Sometimes, you may encounter timeout error messages when sending emails in Outlook.
The most common situation in which this occurs is when there are large attachments in the email. Usually, the server timeouts settings are set to 1 minute. But when you are sending large attachments, it might take longer than a minute.
Solution1: Increase the server timeout settings
To work around the problem, try setting the server timeout to say 2 minutes or 3 minutes. This way enough time is provided to send large attachments. To do this, follow the step by step instructions below.
- Open Outlook and go to File > Info > Account Settings
- Select your email account and click Change
- Once the Change Account dialogue box opens, click on More Settings
- Change the value corresponding to Server Timeouts to your requirement, say 2 or 3 minutes.
Now check if emails can be sent without issues. If the issue persists, proceed to solution 2 and repair your Outlook.
Solution 2: Repair Outlook
Repairing Outlook may help solve the issue in some cases. So, go ahead and try to repair Outlook by following the steps below.
- Right click on Start and select Apps and Features
- Select Outlook
- In ‘How would you like to repair Office Programs’, select Online Repair and click Repair.
- If you are using MSI, select ‘Change your installation’ > Repair
This will repair your Outlook and fix any issues. Now you should be able to send emails normally. However, if the issue still persists, run the Inbox Repair tool to fix any possible corruption with your Outlook data files.
Solution 3: Run Inbox Repair tool
Inbox repair tool is provided with Outlook to fix corruption in its data files called PST. Any corruption in data files will hamper the regular functioning of Outlook. This may be one of the reasons why you are getting error messages while sending emails.
To run this tool, search for Scanpst.exe in Search in File Explorer. Then you are required to select the PST file to repair.
To find the location of PST file, go to File > Account Settings > Account settings. Then select your PST file and click on Location of the file. Now note the location of your PST file.
Back to Scanpst, select the PST file and click on Repair. Now the tool will repair your file if there are any minor corruptions.
Solution 4: Use Remo Repair Outlook (PST)
If the PST file is severely corrupt, Scanpst cannot repair the file. In that case, you will have to make use of professional PST repair tools such as Remo Repair. This tool is designed to repair your PST file and fix Outlook issues.
All attributes of Outlook such as emails, attachments, calendars, contacts etc. can be retrieved using the software. There will no change in the retrieved data compared to the original, because the tool does not work on the original file. It carefully extracts the contents and fixes issues to create a healthy PST.
The software is compatible with all recent versions of Outlook and Windows.
You may face other issues such as Outlook freezing multiple times or Outlook starts in offline mode. These symptoms may also indicate corruption in data files.