Email & Calendar · 6 guides
Inbox and calendar
Missing mail, deleted messages, calendar invites, phishing, and a slow Outlook.
I am not receiving emails
People say they wrote to you, but nothing new appears in your inbox.
You might notice
- Inbox looks stale
- Only some senders get through
- A teammate’s message to you bounced
- 01
Search the whole mailbox
Search for the sender or subject across All Mailboxes, including Junk, Deleted, and Focused/Other. Rules and Focused Inbox hide a surprising amount of mail.
- 02
Check rules, forwarding, and Focused Inbox
Open Manage Rules & Alerts and look for a rule that moves or forwards everything. Turn off Focused Inbox temporarily. Disable unexpected forwarding.
- 03
Confirm your address with the sender
Ask them to send a one-line test to your exact work address and to check for a bounce. A typo or an old alias is common after a name change.
- 04
Compare desktop Outlook with the web
If web mail has the message and the desktop app does not, the local profile is stuck. If neither has it, the message never arrived.
Did this get you unstuck?
How to recover a deleted email
Bring back a message you deleted by accident, including items that left Deleted Items.
You might notice
- A message is gone from the inbox
- Deleted Items is empty
- You need a message someone else deleted from a shared mailbox
- 01
Check Deleted Items first
Open Deleted Items and sort by date. Drag the message back to the inbox. Search Deleted Items if the folder is large.
- 02
Recover items already emptied
In Outlook on the web, open Deleted Items → Recover items deleted from this folder. Select the message and Recover. This works for a limited retention window.
- 03
Look in archive or online archive
Older mail may have moved to Archive or In-Place Archive rather than being deleted. Search there before assuming it is gone.
- 04
Check a shared mailbox separately
Recover from the shared mailbox’s own Deleted Items. Recovering from your personal mailbox will not bring back team-inbox mail.
Did this get you unstuck?
Calendar invites are not showing on my calendar
You received a meeting email, but the appointment never appears on your calendar.
You might notice
- Invite is in the inbox but not on the calendar
- The time looks wrong
- A recurring meeting vanished
- 01
Accept the invite from the meeting message
Open the invite and choose Accept or Tentative. Some mailboxes do not auto-add invitations until you respond.
- 02
Check the right calendar
Make sure your default calendar is selected and overlay calendars are not hiding it. Shared calendars can look like “your” day at a glance.
- 03
Confirm time zone and working hours
A wrong time zone shifts meetings by several hours so they look missing. Set the calendar time zone to your current location.
- 04
Look for cancelled or updated copies
Search the mailbox for the meeting subject. An update or cancel from the organizer can remove the item. Ask the organizer to resend.
Did this get you unstuck?
I received a suspicious or phishing email
Handle a message that asks for passwords, payments, or urgent action without putting the company at risk.
You might notice
- Unexpected password reset or invoice
- A link looks almost like a company site
- The sender name does not match the address
- 01
Do not click, open, or reply
Do not open attachments, do not enter your password, and do not call any phone number in the message. Hover only if you need to describe the link to IT.
- 02
Report it with the company button
Use the Report Phishing or Report Message button in Outlook. That sends the original message to security with headers intact.
- 03
If you already clicked, stop and write down what happened
Disconnect from VPN if you entered a password, change your password from a device you trust, and note the time, the site, and whether you typed credentials or opened a file.
- 04
Warn the people it named, not the whole company
Tell your manager and IT. Do not forward the phishing mail to a large distribution list.
Did this get you unstuck?
Outlook is slow or freezing
Outlook hangs on send, takes minutes to open, or shows Not Responding.
You might notice
- Splash screen lasts a long time
- Scrolling the inbox stutters
- Not Responding appears in the title bar
- 01
Close extra mail windows and large attachments
Quit Outlook, reopen one window, and avoid opening huge PSTs. Disable the Reading Pane briefly to see if that helps.
- 02
Start with add-ins off
Hold Ctrl while starting Outlook and choose Safe Mode, or disable non-Microsoft add-ins from File → Options → Add-ins. CRM and PDF add-ins are frequent culprits.
- 03
Trim what is stored locally
In Account settings, shorten the mail to keep offline slider if your OST is huge. Archive or delete oversized Sent items.
- 04
Repair Office
Use Apps → Installed apps → Microsoft 365 → Modify → Quick Repair. If the profile is corrupt, IT may recreate it.