Outlook gets stuck while synchronizing folders – Quick Solution

Outlook often gets stuck, due to several reasons.

Let’s see the causes and fixes to it.

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If you have a message stuck in the Outbox, Outlook could end up trying to send that message until it succeeds. If you are able to see the message, then follow the below method

• Open & close message

This is one of the easiest ones. You can simply open the message and close it again. Then select the message and press DELETE or move it to the Drafts folder if you want to resent it.

• Offline Mode

This is a quick way to put Outlook in Offline Mode.

For Outlook 2007 and previous: File-> Work Offline

For Outlook 2010 / 2013 / 2016 / 2019 / Office 365: Send/Receive-> button: Work Offline

Now restart Outlook and check if you can delete the message.

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Sometime, send receive interval is set too short due to which a new auto-check takes place before the previous one can finish. As a result, the send/receive tasks gets accumulated and Outlook gets stuck in a synchronization process.

Solution:

• Add about 5 minutes for every 2-3 extra mail accounts until you reach 30 minutes.
• Set 1-3 “high priority” accounts in a send/receive group which checks for new messages every 10 minutes.
• other accounts in a separate send/receive group which checks for new messages every 30 minutes or more.

Note: If the accounts are more than 3 then it is not recommend to setting it shorter than 15 minutes.

Steps to set the send/receive interval

• Outlook 2007 and previous: Tools-> Options-> tab Mail Setup-> button Send/Receive
• Outlook 2010, Outlook 2013, and Outlook 2016: File-> Options-> section Advanced-> button Send/Receive

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Virus scanners are one of the main causes for all sorts of connection issues.

It doesn’t give any additional level of security, Hence, it is better to disable it.

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This can happen if any of your mail account is down. So, in this case you will have to contact your ISP and check if there is any problem.

You can also fix it manually, if any error is reported in the Send/Receive dialog box.

• For Outlook 2007 and previous: Tools-> Send/Receive-> Send/Receive Settings-> Show Progress…-> tab Errors
• Outlook 2010, Outlook 2013, and Outlook 2016: tab Send/Receive-> button Show Progress-> tab Errors