Users Outlook (O365) periodically just stops receiving mail.

[thecomputerguy]

Not sure where to do here, client is getting extremely frustrated. Basically what happens is Outlook will show All folders up to date but mail will stop coming in, she only knows she is getting mail because she gets mail on here phone that is not in here Outlook. Outlook must be closed and re-opened for mail to continue. Her Outlook setup is super basic, a clean O365 account with nothing out of the norm configured, not even MFA, just Outlook with 3 email accounts in it set to sync the last 3 months of mail.

I'm starting to look like I don't know what I'm doing, this has been going on for a couple weeks. Outlook will be fine for a day or two, or even three, then all the sudden shes closing and re-opening Outlook repeatedly all day.

I've tried:

Multiple New Profiles
Reinstalled Office (32-bit)
Fully updated office
Removed all Anti-Virus
All addons disabled
Cleaned computer (No malware at all)

Anything else I can look at here?

 

[Sky-Knight]

Send / Recieve tab, Work Offline enabled?

 

[thecomputerguy]

Send / Recieve tab, Work Offline enabled?

If it were enabled it would say Working Offline as opposed to All folders up to date ... right?

 

[Larry Sabo]

Forgive me if this is stupid (I don't do much Outlook) but can you re-sync IMAP the folders. That has fixed this issue for me in the past.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Forgive me if this is stupid (I don't do much Outlook) but can you re-sync IMAP the folders. That has fixed this issue for me in the past.

New profile would do that and it's not IMAP it's Exchange.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

What version of Windows 10? If not 1909, might as well force an update to that and see what happens.

 

[thecomputerguy]

What version of Windows 10? If not 1909, might as well force an update to that and see what happens.

1909

 

[Sky-Knight]

If it were enabled it would say Working Offline as opposed to All folders up to date ... right?

Not... always... but you do see the red X at the bottom.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Not... always... but you do see the red X at the bottom.

I've been in the system while it's not recieving mail ... it looks like everything is fine.

All folders up to date : Connected to Microsoft Exchange

Except no new mail is delivered.

 

[Moltuae]

A problem with mail rules perhaps?
I would clear out any rules and recreate them if possible.

And I would check Mail Flow in O365 for anything unusual. Had one customer a while ago with a compromised account (fell for a phishing email). The phisher created a mail flow rule that stopped mail from being received by the user (presumably with the intention of intercepting it).

 

[AlexCa]

Maybe try to check and set a faster refresh rate in Outlook: http://www.itmonkee.com/adjusting-the-refresh-rate-in-outlook/

Maybe it's just the case that she's receiving the email first on her phone, and when she does she restarts Outlook.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Time to bring out sara. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/100607

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Odd one.
Spinner hard drive? How much RAM? I see "i3" mentioned and I'm thinking rest of the system may be low spec too.
Have you blown away the .OST file and let it recreate a new one?
Try disabling cached mode.

 

[HCHTech]

just Outlook with 3 email accounts in it set to sync the last 3 months of mail.

My money is on the "3 email accounts", being at the root of the problem. In my experience the more accounts you have in Outlook, the more problems you have (said the guy with 3 email accounts in his Outlook). Are the accounts on the same domain? It's obnoxious, but you could try putting each account in a different profile and see if the problem continues. THAT might let you narrow down the issue to one of the acounts to focus your troubleshooting.

 

[Sky-Knight]

If all three are O365 accounts? I'd have to agree... What are those three accounts?

 

[thecomputerguy]

A problem with mail rules perhaps?
I would clear out any rules and recreate them if possible.

And I would check Mail Flow in O365 for anything unusual. Had one customer a while ago with a compromised account (fell for a phishing email). The phisher created a mail flow rule that stopped mail from being received by the user (presumably with the intention of intercepting it).

There were several rules there ... deleted them ... mail flow is clean

 

[thecomputerguy]

Maybe try to check and set a faster refresh rate in Outlook: http://www.itmonkee.com/adjusting-the-refresh-rate-in-outlook/

Maybe it's just the case that she's receiving the email first on her phone, and when she does she restarts Outlook.

Pretty sure this doesn't apply to exchange but did it anyways.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Time to bring out sara. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/100607

ughhhhhh

 

[thecomputerguy]

Odd one.
Spinner hard drive? How much RAM? I see "i3" mentioned and I'm thinking rest of the system may be low spec too.
Have you blown away the .OST file and let it recreate a new one?
Try disabling cached mode.

i5 8gb and a 250GB Samsung SSD on Windows 10

After recreating the profile I made sure to delete all OST's.

 

[thecomputerguy]

My money is on the "3 email accounts", being at the root of the problem. In my experience the more accounts you have in Outlook, the more problems you have (said the guy with 3 email accounts in his Outlook). Are the accounts on the same domain? It's obnoxious, but you could try putting each account in a different profile and see if the problem continues. THAT might let you narrow down the issue to one of the acounts to focus your troubleshooting.

I'm pretty sure Outlook is able to run up to 10 exchange accounts, after which you can run more after a regedit. There are tons of people running more than one account in the world on exchange, but I will keep an eye on it.

She has her email, the admin email, and another Lawyers email.