The Mail app that we see in Windows 10 was first introduced with Windows 8. The Mail app has been revamped in Windows 10 to include a better interface and a new set of features. Like other third-party mail clients out there for Windows, the Mail app also supports adding email accounts from other webmail services like Gmail and Yahoo Mail.
Although most users are happily using the Mail app in Windows 10 without any major issues, some users are having a variety of problems with the Mail app. Sync issue is just one of them.
It looks like for many users, the Mail app doesn’t sync automatically, and for some users, it doesn’t sync even after clicking the sync icon. For a small number of users, it shows Up to date as sync status but doesn’t sync new emails.
If the Mail app on Windows 10 is not syncing correctly, you can try out one of the fixes given below to resolve the sync issue.
Fix 1 of 4
Run the official troubleshooter
While the troubleshooter is not specific to the Mail app, it’s designed to troubleshoot and fix issues with Store apps. Hence, we recommend this official Store Apps Troubleshooter before proceeding further. Visit this page to download Store Apps troubleshooter, run it, and then follow easy on-screen instructions.
Fix 2 of 4
Check Mail app sync settings
Check the sync settings for the Mail app is configured correctly. If the Mail app is not syncing the latest emails or emails from the past month, it could likely because of the way sync settings configured.
Here is how to open and change Mail app sync settings.
Step 1: Open the Mail app. Click the Settings icon to reveal the Settings pane, click Accounts, and then click on the account name that has sync issues.
Step 2: Click Change mailbox sync settings. Under Download new content, select as items arrive or every 15 minutes from the drop-down box.
Step 3: Under Download email from the section, select either last month or any time depending on your needs. Make sure that, under Sync options (as you can see in the picture below), Email and Calendar are turned on. Click the Done button and then click Save to save new settings.
Step 4: Close the Mail app and relaunch it.
Fix 3 of 4
Check if Mail app can access Calendar
The Mail app doesn’t sync your calendar if it’s not allowed to do so. There is a provision under the Settings app to block apps from accessing your calendar. You can check this by opening Settings > Privacy > Calendar.
Make sure that Calendar access for this device is turned on and Allow apps to access your calendar is also turned on. Also, under Choose which apps can access your calendar section, make sure that the option next to Mail and Calendar is turned on.
Fix 4 of 4
Reset or reinstall the Mail app
If the sync issue persists even after trying out above mentioned methods, simply reinstall the Mail app. Reinstalling the Mail app is relatively easy and can be done in less than five minutes. Since there is already a detailed guide on that, we request you head over to our how to reinstall the Mail app in Windows 10 or how to reset the Mail app guide for step-by-step instructions.
After reinstalling the Mail app, you might need to add your email account(s) all over again.
Oyvind says
The screen dumps shown in this guide is no longer valid.
Windows Mail App has been changed many times and server and sync settings har been gradually removed from the user interface. It is no longer possible to adjust account settings like server names , passwords and account type.
gary says
Why after a update did you remove my e-mail syncs. Which I had no problems with for years. Where the heii do they find the knuckle heads that create these problems.. Fix it as I have other options than mic. soft….
Britton says
I had this issue after installing the Windows Mail App on my Android phone. Somehow due to the way MS wants to sync data across all Windows devices it changed the setting on my desktop without my knowledge. Thankfully the fix was simple.
Step one: Removed the app from my phone.
Step two: Open the mail application on your desktop/laptop and go to the affected account.
(In this case it was the Microsoft Outlook account.)
Step three: Right click on the name of the account under the Accounts section on the left side and select account settings.
Step four: Choose “Change mailbox sync settings” from the list of options.
Step five: This is what fixed it, change whatever it says in the Server field (example m-outlook.com) to http://www.outlook.com and select Done at the bottom.
If that was indeed the problem in your case then your outlook account should sync up instantly without anymore errors.
This was just testing and found to be working on Windows 10 Build 14393.447 with all applications manually updated to the most recently released versions as of Nov. 15, 2016.
Good Luck!
Junaid Ahmed says
After six months since my last comment:-) The problem(doesn’t sync automatically) still presists, clean installed Windows 10 using anniversary edition and used a new microsoft account. No luck. Need a native always on mail app so buying a Mac.
Junaid Ahmed says
I’ve tried reinstalling Windows, reinstalling apps using third party uninstaller(removing leftovers) and using Powershell commands, your method, and thousand more methods since the last 9 months. Didn’t work and MS didn’t give a shit. Almost after a year MS said they now know about this problem and will solve it near future. There’s a reason people are buying Mac despite Apple being a greedy company. These kind of stupidities failed MS in mobile market.
Henk says
I’m not using the mail app anymore!
I’m having sync problems with my outlook.com mailbox since Windows 8. => The app sometimes showed emails that were long gone.
This problem was still there in Win 8.1.
And it is even there in Windows 10!!!
I don’t understand why Microsoft doesn’t solve this problem. It can’t be that hard to make a mailbox look exactely the same in the app as in the real mailbox?
Today I witnessed another computer with Windows 10. The user claimed to have sent an email (with the app) a couple of days ago but it wasn’t in the sent items folder. I resynced several times but it didn’t show the email. When he opened his outlook.com mailbox via the webmail however the email was clearly there in the sent items folder.
This is unbelievable and very dangerous also…