Outlook taking ages to sync

charlieharper

charlieharper

Expert Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2007
Messages
3,865
Reaction score
1,980
Location
South Coast, KZN
Screenshot 2022-03-11 at 11.25.08.png

I'm asking on behalf of a friend.

After a recent Windows / Outlook update, she started having mostly receiving mails - it would take ages to sync and receive, sometimes not at all. No errors, no messages that will guide me into the right direction.
On her phone it works fine and is snappy.

I've re-setup the IMAP accounts, checked firewalls, trippled checked the ports, etc, but it seems to have no effect.
It feels like there might be a folder somewhere on the IMAP server or on Outlook itself that's either too big, or even corrupt but not sure how to determine it.

When I run outlook.exe /safe and opens in safe mode, it feels like the inbox actually syncs, but that "synchronising subscribed folders" never ends.

Since most of the mails are backed up and stored on the imap server, I think it's time to give Outlook the equivalent of a factory reset - is there a simple way of doing that, that doesn't involve formatting the whole computer - which won't be possible as I'm helping her over teamviewer. lol

Any other suggestions before I delete everything related to Outlook and start fresh? Also any do's and don't that I should keep in mind?
I'm very rusty on Windows (I'm MacOS / Linux guy for the past decade), but can find my way around.

I got her to use Webmail in the meantime, but Outlook is first choice.

Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:

Outlook hangs on “Synchronizing Subscribed Folders”​

When you have many folders with many messages in Microsoft Outlook, synchronization can be slow or even appear to hang.

Outlook hangs because it downloads all messages every time, including attachments, while with a regular email IMAP application, only headers are being synced.

www.helpinghost.com/docs/outlook-hangs-on-synchronizing-subscribed-folders/
 

Why is Outlook stuck synchronizing folders?​

In some cases, Outlook gets stuck synchronizing folders due to many reasons, that include the send/receive interval too short, a message is stuck, and so on.

Today we will take a look at the causes for this error and see how to fix it.

Why is Outlook stuck synchronizing folders

Outlook gets stuck synchronizing folders due to many reasons, that include send/receive interval too short, a message is stuck, and so on.
bobcares.com
 
I just fixed something like this last week. was such a balls to fix it though. Now I have no memory of what I did.
 
Last edited:
Many clients with similar issues on 2013 and 2016, 2019 seems to be OK, many patches supplied by MS, they just create bigger issues down the line, only sure fired way is to delete that account and recreate it.
 
N@t3 said:
I just fixed something like this last week. was such a balls to fix it though. Now I have to memory of what I did.
Click to expand...

If it does come back, do let me know.
I'm putting together a list of things to try, when I connect to her laptop again next week and try not look like an idiot. :ROFL:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X