Updating Outlook is a very basic but important feature. If you suspect you’re getting a new email but haven’t received any, this feature can help.
You simply have to refresh all your sent and received emails, and the messages you suspected were not being updated will appear at the top of your inbox. Also, this not only fixes the problem of receiving emails, but also sends the ones that are stuck in outgoing mail. And with just one simple feature, all your difficulties in sending and receiving email will be gone. If your Outlook is not working properly then you should update the app as it has a high chance of solving the problem.
Now that you know this, you must be excited to see how to update your Outlook inbox. Well, as said before, it is quite easy to use this feature, and you will find out how you can update Outlook already in the first section of the following text. So, without further ado, get to work!
How to update Outlook?
If you want to learn how to update Outlook email, you’ve come to the right section. Well, there are two ways to achieve this, but both are very easy to do.
So, without further ado, here are the two processes you can use to refresh your Outlook inbox:
Manual update:
- First, open the Outlook app on your system.
- Then, from the top menu bar, go to the Send/Receive tab.
- There, click on the Send/Receive All Folders option.
- Finally, Outlook will start updating, wait for it to complete the process. Once you’ve done this, you’ll see the most recently received emails at the top of the email list in your inbox. In addition, this way can also solve the “I can’t send emails from Outlook” problem.
Keyboard shortcut to update Outlook:
- Start by launching the Outlook application on your system.
- In the app, if you want to update your Outlook Inbox, open it or any other folder you want to update.
- When you are in that folder, press the F9 key on your keyboard.
- After that, Outlook will start updating. Wait until it’s done, then you’ll see the newly received emails at the top of that folder.
Steps to set Outlook to update automatically
If you stay idle in your Outlook for a long time, you may stop receiving new emails and start to worry about your emails not showing up in Outlook. In this case, you can spend hours trying to fix Outlook not receiving email, when it’s really just an update issue.
However, you no longer have to worry about updating Outlook. You can learn how to automatically update Outlook and it will update your inbox with newly received messages.
There are two ways to update your mailbox in Outlook, which are listed below:
Method 1:
- Start by launching the Outlook application on your system.
- Then click the Send/Receive tab on the top menu ribbon.
- Then click the Send/Receive dropdown box and select Send/Receive Each or Define Send/Receive Groups. You may see either option depending on your version of Outlook.
- After that, click on the Schedule Automatic Send/Receive option located in the All Accounts section.
- After that, you need to set the update time for your Outlook inbox. Here you can set the value of the minutes according to your preferences. Your Outlook will automatically update after the specified time.
- Once you have set the update time, click the Close button at the bottom of the window and your changes will be saved.
Method-2:
- Launch Outlook on your system and click on the File menu option at the top left corner of the screen.
- Then click on Options at the bottom of the left sidebar of the next screen.
- Then select the Advanced option on the left panel of the next window.
- Then scroll down to the Send & Receive section and click the Send/Receive button.
- Next, check the Schedule to automatically send/receive every X minutes option and set the minutes you want Outlook to update your inbox.
- Finally, click the Close button and the changes will be saved. Now your Outlook will automatically send and receive new email messages after every specified minute.
Steps to update Outlook on Mac
Most likely, the steps above to update Outlook will work for Mac as well. However, if you can’t find the right settings or options in it, there is another way to update Outlook, which is one day below.
Here’s how to update Outlook 365 on Mac:
- First, open the Outlook app on your Mac.
- In the left side panel of Outlook, select the account you want to update.
- Right click on it and select Account Settings.
- This will open the Account dialog. There, click on the Advanced option located on the button at the right corner of the screen.
- Open the Server tab and set the synchronization intervals. Note that the minimum value for IMAP accounts like Gmail and Outlook.com is 2 minutes.
- Once you finish setting the update time, click the OK button, close the Accounts dialog, and your changes will be saved.
Also, after the time interval that you specify, Outlook will update itself and check for new incoming messages.
How to update Outlook on Android/iPhone?
Want to know how to update email in Outlook on your Android or iPhone? The process for doing this is ridiculously simple, and here’s how you can do it:
- Launch the Outlook app on your Android or iPhone device.
- You can easily refresh your inbox by swiping down from the top of the screen.
- Outlook will take a few seconds to load and will display the most recently received emails at the top of the email list in your inbox.
How to update Outlook on the web?
The process of updating your Outlook web mailbox is not rocket science. In fact, it’s as easy as refreshing any other web page in your browser.
If you haven’t already opened Outlook.com, open a browser and sign in to it. (Well, by doing that, you’ve already updated your Outlook!). Once your Outlook web panel loads, simply hit the refresh icon in your browser and your inbox will refresh.
Also, you will be able to see any new messages you have received at the top of your inbox list.
What to do when you can’t update your Outlook?
Check your internet connection
If even after following the above steps precisely, you still can’t update your Outlook, the first thing to check is your Internet connection. Make sure your device is connected to a stable network and there are no network issues.
You can try to reconnect by disconnecting your device from the Internet and then reconnecting it.
Check your Outlook settings
Your Outlook will have a hard time updating and will not display new messages if you have incorrectly set up your email account in Outlook. It is important to set the email server settings accurately.
In addition, also make sure to set the update interval to a high frequency. Let’s say you set the auto update interval to 30 minutes; then your Outlook will update new messages only after 30 minutes and not earlier. So please choose the update time accordingly.
Check your antivirus or firewall software
In some cases, a third-party antivirus or firewall program installed on the device interferes with Outlook and prevents it from working properly. To check if this is the case, temporarily turn off your antivirus or firewall software, and then try updating Outlook. If it’s updating fine now, check with your antivirus support to see why this problem occurs.
Update your Outlook app
If your Outlook app isn’t working on Android devices or iPhones due to not updating, don’t worry; there is a solution for that too. You can resolve this issue by updating the Outlook app on your Android or iPhone device.
Here are the steps for the same:
iphone:
- Start by opening the Apple App Store on your iPhone.
- Then tap on the Update button located at the bottom of the App Store screen.
- You will then see a list of apps available to update. Find Outlook on it, then tap on the Refresh button next to it.
- Once your Outlook app is up to date, it will update automatically and you will start receiving new emails that you can see in your inbox.
Android:
- Open the Google Play Store app on your device.
- Search for Outlook in the search bar at the top of the screen.
- This will open the Outlook page, where you can refresh it by tapping the Refresh button. However, you will only see the Update button when an update is available.
Bonus: How to automatically update calendar in Outlook?
You may know how to update your Outlook mailbox, but the steps to update your Outlook calendar are different.
So, to update your email calendar in Outlook, follow the instructions below:
- First, launch the Outlook application on your system and go to the Send/Receive tab.
- There, click the Send/Receive dropdown menu and select the Define Send/Receive Groups option.
- Next, the Send/Receive Groups dialog box will open; there, click the Edit button.
- After that, make sure that your email account is selected on the left side of the next window.
- Next, make sure the Calendar folder is selected, which you can find in the folder options.
- Finally, click Apply and your Outlook calendar will be updated.
Sources
Manpreet Kaur Sandhu, A Complete Guide to Upgrading Outlook Seamlessly, Emailspedia, Aug 29, 2022.
Microsoft Community, How do I manually update my Outlook inbox?
Read more:
- How to transfer email to Outlook from any system?
- A guide to changing or updating your Outlook account password
- Best Trusted Fixes for Outlook Server Errors
Read more Author: Kanika Singh I graduated from the University of Delhi with a B.Sc. With honors. computing Much of my studies revolved around the latest technologies and their rapidly changing trends.
Categories: How to
Source: HIS Education