Troubleshoot e-mail accounts - Outlook - Microsoft Office Online

Warning: You are viewing this page with an unsupported Web browser. This Web site works best with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later, Firefox 1.5, or Netscape Navigator 8.0 or later. Learn more about supported browsers.

Email this link

Printer-Friendly Version Bookmark and Share

Troubleshoot e-mail accounts

Applies to: Microsoft Office Outlook 2003

Show I typed in my e-mail account user name and password but my account still doesn't work.

Your password and user name may be case sensitive, depending upon the specifications of your Internet service provider (ISP) (ISP: A business that provides access to the Internet for such things as electronic mail, chat rooms, or use of the World Wide Web. Some ISPs are multinational, offering access in many locations, while others are limited to a specific region.). Check that you entered the correct user name, and password, or e-mail server name.

How?
1. On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
2. Select View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
3. Click the e-mail account you want to view, and then click Change.
4. Make sure that the settings you see match the information you received from your Internet service provider (ISP) (ISP: A business that provides access to the Internet for such things as electronic mail, chat rooms, or use of the World Wide Web. Some ISPs are multinational, offering access in many locations, while others are limited to a specific region.) or administrator.
5. If necessary, make your changes in the appropriate boxes. If you want to change additional settings, click More Settings. Otherwise, click Next.
6. Click Finish.
Do one of the following:

If you are adding a Microsoft Exchange Server account

Click Check Names to verify that the server recognizes your name. The name and server you entered should become underlined. Be sure your computer is connected to your network. If your name does not become underlined, contact your administrator.

If you are adding a POP3 account

Click Test Account Settings to verify that your account is working. If there is missing or incorrect information, such as your password, you will be prompted to supply or correct it. Be sure your computer is connected to the Internet. If your name does not become underlined, contact your administrator.

If you are adding an HTTP account
- If you are adding an HTTP account, make sure your account is still active. When an account is not used for a period of several weeks, the account might become inactive, depending on the ISP's policy. Contact your ISP to reactivate the account.
- The HTTP server you are attempting to connect to might be unavailable due to a network outage or if the server is offline temporarily for maintenance by the ISP. Try again later, or contact you ISP for status on the server.

Show I received an "Undeliverable" message notification from the administrator.

The server might be busy or offline temporarily. Wait and then try sending your message again.
How?
1. In your Inbox, open the "Undeliverable" message.
2. On the Actions menu, click Send Again.
3. In the message, on the File menu, click Send.
If you are using Microsoft Exchange Server, check to see if your name exists on the server.
How?
1. On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
2. Select View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
3. Click the e-mail account you want to change, and then click Change.
4. Click Check Name. Your name and server should become underlined. If not, contact your administrator.
When creating your account, you might have typed an incorrect user name, password, or e-mail server name. View your e-mail account settings to see if they are correct.
How?
1. On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
2. Select View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
3. Click the e-mail account you want to change, and then click Change.
4. Make sure that the settings you see match the information you received from your Internet service provider (ISP) (ISP: A business that provides access to the Internet for such things as electronic mail, chat rooms, or use of the World Wide Web. Some ISPs are multinational, offering access in many locations, while others are limited to a specific region.) or administrator.
5. If necessary, make your changes in the appropriate boxes. If you want to change additional settings, click More Settings. Otherwise, click Next.
6. Click Finish.

Show I deleted some messages but they are still on my Internet e-mail server.

You may have set an option to keep a copy of your messages on the POP3 (POP3: A common protocol that is used to retrieve e-mail messages from an Internet e-mail server.) Internet e-mail server. If you delete a message that was delivered to your Personal Folders file (.pst) the copy stored on the Internet e-mail server is not affected.

Show I set the option to keep a copy of my messages on the server but they aren't there.

You may have set an option to delete copies of your messages from the POP3 (POP3: A common protocol that is used to retrieve e-mail messages from an Internet e-mail server.) Internet e-mail server after a specified number of days. When you set this option, messages left on the Internet e-mail server are removed after five days unless you specify otherwise. You may still have copies of the messages if you didn't delete them when they were delivered to your Personal Folders file (.pst).
You may be using a different computer than the one you used to set the option to keep a copy of messages on the server. If you didn't select the Leave a copy of messages on the server check box on this additional computer, your messages will be downloaded to it and deleted from the server.

Show My e-mail account worked in the past, but no longer works.

If you used another e-mail program in the past, not all the settings may have been properly imported. For example, Microsoft Outlook does not import passwords.
If you changed the name of your e-mail account after you created it, replies to and forwards of messages created under the previous account name cannot be sent.

Show I want my mail delivered to my computer instead of to my Exchange mailbox on the server.

You can specify a different location to which new e-mail is delivered. For instance, you might want messages delivered to a Personal Folders file (.pst) on your computer instead of to your Exchange Server mailbox on the server.

Show How?

On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
Select View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
If you have not yet created a data file to store your messages, click New Outlook Data File and choose a .pst data file to use.
In the Deliver new e-mail to the following location list, select the location you want. The data file you created appears in this list.
Click Next, and then click Finish.

Show I added the correct information to add my MSN e-mail account, but it still doesn’t work.

MSN Internet Access version 5.3 or earlier accounts were set up with POP3 (POP3: A common protocol that is used to retrieve e-mail messages from an Internet e-mail server.) e-mail accounts. MSN Explorer accounts use HTTP e-mail accounts. Older accounts may be migrated to newer HTTP accounts. For assistance in determining which type of e-mail account you use, contact MSN support.

Before you attempt any of the following steps, verify that your MSN account is working. To do this, verify that you can log on to MSN.

If you are using an MSN POP3 account, make sure that you have turned on Secure Password Authenticaion (SPA) and selected that your outgoing (SMTP) server requires authentication.

Show MSN HTTP accounts

On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
Select Add a new e-mail account, and then click Next.
If you have already added your MSN account to Microsoft Outlook, select View or change existing e-mail accounts, click Next, select the MSN account, and then click Change. Proceed to step 4.
Select HTTP, and then click Next.
In the Your Name text box, type your name as you want others to see it.
In the E-mail Address text box, type your complete e-mail address including @msn.com.
The HTTP Mail Service Provider list box automatically changes to MSN when you enter an e-mail address ending in msn.com.
In the User Name text box, type your account name. Do not include @msn.com.
In the Password box, type your MSN account password. You can choose to have Microsoft Outlook remember your password by selecting the Remember password check box.
Important You should not do this if anyone else has access to your Windows account.
Leave the Log on using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) check box clear.
Click Next, and then click Finish.

Show MSN POP3 accounts

On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
Select Add a new e-mail account, and then click Next.
If you have already added your MSN account to Microsoft Outlook, select View or change existing e-mail accounts, click Next, select the MSN account, and then click Change. Proceed to step 4.
Select POP3, and then click Next.
In the Your Name text box, type your name as you want others to see it.
In the E-mail Address text box, type your complete e-mail address including @msn.com.
In the Incoming mail server (POP3) text box, type pop3.email.msn.com.
In the Outgoing mail server (SMTP) text box, type smtp.email.msn.com.
In the User Name text box, type your account name. Do not include @msn.com.
In the Password box, type your MSN account password. You can choose to have Microsoft Outlook remember your password by selecting the Remember password check box.
Important You should not do this if anyone else has access to your Windows account.
Select the Log on using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) check box.
Click More Settings.
On the Outgoing Server tab, select My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.
Select Use same settings as my incoming mail server.
Click OK.
Click Test Account Settings to verify that your account is working. If there is missing or incorrect information, such as your password, you will be prompted to supply or correct it. Be sure your computer is connected to the Internet.
Click Next, and then click Finish.

Show My ISP requires me to log on to my POP3 mail server before I can send a messages, but I don't want to have to click Send/Receive twice.

You can have Microsoft Outlook log on to your POP3 (POP3: A common protocol that is used to retrieve e-mail messages from an Internet e-mail server.) server automatically before sending mail.

Show How?

On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
Select View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
In the list, click the POP3 e-mail account that you want, and then click Change.
Click More Settings, and then click the Outgoing Server tab.
Click Log on to incoming mail server before sending mail, and then click OK.
Click Next, and then click Finish.

Show I want replies to messages I sent to go to a different e-mail account than the one I used to send the messages.

This feature is useful if, for instance, you go on vacation to visit a friend and want to have replies to your messages sent to your friend's e-mail account. Specify the reply e-mail address.

Show How?

On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
Select View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
In the list, click the e-mail account that you want, and then click Change.
Click More Settings.
In the Reply E-mail box, type the e-mail address of the account that you want to receive replies.
Click OK, click Next, and then click Finish.

Show I received a server timeout message.

You need to make the e-mail server timeout setting longer. Do one of the following:

Show Change the server timeout for a POP3 or IMAP server

On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
Select View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
Click the e-mail account you want to change, and then click Change.
Click More Settings, and then click the Advanced tab.
Under Server Timeouts, move the slider toward Long.
Click OK, click Next, and then click Finish.

Show Change the server timeout for a Microsoft Exchange server

On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
Select View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
Click the e-mail account you want to change, and then click Change.
Click More Settings, and then type the number of seconds that you want to elapse before the server will time out.
Click OK, click Next, and then click Finish.

Note You can't change the server timeout for an HTTP (HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol): Protocol that is used when you access Web pages from the Internet. Outlook uses HTTP as an e-mail protocol.) e-mail account.

Show I might not have added the correct information from my ISP, so I need to check my e-mail account settings.

Compare your settings to the information your ISP provided you.

Show How?

On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
Select View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
Click the e-mail account you want to view, and then click Change.
Make sure that the settings you see match the information you received from your Internet service provider (ISP) (ISP: A business that provides access to the Internet for such things as electronic mail, chat rooms, or use of the World Wide Web. Some ISPs are multinational, offering access in many locations, while others are limited to a specific region.) or administrator.
If you are changing a POP3 (POP3: A common protocol that is used to retrieve e-mail messages from an Internet e-mail server.) server account, click Test Account Settings to verify that your account is working. If there is missing or incorrect information, such as your password, you will be prompted to supply or correct it. Be sure your computer is connected to the Internet.
If necessary, make your changes in the appropriate boxes. If you want to change additional settings, click More Settings. Otherwise, click Next.
Click Finish.

Show I use more than one e-mail server, and I want my account that uses the faster server to process first.

Change the order in which e-mail accounts are processed.

Show How?

On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
Select View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
In the list, click the e-mail account you want, and then click Move Up until that account is higher in the list.

Note Moving an account to the top of the list automatically sets that account as the default. The default account will be first in the list that appears when you create a new message and click the Accounts button (next to the Send button).