Outlook not receiving emails on iPhone? Try these fixes

Although Gmail and Apple’s own Mail app are two of the most popular email clients for iOS, Outlook is still going strong. The Outlook app for iOS is solid, and problems rarely happen. But when they do, it isn’t very pleasant to deal with them. One of the most common problems users face is when Outlook is not receiving emails on iPhone.

If you’ve recently encountered this problem, and I assume you have, keep reading this article for some potential solutions.

Table of contents:

1. Turn on Background App Refresh
2. Check the Focused Inbox
3. Check your internet connection
4. Allow Notifications
5. Re-add your Outlook Account

Not receiving Outlook emails on iPhone

If Outlook is not receiving emails on your iPhone, you’ll probably have to make a few tweaks inside the app. Check for hidden emails, and enable/disable a few options that may prevent you from seeing new emails. More details are below.

1. Turn on Background App Refresh

Background App Refresh is a feature that allows iOS apps to check for new content in the background. Without this feature enabled, Outlook will only check for new emails when you’re actually inside the app. To allow Outlook to continuously check for new emails, ensure this option is enabled. Here’s how to do that:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Head over to General > Background App Refresh.
3. Make sure the Background App Refresh option is on.
4. Also, scroll down the list of apps, and make sure Background app refresh is enabled for Outlook specifically.

2. Check the Focused Inbox

Outlook separates your emails into two sections. The Focused Inbox and Other mail. By default, when you open the Outlook app, it shows emails inside the Focused Inbox. If you can’t find an email you’re looking for in this section, look for it in Other mail. If you don’t want the app to separate your emails, and put everything together instead, you can turn off the Focused Inbox. Here’s how to do that:

1. Open the Outlook app.
2. Tap your profile picture and go to Settings.
3. Scroll down and toggle the Focused Inbox option off.

Now all your upcoming emails will go to your Inbox, and you won’t have to check in two places. You can experiment with Focused Inbox a little. If you find that you get too much unwanted/unimportant mail, you can always enable Focused Inbox again. But then you’ll have to trust the app with determining which emails are important to you.

3. Check your internet connection

Outlook can’t receive new emails if you’re not correctly connected to the internet. So, quickly make sure there’s nothing wrong with your internet connection. Check both Wi-Fi and data.

In case you notice there’s a problem with your internet connection, check out this article for more potential solutions.

READ MORE: Emails not showing up on iPhone? Here’s what to do

4. Allow Notifications

Maybe you’re getting all your emails normally, but you don’t receive notifications. Outlook is a little bit different than other apps when it comes to managing notifications. Unlike with most of the apps, for which you can manage notifications inside your iPhone’s settings, you’ll need to allow Outlook notifications inside the app first.

Here’s how to allow Outlook notifications:

1. Open the Outlook app.
2. Tap your profile picture and go to Settings.
3. Under Email, tap Notifications.
4. Tap Allow when the prompt asks you to allow Outlook notifications to appear.
5. Now, you can choose for which inbox you want to receive the notifications for (Focused Inbox, Favorite People, Focused and Other Inboxes, None). Just choose the preferred inbox, and you’ll start receiving Outlook notifications for the select inbox.

Once you’ve done this, the Notifications section will appear on Outlook’s page in iPhone’s Settings, so you can also manage notifications from there.

5. Re-add your Outlook Account

If nothing else helps, we’re going to re-add your Outlook account to re-sync all your data. Here’s how to do that:

1. Open the Outlook app.
2. Tap your profile picture and go to Settings.
3. Under Email Accounts, tap your email address.
4. Tap Delete Account.
5. Now, enter your login credentials once again and follow further on-screen instructions to re-add your account to Outlook.

That’s about it. I hope at least one of these solutions helped you resolve the problem with Outlook not receiving emails on your iPhone. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please let us know in the comments below.

Editor’s note: This article was initially published in March 2022. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.