Emails being silently dropped

Question

Emails being silently dropped

Jessica Confer 5

I am having trouble with my email. I usually access my email from google. I opened it with Outlook a few days ago and everything has been awful since then. A lot of emails are not coming through at all. These include login codes from American Airlines and Idealist. I am also not getting newsletter style emails from The Points Guy, Going and Daily Drop- I had been getting these daily for quite sometime and they all stopped. I am sure there are others, but it is hard to remember. I have cleared all blocked senders and obsessively check my Junk mail. Can you reset the restrictions on my account? I am in the process of searching a job and afraid other important emails are not being delivered.

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Answer 1

Chloe-V 3,025 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Jessica Confer,

Thank you for posting to Microsoft Q&A Forum.

1. Check Focused Inbox & Other tab

In Outlook Web, emails may go to Other instead of Focused.
Click the Other tab at the top of the inbox and see if the missing emails are there.

2. Review Rules & Sweep settings

Go to Settings → Mail → Rules.
Delete or disable any rules that might move or delete mail.
Also check Sweep rules ( Outlook sometimes auto-creates filters.)

3. Review Blocked and Safe Senders

Go to Settings → Mail → Junk email.
Make sure the missing senders (American Airlines, newsletters, etc.) are not blocked.
Add them to Safe senders and domains.

4. Gmail Sync Issues

Outlook.com acts like a mail client for Gmail. Sometimes OAuth sync breaks.

Try:

Removing Gmail from Outlook.com → Settings → Sync email → Connected accounts.
Then re-a secure sign-in.

5. Check Gmail directly

Log into Gmail directly at gmail.com.
If emails are arriving in Gmail but not Outlook.com → problem is on Outlook’s side.
If they are missing in Gmail too → problem is on Gmail or the sender’s side.

6. Request Microsoft Support Reset

Sometimes Microsoft applies hidden restrictions if it thinks your account is forwarding too much mail (to fight spam). If so, only Microsoft support can reset it.
Go to Outlook.com Help and open a support ticket.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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Please feel free to let me know if you have any further updates, thanks.

Jessica Confer 5 Reputation points

2025-09-25T11:22:26.1366667+00:00

Focused inbox is not on. I wish it was that easy to fix.
Chloe-V 3,025 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-09-25T14:02:33.77+00:00

Since Focused Inbox is not turned on, you should prioritize checking Rules and Junk Email first. These two are usually the main causes.
Jessica Confer 5 Reputation points

2025-09-25T20:30:13.1033333+00:00

I had already tried everything on the list except #4. I tried that, but nothing has helped. I have reached out to support for a 2nd time asking for them to reset my account.

Thanks for trying to help.
Chloe-V 3,025 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-09-28T08:36:35.3966667+00:00
Hi Jessica Confer,

If you are using an @gmail.com address but logging in through Outlook Web (usually outlook.office.com), Outlook Web is only showing what Outlook has synchronized from Gmail. If the initial setup was done using Exchange or POP/IMAP, Outlook Web may not display all of the original emails from Gmail.

You can check whether Outlook is using POP or IMAP:

Open Outlook on your computer.

Go to the File menu.

Select Account Settings.

Under Account Information:

If you see Account Type: POP3, it means you are using POP (which can cause emails to disappear from Gmail).

If you see Account Type: IMAP, this is the correct choice (two-way sync, Gmail keeps the emails).

If you see Microsoft Exchange (blue logo with “Microsoft Exchange”), it means the account is neither POP3 nor traditional IMAP. With Exchange, Outlook synchronizes directly with the server (like IMAP, but deeper: syncing mail, calendar, contacts…). Therefore, lost emails are not due to POP3 downloading and removing them.

So, where could the problem come from?

The Exchange profile in Outlook may be causing filtering or sync errors.

Rules and Alerts in Outlook or Gmail may be automatically moving or deleting emails. 3. Gmail itself may still misclassify emails into Spam or All Mail.

For this reason, Outlook Web is not the most accurate place to check — Gmail Web is the source of truth.

Go to https://mail.google.com and log in directly to Gmail.

This is the most reliable way to confirm whether emails have actually arrived.

If Gmail Web shows the emails, Outlook is syncing incorrectly.

If Gmail Web also does not show the emails, they were not delivered (possibly blocked or filtered by Gmail).

If Gmail Web does not show new emails from American Airlines, Idealist, The Points Guy, etc., Gmail likely filtered or blocked them incorrectly > you should adjust filter settings and may need to contact Google Support.

If Gmail Web does have the emails but Outlook does not display them > this means, it’s an Exchange sync issue in Outlook. In that case, you should:

Remove the Gmail account from Outlook.

Add it back again, but choose IMAP instead of Exchange, to ensure syncing works the same as Gmail Web.

Best Regards,

Chloe | Microsoft Q&A Support Specialist
Jessica Confer 5 Reputation points

2025-09-30T16:35:50.61+00:00

I am using google to access my email and still unable to see all of my mail. I am now not receiving any authorization codes sent via email.

I have contacted support twice with no response. I filled out a feedback response three times asking for restrictions to be reset.

Is there any other way to have this done?

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Emails being silently dropped

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