Using Outlook for iOS for personal email and calendar management
If email can be sent but not received after buying more storage, the most common causes in this scenario are:
- Cloud or email storage is still over quota or has not refreshed yet
- If Microsoft cloud storage (OneDrive + Outlook.com attachments) is over quota, Outlook.com cannot send or receive email, even if email storage itself looks fine.
- Go to the mailbox storage page (for example via the Outlook.com storage link or Microsoft storage view) and confirm:
- Microsoft/Unified storage is under its quota.
- Email storage is also under its quota.
- After buying storage or freeing space, it can take some time for the quota status to update. If the quota still looks wrong after waiting, unlinking and relinking OneDrive can help force an update, as described in the storage FAQ.
- OneDrive overage blocking mail flow
- If OneDrive or overall Microsoft storage is still reported as exceeded, Outlook.com will continue to block sending and receiving email until the account is back under the unified storage quota.
- Reduce storage by deleting large files/emails or follow the guidance in "How to reduce your cloud storage" from the storage FAQ, or confirm that the purchased storage is correctly applied under Manage storage.
- Missed emails while over quota
- Any emails sent while the account was over its email or Microsoft storage quota are returned (bounced) to the sender and are not queued.
- Those bounced messages are unrecoverable. Once storage is back under quota, senders must resend any messages they sent during the over‑quota period.
If storage now shows correctly under quota and email still does not arrive after some time, check from a web browser (Outlook.com) to rule out a client/app issue, and verify there are no rules or forwarding removing messages, as suggested in similar Outlook.com troubleshooting.
References:
- Can't send or receive email in Outlook.com
- Microsoft storage FAQs
- Storage limits in Outlook.com
- I can't send or receive messages in Outlook
- storage exceeded in outlook after purchasing MS 365 subscription - Microsoft Q&A
- How to Fix outlook - Microsoft Q&A
- my outlook email is not delivered - Microsoft Q&A