Share via

Having trouble receiving emails from Gmail - Outlook desktop

Natalie 0 Reputation points
2026-05-15T11:37:37.53+00:00

About five hours ago I tried sending myself some pictures from my phone, via my Gmail. Usually they get sent straight away to my Outlook, but I tried several times and only once did one manage to get through - about three hours later. I even tried sending a picture from Gmail desktop to test, to no avail.

Is anyone else having the same problem, not being able to receive emails from Gmail? I tried sending myself a quick "Hello!" on Outlook and I got it quickly, so I can only assume it's a Gmail problem?

Edit: I just tried to send something from Outlook to Gmail, and I got it straight away on Gmail. Does anyone know if there's a connection error or something in sending things from Gmail to Outlook?

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Email
0 comments

2 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Chloe-L 13,140 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-05-15T21:04:55.59+00:00

    Hi Natalie,

    Thank you for reaching out. A number of users over the past 24 hours have reported exactly the same symptom you're describing — inbound mail from Gmail (and a few other external providers) being heavily delayed or not arriving at all, while outbound mail from Outlook works normally.

    I've just checked, and Microsoft hasn't published any official announcement related to this yet. Unfortunately, there's very little configuration that can be adjusted from your side — and I'd actually recommend not changing anything for now, as doing so could cause further issues once the service stabilizes.

    The good news is that messages from Gmail are not lost — they're being queued or throttled on Microsoft's inbound mail servers and should be delivered once the backlog clears.

    A couple of small things that will help in the meantime:

    • Please avoid resending the same emails multiple times from Gmail, as this can add to the queue and may even trigger temporary throttling on Gmail's side toward Outlook.
    • If anything is truly time-sensitive, it's best to use an alternate channel (SMS, a different email account, etc.) until delivery returns to normal.

    Thank you for your patience while this resolves. I'll keep an eye on the situation and update here if any official information becomes available.

    Warm regards,

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Alex Bassin 0 Reputation points
    2026-05-15T14:12:42.1066667+00:00

    Check with system admin if your mailbox has the massage size restriction and what it is for your mailbox. It may be a problem in that case.

    Was this answer helpful?

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.