One-way mail is one of the most misdiagnosed Outlook complaints, because "receive" is actually three separate things: the server holding the mail, Outlook fetching it, and Outlook filing it. After a PST change, the third step is the usual failure - fetching succeeds silently and files into the wrong data file. This page runs the split test in order so each suspect is cleared or convicted on evidence.
Resist the two classic time-wasters: re-typing the password (sending already proved it works) and recreating the profile (it rebuilds the same delivery confusion from scratch). Five minutes of splitting beats both.
The telling combination: sending fine, receiving reports success with no errors, yet webmail holds mail Outlook never shows. Success with silence means delivery location, not connection.
A successful send proves your internet, your account password and the outgoing (SMTP) server path all work. It proves nothing about receiving. Sending and receiving are separate conversations with separate servers and settings, and after a PST change there is a third, purely local suspect: the delivery location. The split test below questions each suspect separately, so you stop re-typing passwords for a problem that lives in a folder setting.
If Send/Receive completes with no errors and webmail shows mail waiting, yet your Inbox stays empty, the mail is being delivered somewhere else in Outlook. That is the signature of the delivery-location problem: expand every data file in the folder pane and check each Inbox, then fix the default file or the account Change Folder setting. No-error silence after a PST change is this problem until proven otherwise.
Honesty requires the last branch: sometimes Outlook is fine. A full server mailbox can refuse new deliveries, an ISP mail server can be down for hours, and a sender domain can be blocked by the receiving server spam policy. Webmail separates these cleanly - if mail is missing there too, the fix belongs to the mail provider, and no local setting will conjure it into existence.
The full fix, shown live in Outlook - the account settings screens, the delivery location and the test mail arriving - is in the video above.
Watch Full VideoA self-test can travel an internal or cached path and prove less than it appears to. If genuine outside mail is missing even from webmail, the issue sits with the server or its spam filtering, not Outlook. If outside mail is in webmail but not in Outlook, return to the split test - the receiving path or delivery location is at fault.
Yes - that is exactly what the code is for. Note whether it appears on the sending or the receiving task, and read its plain-English line first; Outlook error text is usually more useful than the number. Connection-family codes point at server settings or the network; logon codes point at credentials. Neither is cured by changing data files.
Not quite. Late mail with eventual arrival points at Send/Receive scheduling - check how often the All Accounts group is set to check, and whether the account is included in it. Delivery-location problems never delay mail; they hide it instantly and completely, in the wrong Inbox.