Microsofts Android suite gained a lot of popularity as the Redmond giant invest more in the development of apps like Microsoft Outlook Email Client. And the app is usually good, for some probably better than Google’s Gmail. However, some users are bothered by quite a debilitating error, as Outlook for Android is not syncing.
Learn how to fix this with the instructions below.
Table of contents:
- Check the connection
- Disable Battery optimization for the Outlook app
- Remove and add the email account again
- Reinstall Outlook
- Download an older APK version of Outlook
Outlook app not updating on Android
If Outlook can’t sync email on Android, you can usually fix this by:
- Disabling Battery optimization for Outlook in Settings > Apps > Outlook > Battery.
- Ensuring that there are no network issues.
- Remove and add the account again.
- Reinstall the app or use an older version by sideloading an APK.
Solution 1 – Check the connection
The first thing to do is to ensure that your device is connected to stable Wi-Fi. Inspect the connection and see whether any other app suffers from network issues. If the problem is isolated to Outlook, then you can move to another step.
On the other hand, if you have connectivity issues in general, try these steps:
- Reboot your phone/tablet and your wireless router.
- Enable Airplane mode for a couple of minutes. Disable it, connect to a network, and try syncing emails again.
- Reset Network Settings.
- Check out our articles about Wi-Fi and data issues on Android for more solutions.
Solution 2 – Disable Battery Optimization for the Outlook app
Outlook should sync the emails from the server in the background. Sadly, many Android skins tend to kill off apps that work in the background to save battery life. On some Android skins (e.g. MIUI and EMUI) you can whitelist the Outlook app in the Security app/System Manager but the best thing to do is to disable Battery optimization.
Follow these steps to disable Battery optimization for Outlook and allow it to sync in the background:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Apps.
- Choose Outlook.
- Select Battery and disable Battery optimization for Outlook.
If the Outlook app is still not syncing (updating) on Android, check the next step.
Solution 3 – Remove and add the email account again
Moving forward. Of course, in case you still weren’t able to resolve the sync issue, you can try and remove the account. Along with that, you can navigate to Outlook in a web browser and remove the Android device from the Sync list.
To do so, open Outlook, select Settings from the left pane, open your account and you should find Delete account at the bottom.
Solution 4 – Reinstall Outlook
If the previous steps weren’t of any help, let’s reinstall the app and give it another go. Usually, Microsoft tends to its Play Store apps but there might be a bug in the current version. If that’s indeed the case, the reinstallation should fix it for good.
Follow these steps to reinstall Outlook on Android:
- Open the Play Store.
- Search for Outlook and expand the Microsoft Outlook: Organize Your Email & Calendar app.
- Tap Uninstall and restart your device.
- Now, open any browser, navigate to the Outlook Web client, and sign in with the affected Outlook/Hotmail account.
- Under the Mobile device in the left pane, locate your device, highlight it, and click on the minus sign (-) to delete it.
- After that, just install Outlook again, sign in with your credentials, and wait for it to sync.
Solution 5 – Download an older APK version of Outlook
Finally, if you are still stuck with Outlook not syncing on your Android, you can roll back the app by installing an APK from APK Mirror (or any other APK aggregate of your choice). There’s something flawed with the current version so, by installing an older version, Outlook should be able to sync emails successfully.
Here’s how to download and install an Outlook APK on your phone or tablet:
- Uninstall Microsoft Outlook as explained above.
- Navigate to APK Mirror or any other APK hub online.
- Download an older APK version but not older than two months.
- Grant permission to install apps from untrusted sources.
- Install the APK and give it a go.
And on that note, we can wrap it up. Thank you for reading and be kind to share the results of troubleshooting with us in the comments section below.
Editor’s note: This article was initially published in April 2021. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.
