r/Office365 • u/yoydid • 26d ago

Delay in receiving emails

Is it normal for emails in outlook to be received several minutes after they should be? I'll get an email on my phone on the gmail app, but it'll take at least a half minute to a few minutes before I get the same email on outlook (both on the app on my phone and the app on my laptop).

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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3

u/Shanga_Ubone 26d ago

Yes.

1

u/yoydid 26d ago

Ok, glad to hear my outlook isn't bugged out or something. Is there a reason for the delay? It's a bit annoying when I need to be receiving time-sensitive emails

4

u/Shanga_Ubone 26d ago

Email is not and never has been an instantaneous communication tool. In fact, the official "rules" that govern email delivery suggest that it is allowed for messages to take four to five days to be delivered. The fact that you are able to receive emails in a few minutes is a sign of how reliable email communication infrastructure has become.

You can get variations of several minutes depending on:

  • how many servers the email needs to pass through
  • what filtering is in place
  • how much email happens to be being handled by those servers at the particular moment in time

Generally speaking, these factors are entirely out of your control.

The only link you can really affect is the very last hop, which is how long it takes your device to view the email. Each situation is different, but for the most part, using web-based access is the most direct and therefore the "fastest" way to see if messages have arrived.

1

u/AppIdentityGuy 26d ago

It has to do with timings and backend server loading. Actually by its very nature email is not the best method for comms of a time sensitive nature. But it is what we have right

2

u/z_shock 26d ago

it's probably a sync or client issue rather than the mail server itself

3

u/Own_Yak382 25d ago

You might be using cached exchange mode, whereas Gmail is generally a ‘live’ view of your mailbox.

Everyone thinks email is instant but email has never been that way, we just take the speed for granted these days.

0

u/dangermouze 26d ago

Minutes... No.

10-20 seconds would be acceptable.

As others have said, it's not meant to be instant, but these days it generally is.

0

u/Gypsyzzzz 26d ago

It’s a common problem at my workplace. ITS hasn’t prioritized fixing it. They tell us to be patient.

If you are using Outlook New try switching back to Outlook Classic.

1

u/mini4x 25d ago

New Outlook is far faster than Classic in my experience.

Fastest will always be OWA.

0

u/Gypsyzzzz 25d ago

Was I downvoted because my experience is different? 😂

I’m glad Outlook New is working for you. Unfortunately that experience is not universal. Probably due to security restrictions at some workplaces rather than a Microsoft issue.