How do i turn off work offline in Outlook?

Microsoft Outlook is the most popular email client in the world. When you start work in the morning it is common nature that you open the Outlook desktop app to send-receive email messages. If you find your Outlook Offline you will not be able to send-receive emails. In this context, I will guide you on how do you turn off work offline in Outlook.

Is Outlook working offline?

How do you understand whether your Outlook is working online or offline? it is very easy to find out. Please check your Outlook status bar. The status bar is located at the bottom of the screen. if your Outlook is working offline a cross sign is shown there as in the below photo.

Besides this, Your icon in the Windows taskbar also shows a red colored cross if your Outlook status is Offline. See the image above.

How to turn off work offline in Outlook

If your Outlook is shown working Offline that means you are not able to send or receive any emails. Your Outlook is disconnecting from the email client. You have to turn off the work offline button in Outlook. Where to find that button?

Go to the Send/Receive tab of the Outlook ribbon, the work offline button is under the Preference group.

Press the Work Offline button to make your Outlook online. You may see the changes in the Outlook status bar and Windows taskbar as well.

Why Work Offline in Outlook can happen?

You may be surprised why Outlook shows work offline mode. I can explain it to you. Keep reading this content. Outlook can be act work offline for the following reasons

• You may not have internet connectivity.
• Your internet connectivity is too poor to connect to the email server.
• Your email server can be down for some reason.
• Your Outlook credential is changed.
• Your Outlook configuration is wrong.
• Your Outlook data file is corrupted.
• Your Outlook is not Updated

You can check the above reasons to identify the root cause of your Outlook Working Offline. Let’s dig more deep one by one.

Internet Connectivity

You may not have internet connectivity or your internet connection is too poor to connect your Outlook to the email server. What to do? First, check your computer why it is not connected to the internet. If your computer can not connect to the internet, troubleshoot it. If still, the problem persists, please check your wifi router. Turn off your wifi router for at least ten seconds and restart it again. Hopefully, the Internet is on.

If not contact your internet service provider to resolve the issue. You don’t have anything more to do. Just relax and wait for the internet connection. But if you have an alternate internet connection available like mobile internet you can turn on the hotspot of your mobile and connect your computer to the internet.

The email Server is Down

Your email server can be down for some critical reason. Normally, it happens rarely. The email server can be down once a year. Maybe more rarely. Still, there is a chance. Call your hosting service provider to resolve it as soon as possible. In this case, also, you do not have anything more to do. Just keep waiting. You cannot send or receive email messages but still you can work offline mode. You can prepare email writing and wait for your server live.

If you send emails, they will be stuck in the Outbox until your server is alive.

Outlook credential is changed

Maybe you already know that Outlook is just an email client. It connects to the webmail server to download all your emails and allows you to send-receive emails through the Outlook desktop application. If you or someone change your email credentials then your Outlook could not be able to connect to the webmail server. What can you do?

Contact your IT department to provide you with the new password or reset the password and let you know. Now update your credential on Outlook. If you do not know how to update your Outlook password. Follow the below instructions.

• Go to the File tab, Click Info. Select Account Settings you will find Update Password. Update your password there.

The outlook configuration is wrong

Due to the wrong outlook configuration, your Outlook can work offline. As Outlook is an email client, it connects to the mail server through some standard protocol like POP  or IMAP. It also has some port numbers to be connected. Incoming and outgoing mail server addresses should be as per webmail configuration. It should be as it is. Check incoming and outgoing email servers first. Go to the File tab> Account Settings> Server settings.

If you do not understand these things ask your network administrator to check and resolve them. To learn how to set up your Outlook to the different webmail services you can read the below article.

• How to set up company email on Outlook.
• Outlook configuration for Gmail.
• Adding yahoo account to Outlook.

Corrupted Outlook Data File

It can be a critical issue if your Outlook data file is corrupted. You can try to repair it. Other third-party apps also can help you. To avoid this type of issue you may take an Outlook email backup once a week. It will be easy for you to restore if your Outlook data file is corrupted or lost for some reason.

Do you know how to take a backup of your Outlook emails? If not the following content is only for you.

How to create a backup of Outlook emails.

Check for Updates

Check whether your Outlook is running without updating for a long time or not. If required you can update your application to get rid of work offline issues. How to update? Remember, for any Microsoft Office product you can update in the same way.

Go to the File tab, Select Office Account

If Outlook is Work Offline what to do?

If your Outlook is working Offline and you cannot reconnect it anyhow. Your network administrator is out of the office or very busy. What should you do? I know you are a busy man. Time is more than money for you.

You keep calm and start working offline. Check old emails and write replies and keep them in the draft folder of Outlook. Or you can still send it. Emails will be stuck in your Outbox, When your Outlook is online, your email will be shipped to the receipient.

Dear readers, I hope this article is helpful for you. Please keep a comment here in the comment box. I will try to reply to your comment as soon as possible. Thank you for being with us.