Like mentioned above, press Windows + R keys to activate the Run dialog box. In that, type “Outlook.exe /safe” and hit ‘Enter’ to access the safe mode.
  • Then, open Outlook and select ‘File > Options > Add-ins’ options one after another.
  • Following that, click on ‘Go’ which is located near the bottom of the window under the ‘Manage’ section.
Click on ‘Go’ under the ‘Manage’ section.
  • As you do so, a pop-up window will appear from which you’ll have to remove all the third-party add-ins by simply clearing their respective checkboxes. 
to remove all the third-party add-ins
  • However, do not remove the Microsoft add-ins that you need and let it remain there.
  • Once done, just hit the ‘OK’ button.
hit the ‘OK’ button.

Use Event Viewer

Next, you can diagnose the reasons for Outlook stopped working in event logs via using Event Viewer in this way—

  • Press Windows Logo key to open Windows Search box.
  • In that, type ‘Event Viewer,’ and press ‘Enter.’
  • Now, in Event Viewer windows, you’ve to expand the ‘Windows Logs’ option.
  • Following that, choose ‘Application’ to find items that are named: “Outlook, Windows Error Reporting or Application Error” in the Source line.
Choose ‘Application’ to find ‘Application Error.’
  • Once you’ve done that, you can identify the reasons and locate that error file to delete it.

On the contrary, if you don’t find any error here and still the Outlook not working issue prevails then, move on to take the other given measures to resolve the issue.

Create a New Profile

Like the way your Outlook files easily become corrupted, so can your Outlook Profile also if you’ve switched to a new version of Outlook and forget to update your profile. However, worry not! If your Outlook profile is corrupted, here’s how to create a new one—

  • Press Windows logo key to open Windows Search bar.
  • Using it, go to ‘Control Panel’ and click on ‘Mail.’
  • Then, in the new dialog box that opens, click on ‘Show Profile.’
  • In addition to that, select the ‘Add’ option and type a ‘Profile Name.’
 Select the ‘Add’ option and type a ‘Profile Name.’
  • Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘OK’ button to move ahead with the process.
  • Now, type the email account, followed by clicking the ‘Next’ button. In doing so, you’ll be able to set your newly created Outlook profile as the default email profile.

Once you finish doing so, restart your Outlook and check whether the issue has been resolved or not yet.

Repair MS Office Suite with the Microsoft Outlook Repair Tool

Sometimes, the Outlook app itself gets damaged leading to such ‘not working, not responding, not opening, or not loading’ issues. Therefore, if you want to get your Outlook back in order, you need to check and repair any errors in MS Office Suite via the built-in Microsoft Office repair utility tool. To do so, here are the steps to follow—

  • Begin by closing all the running Microsoft Office applications from your computer.
  • Then, open the ‘Control Panel’ app and select ‘Category View.’
  • From it, choose the ‘Programs and Features’ option.
  • Following that, you need to simply navigate to the ‘Uninstall a Program’ link.
Click on the ‘Uninstall a Program’ link.
  • There, right-click on the ‘Microsoft Office’ and select the ‘Change’ option from the contextual menu that appears. 
 Right-click on the ‘Microsoft Office’ and select the ‘Change’ option
  • Next, choose either of the two options: ‘Quick Repair’ or ‘Online Repair’ followed by clicking on ‘Repair.’
Choose ‘Quick Repair’ and click on ‘Repair.’
  • Once you’ve done that, click on ‘Yes’ if a user account control prompt comes up on the screen.
  • Now, when the repair process ends, quickly ‘Restart Outlook.’


Repair Corrupt PST File of Outlook

This is another way out to resolve the ‘Outlook won’t open/ not responding’ issue. You can simply consider repairing corrupt PST file of Outlook to make it working again with the help of following steps—

  • Press Windows key + E shortcut on your keyboard. In doing so, File Explorer will open in front of you.
  • Inside, file explorer, what you’ve to do is type ‘SCANPST’ in its Search bar to locate it. 
  • Once you’re able to find the program, perform a double-click action on the same.
  • As you do so, Microsoft Outlook Inbox Repair Tool window will appear on the screen. 
  • Under it, click on ‘Browse’ option and simply choose the “.pst file” to repair the same.
  • Once you’ve done that, click on ‘Repair’ to finally fix the damaged .pst file.
On Microsoft Outlook Inbox Repair Tool window, click on ‘Browse’ option and click on ‘Repair’

Now, you can restart your Outlook program to check whether the issue still prevails or it has been resolved.

Reset the Navigation Pane

At times, due to broken paths or a glitch, your PC might not be able to recognize the icon for Outlook leading to issues like you’re experiencing right now.  However, luckily you can resolve the encountered ‘Outlook not opening’ issue by resetting the navigation pane in these 4 simple steps—

  • To reset the Navigation pane, first of all you need to ‘Quit’ or ‘Exit’ from Outlook.
  • Then, you need to press the ‘Windows Key + R’ shortcut together. In doing so, the Windows Run Utility box will open in front of you.
  • Inside it, simply type Outlook.exe /resetnavpane and once you’re done typing, hit the ‘OK’ button. 

Now, you can launch your Outlook app to check whether it is working again or not.

Outlook Not Receiving Emails

In case your Outlook is not receiving emails, you’ve to hurry up in getting rid of this issue so that you do not miss out any important information or become a victim of any scheduling mishaps. 

However, before that, it is necessary to apprise yourself of the following potential reasons due to which your Outlook inbox is not updating—

  • Too Many Accounts: Outlook allows one user to sync as many as 20 email accounts. But, sometimes having so many accounts synced to Outlook can cause trouble like the one you’re encountering.
  • Blocked Sender: Your Outlook inbox may have blocked emails from a sender who should actually be a safe sender. 
  • Full Inbox: Maybe your Outlook email inbox is full and that’s why you’re not receiving any further email on your account. 
  • Junk Folder: You never know, some of your emails for having spam characteristics might be going in the junk folder instead of landing in the inbox. 
  • Outlook Email Rules: If you’ve assigned a specific action to emails in your inbox then also this particular issue of not receiving emails might occur. 
  • Review Email Sorting Settings: You should check your filter settings as you might have created a wrong filter that is now hiding all your recent emails, and you thought you’re not receiving them. 

Albeit, there are many more reasons why your Outlook inbox may not be updating, but mainly these are the prime ones. 

So, considering them in mind, your next step would be to learn about the solutions that you should use if you’re not receiving emails in Outlook and for that have a look here—

Check Block Senders and Safe Senders List

  • To check the block and safe senders list, first open Outlook and go to its ‘Settings.’
  • From settings, select ‘Mail’ followed by clicking on ‘Junk email.’
  • There, all you’ve to check is the ‘Blocked Senders list for any addresses that you would like to move to the Safe Senders list and vice-versa.
Check the ‘Blocked Senders list’

Check Outlook Email Rules

  • In order to check Outlook email rules also, you need to of course open Outlook and go to its Settings.’
  • There, select the ‘Mail option and then, click on ‘Rules.’
  • Now, inside the Outlook email rules, you’ve to simply look at both the ‘Inbox Rules’ and ‘Sweep Rules’ to delete any rules that you do not wish to enable anymore.
Look at ‘Inbox Rules’ and ‘Sweep Rules’ to delete any unwanted rules

Review Email Sorting Settings

  • For reviewing email sorting settings, you require visiting your ‘Outlook Inbox.’
  • There in your Outlook inbox, locate the ‘Filter’ option and select it to open.
  • In that, what all you’ve to do is sort messages by ‘Date.’ In doing so, you’re ensuring that you’ll always be able to read the latest incoming emails in your Outlook inbox from now on and never miss out any!
Click on the ‘Filter’ option, select ‘Sort by’ and choose ‘Date’

Apart from these, if you want to learn about more solutions for receiving emails in Outlook without any issues, you must visit this “Simple Solutions to Outlook Not Receiving Emails Error.”

Outlook Not Sending Emails

Users running MS Outlook not only encounter issues related to not receiving emails but also to send emails from their respective Outlook email accounts. Though this can happen due to various sorts of reasons, it has been noticed that it happens especially when users upgrade their O.S. to Windows 10. 

So, if you also find out that when you click ‘Send’ to deliver your emails to your desired recipients, they aren’t making out of the draft folder or even if so your recipients never received any email from your Outlook email account then, consider the following handful of solutions

  • First of all, try sending the stuck email again because sometimes it works.
  • Then, you never know, maybe you’re doing some typo-error while adding the recipient’s email address. So, you must check and verify your recipient’s email addresses beforehand to successfully send emails to them.
  • You can also disable your antivirus and Windows Firewall settings to avoid them interfering with your email sending process of Outlook.
  • Next, look at the bottom of your Outlook window to check if Outlook is working in Offline mode or not. If so, turn off your outlook offline mode to connect back to your email server and to send emails without facing any inconvenience.
  • Following that, you must look at attachments and check your daily message limit if Outlook is not sending emails with attachments because Outlook, like other emails, limits the number of emails you can send in a day i.e., 300 emails a day. So, if you’ve exceeded your daily limit, you are left with no option to either try sending your emails the next day or increasing your Outlook sending limit.

Other than these, you can also try your hands on these following solutions—

  • Repair your Outlook Application
  • Sync Password in Outlook Program.
  • Run Scan
  • Enable TCP/TP Protocol 
  • Create a New Outlook profile
  • Turn on Outgoing Server Authentication

However, if you’re still facing issues in sending emails from your Outlook account, you can consider changing your email provider from Outlook to other popular email providers like Mailbird as it has similar and even more advanced tools to make the emailing experience a smoother ride for you.

So, these are a couple of ways you can try to fix the ‘Outlook not sending emails’ issue completely. However, if you need more elaboration on these given solutions then, for that you can visit this “How to Fix Cannot Send Emails from Outlook since Upgrading to Windows 10.”

Outlook Search Bar Is Not Working

Microsoft Outlook has a search function that helps you to quickly and easily find any email, item or information based on several filters and keywords. However, at times, this search option fails to work and does not list any results even after continuous attempts. 

This ‘Outlook search function not working’ is one of the most common Microsoft Outlook problems that may arise at any given point of time due to problematic add-in, problems with Outlook indexing, or issues with the Windows search service.

When search feature of outlook is not working, you may experience any of these most frequent search issues:

  • Outlook search bar not visible
  • Outlook fails to show any search results
  • Outlook search not showing all results, some appears to be missing
  • Outlook search unable to show recent emails or it can’t find older emails
  • Your search result does not find any matches
  • Outlook search is cancelled after hitting enter button
  • Outlook search is slow to load &
  • Outlook Search tab not at all working and instead turns grey, etc.

So, if your Outlook search bar is also not working and you’re experiencing any of these issues then, you need to resolve the same via trying your hands on the below-listed solutions otherwise it could take ages to track even a very minor detail related to your emails, attachments, contacts, calendar or appointments.

Make Outlook Search Bar Visible

If your Outlook search bar isn’t visible in your case, you can try these steps to make it visible again—

  • Open Outlook.
  • Go to ‘File’ tab to click on ‘Options.’
  • Then, click on ‘Customize.’ 
  • Following that, you need to select ‘All Tabs’ under ‘Choose commands from’ section.
  • Now, select ‘Search’ and click on ‘Add’ as well as ‘OK’ button from the list of tab selections to simply make your Outlook’s search bar visible.

Check Outlook Indexing Status

As Outlook indexing status is essentially a catalog that is built from the entire information you receive in your Outlook email and all your search queries refer to this catalog so, it is necessary to check whether your indexing is working properly or not.

  • To check your Outlook indexing status, open Outlook and type ‘Search’ into the search box.
  • Then, click on the ‘Search Tools’ drop-down menu for selecting ‘Indexing Status.’ 
  • Following that, click on ‘OK’ when this ‘Outlook has finished indexing all of your items’ message is displayed within that same ‘Indexing Status’ dialog box. 

However, if not, you can—

Rebuild the Outlook Index

You can rebuild the Outlook index using either of these two ways:

Repair MS Office InstallationUse Outlook Index Repair Option
Open Control Panel
Go to Programs > Programs and Features.
Inside programs and features, click on your Outlook or Microsoft Office version.
Then, click the Change button at the top.
After that, select Repair and simply click on Continue.
Open Outlook
Go to File > Options > Search.
Inside it, click on the Indexing Options button.
Then, click on your Microsoft Outlook version.
After that, click on the Advanced’ button.
Next, click on the Rebuild option and then, on the OK button to continue with Outlook Index Rebuild.

Now, wait for the Indexing process to complete because this will rebuild the Outlook index and repair MS Office or Outlook installation that probably helps you to fix the ‘Outlook search bar not working’ issue.

Next, in order to fix the ‘Incomplete search results problem,’ you can consider these two methods—

Increase Email Sync Slider

  • Open Outlook.
  • Then, click on its File tab.
  • Next, select the Account Settings option from the file menu that appears.
Select the Account Settings option
  • From it, select your Outlook email account and click on ‘Change.’
select your Outlook email account and click on ‘Change.’
  • Next, you’ve to drag the slider to ‘All’ option and once you’ve done that, click on ‘Next’.
  • After that, click the ‘OK’ button when a prompt appears.
Click on the ‘OK’ button
  • And in the end, click on ‘Finish’ to simply close the window and to ‘Restart’ your Outlook application.
Click on ‘Finish’ button

Now, when restarted, you can search for the desired mails and Outlook will hopefully index all your mail items. 

Allow Search to Display All Results

  • Open Outlook.
  • Then, navigate from File > Options to Search section.
  • There, unselect the ‘Improve search speed by limiting the number of results shown’ checkbox.
  • Following that, click on ‘OK’ and ‘Restart’ the Outlook application.
Open ‘File’ tab, navigate to Outlook Options and click on Search to unselect ‘Improve search speed by limiting the number of results shown’ checkbox and hit ‘OK’ button.

Doing so will enable Outlook to sync as well as index the older emails that may be missing out from the Outlook search results. To be precise, using these aforementioned methods you’ll be able to see all search results for a search query in Outlook.

Repair the MS Office or Outlook Installation

If you need to fix the ‘Greyed out search bar’ issue that you’re experiencing in Outlook then, repair the MS Office or Outlook (Your respective version) installation via following these steps—

  • Press Windows logo key to open Windows search bar.
  • In that, type ‘Settings’ to open Settings of your respective PC.
  • From settings, click on the ‘System’ option to select the ‘Apps & Features’ section. 
  • Under it, you can search to click on your Microsoft Office app.
  • Once you’ve done that, click ‘Modify’ and simply select the ‘Repair’ option.
Click on ‘Modify’
  • Upon doing so, just click on ‘Continue’ to repair the MS Office installation.

In this way, you will probably be able to fix the greyed out search bar not working issue in Outlook.

Inspect Windows Search Service

Another way out to fix the Outlook search problem is to inspect Windows Search Service status using these given steps—

  • Press Windows key + R shortcut on your keyboard.
  • In doing so, a Windows run dialog box will appear and in that, all you’ve to do is type services.msc, and hit the ‘OK’ button.
Type services.msc, and hit ‘OK’ inside Windows Run Dialog Box.
  • Once you’ve done that, scroll down the services list to find ‘Windows Search.’
Find ‘Windows Search’
  • After that, check if its ‘Status’ is ‘Running’ or not and in case if not, you need to right-click on ‘Windows Search’ to select ‘Start’ and make it run again.
Right-click on ‘Windows Search’ and select ‘Start’
  • Next, double-click on ‘Windows Search’ and select ‘Automatic (Delayed Start)’ from the ‘Startup Type’ drop-down menu.
  • Once you’ve selected the said option, click on ‘OK’ to close all windows.
Click on ‘OK’ to close all windows

Now, quickly ‘Restart’ your PC as well as Outlook program to check if the Outlook search problem has been resolved or not yet.

Use Windows Registry

If none of the above given solutions works in your case, you can also use the Windows Registry editor to fix the Outlook search feature and for that, consider these steps to follow—

  • Open Windows Run Utility box by press Windows + R keys together. In that, type Regedit and click ‘OK’ to opens the Registry Editor.
  • Inside the registry editor, paste this “Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search” registry key location in the address bar and simply hit the ‘Enter’ button.
  • Once you’ve done that, right-click on ‘Windows Search’ and select New>Dword (32-bit) Value from the contextual menu that appears.
Right-click on ‘Windows Search’ and select New>Dword (32-bit) Value
  • Now, what you’ve to do is name the Dword as ‘PreventIndexingOutlook.’
Name the Dword as ‘PreventIndexingOutlook.’
  • Upon doing so, double-click on PreventIndexingOutlook to enter [0] in Value data field.
Enter [0] in Value data field and click ‘OK’
  • In the end, click ‘OK’ and just give a quick ‘Reboot’ to your system.

So, to completely resolve the ‘Outlook search bar not working’ issue, these are some of the most effective solutions that you can definitely try your hands on!

Outlook Sync Issues 

From Outlook’s number of issues, receiving this particular message that says “Problem connecting to server” is one of the most annoying for the majority of the users.

So, if you also have recently encountered the same message then, here are the quick steps on how to fix outlook issues relating to connectivity and syncing emails—

  • Open Outlook.
  • Select its File menu to expand.
  • From the expanded file menu, click on the Account Settings option and simply just select ‘Repair Account.’
  • In doing so, a Repair Account window will appear on the screen, and it will prompt you to enter the email address and password of your Outlook account. 

So, fill in the required information and once you’ve done that, it will run a program to diagnose the network connection problem.

In addition to that, if your respective Outlook calendar that handles a lot of important information alongside your emails, doesn’t sync properly then, it can make your schedule confusing, and because of that, you may even miss out on some important events. Hence, you should also need to know—

How to Sync Outlook Calendar Properly?

Click on ‘Sign-in’
  • Then, click on the nine small dots located in the top left corner of the screen and select the Outlook icon.
Select the ‘Outlook’ icon
  • Next, click on Settings and choose View all Outlook Settings option.
Click on ‘Settings’ and choose ‘View all Outlook Settings’ option
  • Following that, click on Calendar and simply navigate to Shared Calendars.
Click on ‘Calendar’ and ‘Shared Calendars
  • Inside it, click on Publish a Calendar to select your particular calendar (that you want to share in the first box) and set it to “Can View All Details” (in the second box). Once done, simply click on the Publish button.
  • In doing so, you’ll be able to create two links: HTML Link (it gives you permission to view your calendar on the web) and ICS Link (allows you to import your calendar into another calendar program). So, you’ve to right-click on the ICS link and select the Copy link option from the menu that appears.
Select the ‘Copy link’ option
  • Now, you can simply go to this https://calendar.google.com/ link to access your Google calendar and there, click on the ‘+’ beside Other Calendars option to bring up a menu for choosing From URL option.
Choose From URL option
  • In the end, just paste the ICS link that you’ve copied from your Outlook and simply click on the Add Calendar button.
Click on the ‘Add Calendar’ button

This process syncs your Outlook calendar to your Google calendar, and you probably will not face the Outlook syncing related issues again. 

Outlook Authenticator App Is Not Working

The Outlook’s Authenticator app is specifically designed to help users quickly and safely confirm their identity through the 2FA process. But, if your Outlook authenticator app itself is not working then you’ll remain stuck at the very first stage because of not verifying one-time passcode, your fingerprint, another password, etc.

Thus, considering it as a possible reason why your Outlook is not connecting or working properly we suggest you just one ultimate solution and that is to disable the Authenticator app.

However, if you’ve no idea about the same, have a look at the below-mentioned steps—

How to Disable the Authenticator App?

‘Sign-In’ to your Microsoft account
  • Next, what you’ve to do is select the Advanced Security Options.
Select the ‘Advanced Security Options’
  • Following that, you’ve to simply click on the Turn Off option under the Two-Step Verification section.
Click on the ‘Turn Off’ option under the Two-Step Verification section
  • Upon doing so, just select ‘Yes’ to confirm your action.

So, this is how you can disable the Authenticator app or in other words, turn off the Two-step verification process for your Outlook application to make it working again and also to get access to the same without facing any sort of inconvenience.

Notes

If necessary, you can even use the Microsoft Recovery tool to fix this discussed issue.

Outlook Isn’t Filtering Spam 

Last in our Outlook troubleshooting list is the issue related to spam filters. So, if your Outlook isn’t filtering spam messages then it seems very difficult to differentiate on your own between the harmful and safe to open emails.

Albeit, many factors like the IP address, language used in the email (including keywords like “casino,” “free,” and “Subscribe” for instance), domain reputation, and subscriber complaints – can set your Outlook spam filter off. But, irrespective of these above-listed factors, you can fix ‘Weak Spam Filter for Outlook’ with the help of these following solutions—

Manage Your Blocked and Safe Senders Lists

In Outlook, there’s a location called Safe Senders list where you can manually add all your approved email addresses to ensure they never end up in your junk mail. So, in order to do so–

  • First, you’ve to open Outlook.
  • In Outlook, click on Junk Email from the File section.
Click on ‘Junk Email’
  • Then, click on Junk Email Options.
Click on ‘Junk Email Options.’
  • Upon doing so, you can now Manually Add Emails to the Safe Senders list.
  • In addition to that, you also need to review the Blocked Senders list to remove approved contacts (if any added there).

Use Anti-Spam Software

You can even download Anti-Spam software like Spa

mBully or SPAMfighter from their official site if you’re really concerned and worried about unintentionally clicking on a phishing link that possesses a direct threat on your personal information.

Anti-spam software, if installed on your desktop along with a plug-in for your web browser—is capable enough to block any unwanted emails, especially spam emails from landing into your email inbox.

It uses its own comprehensive blacklist and antivirus technology that can scan inbound emails for viruses, malware, phishing scams, and other harmful content.

So, therefore, to secure your inbox it is a recommended solution for situations when your Outlook spam filter isn’t working properly!

Use Gmail as Your Email Provider

Undeniably, when it comes to spam filtering, “Gmail” as compared to Hotmail and Outlook, has a way more positive reputation. 

So, if you consider using Gmail as your email provider with your email client then, it means you can secure your inbox via enabling its anti-spam features, which like we just said above, are superior to both Outlook and Hotmail.

Bottom Line

That’s all! Hopefully with the help of our guidance you can now fix all kinds of above-discussed ‘Outlook Common Problems’ due to which ‘Outlook is Not Working’ issue occurs on Windows 10.Moreover, on Getassist.net you can also look for guidance on “Outlook Not Working on iPhone” as well as “Outlook Not Working on Android.” 


Kanika Singh

Webmail and Internet Expert


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