How to delete or resend an email message stuck in Outlook's Outbox

The article explains how you can quickly remove or resend emails that are stuck in your Outbox. The solutions work on all systems and all versions of Outlook 2007 to Outlook 365.

An email message may become stuck in Outlook because of different reasons. You can find the detailed information about the causes and remedies in this article: Why an email is stuck in Outbox and how to fix this.

But no matter what the reason is, you need to get a stuck e-mail out of the Outbox somehow. In fact, there are several ways you can remove a hanging message and we are going to cover them from simplest to more complex.

How to resend a message stuck in the Outbox

A very simple two-step method that you should try first.

  1. Drag the stuck message from the Outlook Outbox to any other folder, e.g. to Drafts. Drag the stuck message from the Outbox to Drafts
  2. Switch to the Drafts folder, open the message and click the Send button. That's it! The message will be sent. Open the message in the Drafts folder and click the Send button

Tip. Before moving a stuck message to the Drafts folder, go to the Sent Items folder and check if the message was actually sent. If it was, delete the message from the Outbox since there is no need to perform the steps above.

How to remove a stuck email from the Outbox

A quick and easy way to delete a hanging message.

If the message has been hanging in your Outbox for a while and you don't actually want to sent it anymore, follow the below steps to delete it.

  1. Go to the Outbox and double click a stuck message to open it.
  2. Close the message.
  3. Right-click the message and choose Delete from the context menu. Delete an email message stuck in the Outbox.

Set Outlook to work offline and then remove a stuck message

A general solution that works in most cases.

If the previous method did not work for you, e.g. if you are continuously getting "Outlook has already begun transmitting this message", then you will have to invest a couple more minutes and go through the below steps.

Tip: Before you proceed, make sure you have given Outlook enough time to complete sending. For example, if you are a sending an email with heavy attachments, the process may take up to 10 - 15 minutes or even longer, depending on your Internet bandwidth. So, you may be thinking the message is stuck while Outlook is doing its best to transmit it.

  1. Set Outlook to Work Offline.
    • In Outlook 2010 and higher, go to the Send/Receive tab, Preferences group and click "Work Offline".
    • In Outlook 2007 and lower, click File > Work Offline.
    Click the Work Offline button to switch to the offline mode.
  2. Close Outlook.
  3. Open the Windows Task Manager. You can do this by right clicking the taskbar and choosing "Start Task Manager" from the pop-up menu or by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ESC. Then switch to the Processes tab and verify that no outlook.exe process is there. If there is one, select it and click End Process. End a hanging Outlook process.
  4. Start Outlook again.
  5. Go to the Outbox and open a hanging message.
  6. Now you can either delete the stuck message or move it to the Drafts folder and remove the attachment if it is too big in size and this is the root of the problem. Then you can try to send the message again.
  7. Bring Outlook back on-line by clicking the "Work Offline" button.
  8. Click Send/Receive and see if the message is gone.

Create a new .pst file and then delete a stuck email

A more complex way, use it as the last resort if none of the above methods have worked.

  1. Create a new .pst file.
    • In Outlook 2010 - 365, you do this via File > Account Settings > Account Settings… > Data Files > Add…
    • In Outlook 2007 and older, go to File > New > Outlook Data File…
    Create a new .pst file.

    Name your new .pst file, e.g. "New PST" and click OK.

  2. Make the newly created .pst file the default one. In the "Accounting Settings" window, select it and click the "Set as Default" button. Set the newly created .pst file as the default one.
  3. Outlook will show the "Mail Delivery Location" dialog asking you if you really want to change the Default Outlook Data file. Click OK to confirm your choice. Confirm that you really want to change the Default Outlook Data file.
  4. Restart Outlook and you will see that your original .pst file shows up as an additional set of folders. Now you can easily remove the stuck email message from that secondary Outbox.
  5. Set the original .pst file as the default delivery location again (see step 2 above).
  6. Restart Outlook.

That's all! I hope at least one of the above techniques has worked for you. If you still have a message stuck in your Outbox, don't hesitate to leave a comment and we will try to make it send.

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155 comments

  1. In case anyone is still having issues and using outlook 2019, I followed the 2nd solution but with one modification for the 2019 version. After switching to offline mode, closing outlook, and opening Task Manager, the process you need to end for Outlook 2019 is not "OUTLOOK.exe", it is called "Microsoft Office Click-to-Run (SxS)"

    I closed that process, reopened Outlook 2019, and now was able to delete the stuck email with the large attachment. FYI mine was a google account.

  2. Very helpful, the tip of going offline >> closing outlook >> Re-opening Outlook and then Deleting The Stuck Msg. That worked like a charm!!! Thank you

  3. I came across this issue yesterday. Windows 10, Outlook 2016 (16.0.11929.20234) 32-bit, on-premises Exchange 2010, no Cached Exchange Mode, with an image used in the signature. Removing the signature allowed emails to send, but with the signature included we saw “Cannot send this item”.

    Another confirmation here that turning on Cached Exchange Mode fixed it.

    Glad I spotted this thread!

  4. Thanks I had to go to the third option and it worked thank goodness. the only thing is should I now delete that new PST file that I created? I have deleted the PST file and swapped the default button back. the only thing is that I wasn't sure which line the default button was on. I think it was on the first line and so that is where I set it back to but now I can't send emails from my main account Wondering if you have any other suggestions Please Many thanks - yours was the clearest instructions to solve the "stuck email problem" Thanks Paddy

  5. First, thank you for this string. I am 64 and a bit of a dinosaur but I think I am more computer literate than most folks my age.
    The issue I have is that I have an 1 of 5 emails that appear to be "ghost emails" stuck in my sending file. I say ghost because they do not appear in my OUTBOX. In particular they are stuck in OUTLOOK 2019 program. The program has been giving me a "not responding" message more an more as of late. I use ATT360 tech support and the technician was able to locate that the files are conflicting in my roadrunner account. The curious thing is that the message bar will say "Sending 1 of 5"; then an error is shown in the progress bar and they task is never completed. I am suspecting that this hanging message(s) is using valuable resources and causing my "not responding" messages.
    Further, the messages are not showing up in any of my Outboxes so the solution of finding the files and moving them to drafts and then delete will not apply as I can seem to find where the messages are to begin with.
    I would be grateful for any advice. Thanking you in advance. agb

  6. Five years later this is still helping! Going offline and dragging them to Drafts is what worked for me, and I never would have thought to try it.

  7. Thank you so much!! I tried several other "solutions," but working offline and using the Task Manager to end the process worked!

  8. Thank you very much!!! Going offline (option 2) worked a treat!!

  9. Had the stuck email also, but figured it out - finally. Tried all methods, including mfcmapi, except the one above, creating a temporary .pst file to make the original one secondary.

    For me, the reason it was "stuck" was that I had deleted the account after clicking "send". I had been doing a test. Forgot to delete the message, and it didn't go out, so it was left hanging. Finally figured out that I lacked permissions because I had deleted the account from Outlook. Put it back in temporarily, went offline before it downloaded the world, deleted the "stuck" message, then deleted the account from Outlook again.

    There could be others who have this issue after changing email providers (or for other reasons), so I thought I would list it as a potential fix for anyone else that ends up in the same boat I was in.

    • Chuck -- This solved my issue!!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much. I have been dealing with 16 stuck emails for 9 months.

  10. My problem is with my outbox on my phone. How do I remove the stuck messages from it? They do not show on my pc.

  11. I sent a mass mailing from a word doc and rather than receiving "undeliverable" in my inbox, I receive "Delivery Delayed" - Delivery will continue to be attempted. The emails are not stuck in my outbox. Outbox is empty. I delete these emails from my inbox, however it continues the attempts so the delayed messages keep appearing. I need to cancel these out so that outlook stops attempting to send these emails. Help?

  12. Thanks..worked work offline method for me.

  13. Thanks a lot.... The second method worked so well. Happy happy

  14. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
    This has really been CHEESING me off
    Thanks

  15. My friend,

    You're seriously awesome, you helped me in solving my problem, for which I was struggling since 1 week.

    Thanks you very much.

  16. The two stuck files would not move to drafts. I went to work offline right clicked on file and it moved to drafts where I deleted it. I think i was trying to move the file without clicking on it first anyway worked for me thank you

  17. I had the same issue with Outlook for Mac 2016 - with 3 large 35MB email stuck in the outbox which was blocking me sending anything. The outbox is also not visible in Mac until you send yourself a test message offline (which in itself is strange). Even when I finally got into the messages - they would not delete.

    I put the Outlook for Mac into offline used Mac Activity Monitor to end all processes for Outlook. I then restarted outlook, sent another test email to myself to see the outbox and then could delete the messages. Strangely, I had to press delete message 3 times before it deleted. Maybe there was just a stunning time delay.

    This was driving me crazing and blocking my Wi-FI network as outlook tried to send the item, so I am so glad to have found this feed :-)

  18. Hi I have 18 read receipts stuck in the outbox. Im using Outlook 2016 on Windows 10. I have downloaded Outlook spy and tried to delete these. It shows only Partial Deletion!! The issue appears to be on the mails server which is not accessible. Please give me a solution. My mail takes forever to send.

    NOTE: if I send an email then go to the outbox and double click on the outgoing mail. Nothing really happens. I close and shutdown Outlook and restart and then quickly go to the outbox and double click on the outgoing mail and it SENDS! immediately!! This is my time consuming current work around but I still have 18 items sending!

  19. Thanks a lot your procedure solved my problem

  20. Thank you so much for the tip using windows task manager for emails stuck in outbox, worked first time in under 5 minutes, been trying to sort this out for the last 3 months. Much appreciated

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