Many business users’ email client is Microsoft’s Outlook, which is integrated into Microsoft Office software. When a business selects its software package, Outlook usually becomes the default email for employees and staff with corporate email. Recently, we’ve been asked about messages that become stuck in the outbox. This article attempts to give solutions to fix the problem.
Here is a typical problem: “I sent an email a few days ago with an attachment that was 30 MB. It has been stuck in my outbox and when I hit send/receive the little icon on the right-hand bottom of the screen keeps trying to send the message, but over time nothing happens. Outlook will not let me delete or move the message because it says it already started transmitting.”
We could point you to a slew of Microsoft knowledge-base articles, but that is for us techies to research and then summarize into a list of reasonably easy-to-follow fixes for you business users fighting productivity battles. So, ArrowQuick has done the research and in many cases our field technicians have tested these same methods to fix the problems for clients.
There appears to be 4 methods that can be used in sequence until the problem is solved. Each method requires a bit more technical skill, but most are manageable by a novice to average computer user. If at any point you do not feel comfortable with a method, ArrowQuick technicians are happy to assist you either on-site or via remote support.
Method 1 – Open the message from the Outbox and close it again. Now select the message and press DELETE.
Method 2 — Assuming Method 1 did not work, try this. Put Outlook in offline mode; to do this go to File->Work Offline. Now restart Outlook and see if you can delete it (you can try this in combination with method 1). Don’t forget to put Outlook back online again once successful.
Method 3 — If the stubborn message is still stuck in your outbox, try this method next. There are four steps to this method and here is a detailed step-by-step instruction set you might look at.
- Create a new pst-file: File->New->Outlook Data File…
- Set this pst-file as your default delivery location in your Account settings: Tools->E-mail Accounts->Next button.
- When you now restart Outlook your original pst-file will show up as the secondary set of folders where should easily be able to remove the file from or even the complete Outbox folder.
- Set the original pst-file as the default delivery location again and restart Outlook; the Outbox folder will be recreated and will be empty.
Method 4 – Use the Microsoft MDBVU32.EXE tool to forcefully clear the Outbox. The instructions for this are the same for when removing a stuck read receipt but instead of choosing “MDB->Open Root Folder” choose “MDB-> Open IPM Outbox”.
With a little persistence and patience, you should have your Outlook outbox empty and email flowing again. The primary problem with stuck messages is often large attachments. Many people don’t know that alternative ways exist to send large files without using email. ArrowQuick recommends using free website tools like mediafire.com to distribute or send large files. Check out their ‘How To’ video.
For more information on ArrowQuick’s IT and web services, send us an email at italert at arrowquick dot com or web at arrowquick dot com and drop us a line at 641-673-4109 (IT) or 641-676-1031 (web).
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Here is what I did to quickly fix this problem.
Close out Outlook.
Using Explorer on your local hard disk, locate your message store under Local Settings/Identities.
Most likely you will have to change your folder view to enable viewing all hidden folders and filenames and extensions.
After you do this find your message store.
If you don’t know how to find this go back to outlook under Tools, Options and Maintenance to find out where Outlook stores your message store files.
If you have multiple Outlook Identities you will have to choose the one you are having problems with. Under the maintenance tab you will find this.
Now close out Outlook.
Go back to Explorer and navigate to this folder.
Once you get into this folder sort by filename and find the file called Outbox.dbx.
Change the name of this file to something else, like xOutbox.dbx.
The next time you open up Outlook, Outlook will create a new Outbox.dbx and your problem is fixed.
By the way… if your Sent folder is huge and filled up with all your sent stuff… and
If you want to have a new Sent.dbx, rename your Sent.dbx to something like xSent.dbx and Outlook will recreate a new Sent.dbx completely empty. All your Sent messages are not lost they are just stored in your old renamed file called xSent.dbx. You can always retore it later if you want, but do remember you now have a new file called Sent.dbx; first rename it to something like zSent.dbx or some naming convention of your own creation.
Like you, I scoured the Internet and Microsoft for a solution and could not find a sure shot method to fix this so I had to rely upon my own inelegant solution finding capability. I could wax on how I trumped the high tech eggheads in my department with very do-able but low tech inelegant solutions. Hey, they worked and people kept right on working on their pc’s.
Ref Outlook 2003
Msg stay in OUTBOX.. and look like they are sending. but do not..
all types. biggest problem is
PDF files
How about this: Outlook has worked fine for several years (came pre-installed on my Dell office desktop). A week ago, Outlook refuses to send emails. They go into the outbox and stay there, EVEN WITHOUT ATTACHMENTS. Sure, I can delete them; how do I get Outlook to work again?
@Mac
One thing you might want to check is the size of your .pst file. Depending your version the pst file has a limit to it’s size Pre Office 2003 is 2 GB’s and newer versions are 20 GB. You would be surprised how quickly you can grow that .pst file. Large attachments and volume cause rapid growth. Once the file reaches it’s limit you will experience a lot of strange issues. Here is Microsoft’s answer to keeping the .pst file small.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP100807041033.aspx
Hope that helps some.
My problem involves multiple addresses/group mailings. They do not appear in the Sent Items folder, but recipients tell me they get them over and over. One message went out about a dozen times, yet never appeared as “Sent.” It was still shown in Outbox, but had gone out multiple times.
@Jerry: It sounds like you may be using Outlook Express. If this is the case you may have a setting restricting the size of your emails being sent.
Here is how you can check this in Outlook Express:
-Click Tools ->Accounts
-Click the Mail tab
-Double Click your Email account that is having issues
-Now in your mail properties click the Advanced tab
-In here you will see about halfway down the Sending Setting, if the check box is clicked this may be causing your mail messages to be broken apart if bigger than this number here. You can either uncheck it or set the number to something higher to allow all your emails with attachments to send.
You may also want to check with your ISP because sometimes they require you to check this box and restrict your email size so it doesn’t bog down their servers… Most likely this wont be the case though.
Hope this helps.
the offline option worked for me. thanks so much for your tips, i don’t have to bug my IT guys anymore.
Thanks 2nd option worked for me
Please advise how to fix:
Outlook cannot connect to your outgoing (smtp) email server
?????????
Sue,
Contact your email hosting provider and/or internet service provider. It sounds like your connection settings are wrong.
When sending emails with large attachments (2mb or more) the email stays in the outbox trying to send, and will stay there until it is manually deleted, however it actually sends to the recipient multiple times (sometimes in excess of 50 times).
Given that it is actually sending i doubt that it is an issue with my ISP limiting the allowable size of email attachments. I have googled this issue and there seem to be many, many people with the same problem, however nobody seems to know how to fix it.
I have mastered the process for deleting the email from my outbox manually, however i would like to stop this from happening in the first place.
Is there a fix for this? It doesn’t happen on my work computer which also uses Office 2007, and both work and I use Trend internet security. The only difference is that at work i am using Windows XP and at home i am using Windows Vista. Is there a compatiblility issue with Office 2007 and Vista?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks :S
Woo-hoo! Thank you so much.
Following up on my previous post (#11), i have been in touch with Microsoft to try to fix the problem from occuring in the first place.
The problem is that outlook is timing out before the message sends properly. If you open your outlook, go to ‘Tools’, then ‘Account Settings’.
Then click on the email address listed in the box, and select ‘Change’ above.
In this screen, there is a ‘More Settings’ box in the bottom right corner, select this. Click on the ‘Advanced’ tab across the top, then check the ‘Server Timeouts’ section in the middle of this screen. Chances are that your settings are set to 1 minute. Click on the arrow bar and drag it to the end which will extend your server timeout to 10 minutes, then click ‘Ok’.
Then select ‘Next’ and ‘Finish’ and your problems should be over.
It does still take quite some time to send large emails, and quite a bit longer to receive the email (if you are sending it to yourself), however it does only send once and actually leaves your outbox.
For those people who were having trouble clearing the outbox because working offline wasn’t allowing you to delete the email, try disconnecting your internet, rather than selecting ‘Work Offline’. Close your outlook, disconnect the internet. Open your outlook, delete the email from your outbox, then re-connect to the internet.
Hopefully this has helped someone
Excellent information, Claire. Glad it worked out.
I have had the problem of inadvertently sending emails with picture attachments that are too large, ie. bigger than 20 MB. This happened in both Office Professional 2007 and now 2010. The first time I contacted Microsoft and they walked me through an easy fix – going offline to delete – which worked perfectly. In 2010, however, that did not work. So I opened the email in the outbox, deleted the attachments, saved the changes and then was able to delete the email from the outbox. Doesn’t resolve the issue with overly large emails getting stuck, but at least it is now removed from my outbox.
Thanks so much. 2nd option worked!
Thank you SO MUCH!! I’ve had this stupid huge email stuck in my outbox for months. Thanks so much for the help in how to get it out of my outbox.
I thank you very much,
Carey
I got the error code: Outlook cannot connect to your outgoing (SMTP) e-mail server. I am using Outlook 2010. Does anyone what the fix is?
2nd option worked for me. Thanks for the help!
Thanks 2nd option really worked for me….
Thanks so much. After 2 days and almost teaaring my hair out #2 worked like a charm.
Help me out, mine is slight different. i am using Microsoft Outlook, when I send emails they stuck in my outbox expecting that they will be resend but when I hit send and receive button nothing is done up until I move them to inbox and resend them its when they go. What is the problem and what should I do.
Man Bunya
Thanks
I have exactly the same problem as Claire (Nov 10) however i have tried extending the time out to no avail and tried deleting the account and reinstalling but still my messages stay in the Outbox but are actually sent repeatedly even though i get the error message!
I am sure i have some sort of nasty virus as i sent myself a test message and when it arrived it had cc’d someone who i had never correspended with!
Nightmare.
Any help much appreciated
Thanks,
Tim
thanks so much…it worked like a charm!!!!
outlook send/receive option show complete status but emails are still in outbox and are not send to. Tried updating office with latest SP3 but couldn’t get through. any suggestion
We had similar problem, messages got stucked in Outbox folder and were never sent (so they were really stucked – customer never received them). After a lot of research and trying everything possible I found following workaround (this is for German Outlook 2010, but will work with any language mutation):
* Go to Potausgang (Outbox) folder and double-click stucked message, new window with message will open in read-only mode
* In Verschieben section, click Aktionen / Diese Nachricht erneut senden (Send this message again), another new window with message will open, this time with ability to edit message
* Click Senden, window will close
* Close Window with message in read-only mode
* Now you see Postausgang folder with message being sent (message is in italic font), after a while, message will disappear, which means it was successfully sent. It can be found in Gesendete Elemente (Sent Items) folder.
* After few seconds, another message appears in Postausgang folder, this time in normal font (not italic). Now there are two identical messages. Delete both.
Good luck,
Martin
I’ve experienced this problem on countless versions of Outlook. In the past, it required creating a new profile and copying data across. But this time, the problem persists.
My emails don’t always contain large attachments that get jammed up by the mail servers. Oh no, we’re talking about simple text emails as well which simply hang in the Outbox.
I’ve contacted the ISP to confirm the outgoing mail server is working and that the server address is correct. Done that!
I’ve checked time out settings and they’re now at the maximum. Done that!
I’ve even checked that the recipient emails are correct. Done that!
I’ve gone through the .pst file and tidied everything up. It’s far less than 20Mb. Done that!
I’ve tried turning Trend Micro Anti-Spam off. Done that!
Ok, with all that being said, why could this still be happening? I can remove the file hung in the Outbox. That’s not the issue. The issue I have is knowing why the problem occurred in the first place?
I’ve seen a lot of theories being jockied around in the forum. Sure a few have worked for a few people… But I consider myself a pretty logical guy and have tried eliminating the reasons. So far, no luck?
So I’m emploring to those learned few who are prepared to look at the problem and not so much the symptoms and put forward a solution that may work for me.
Thanks.
Hey, the second method did work for me, thanks for the solution.