Published · 4 min read
The first rule: one machine or everyone
This is the most important question, and it saves you an hour of pointless restarts. If one person is not receiving email, the problem is their machine or their account. If everyone stopped at the same hour, do not touch the computers at all, because the problem is the account, the domain or the subscription.
Open your email on your phone or in the browser at outlook.com or gmail.com. If mail arrives there, the accounts are fine and the problem is the Outlook program on the machines. If it does not arrive even there, the problem sits well before the machines.
Cause one: the subscription lapsed or the card was declined
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are monthly or yearly subscriptions. When the registered card fails or the term ends, email stops for every member of staff at the same moment, often with no warning anyone saw, because the warning emails went to someone who left the company.
Check the admin portal or ask whoever pays the bill. Renewing the subscription brings email back within minutes, and all the delayed messages arrive after it.
Cause two: the domain expired or the DNS records changed
Your email runs on your domain, like yourcompany.com. If the domain expires and is not renewed, or someone changes the DNS records while working on the website, the whole world stops knowing where to deliver your mail.
The telltale sign: people who email you receive a bounce saying the address does not exist. Ask a customer to send you a message and tell you what happens. An expired domain is fixed by renewing it; a DNS change is fixed by putting the MX records back as they were.
Cause three: a password or a new security policy
When the admin switches on two-step login or passwords expire, older programs stop syncing without showing a clear message. Outlook looks as if it is working, but nothing new comes in.
Close Outlook and open it again. If it asks for the password, enter it and complete the verification. If it does not ask, remove the account from Outlook and add it again. No mail is lost, because it lives on the server.
Cause four: a full mailbox or a forwarding rule
A mailbox over its size limit refuses new messages, and senders get a bounce saying the mailbox is full. This usually affects one person, but it affects everyone if a full shared mailbox receives all the company's mail.
A rule in Outlook or in the admin portal that moves all mail to a folder or forwards it elsewhere makes mail look lost when it is there. Look in the archive and deleted items folders before deciding it never arrived.
The quick checks
- 1
Ask: whose email stopped?
One person or everyone? And when did the last message arrive? This sets the direction.
- 2
Open email in the browser
If mail arrives there, the problem is in the programs on the machines. If not, it is the account or the domain.
- 3
Send yourself a message from an outside address
From a personal account on your phone. The bounce message, if one comes, tells you the exact cause.
- 4
Check the subscription and the domain
The admin portal shows the subscription status, and the domain registrar's site shows the expiry date.
When to call us
If a bounce message arrives that you cannot read, if the admin portal is in the hands of someone who left, or if mail stopped after work on the website, these are cases we usually solve remotely in minutes because we see them every week. Send us the full text of the bounce; it does half the work.
Common questions
Is the mail sent during the outage lost?
Usually not. Mail servers keep retrying for up to two days before giving up. If you fix the problem within a day, the delayed messages arrive on their own. If the domain was expired for weeks, mail from that period bounced back to the senders.
Why does mail reach the phone but not Outlook?
Because the phone uses modern settings while Outlook on the computer is holding on to an old password or connection method. Removing the account from Outlook and adding it again fixes it in most cases.
How do I stop this happening again?
Send billing and domain alerts to a shared mailbox management can see, not to one person. Switch on auto-renew for the domain, and keep a written copy of the DNS records before any work on the website.
Related services
Accounts, subscriptions, licences and mail records are all part of Microsoft 365 support in Saudi Arabia. If the problem is in the machines themselves, remote and onsite IT support in Madinah fixes it while you watch.