You must connect to the Outlook Exchange Server to send and receive emails. But, occasionally, Outlook experience hassle connecting to the server. No worries!! If you're going through an Outlook not connecting to server error, then continue reading to find out several ways to get this issue fixed.
How to Fix "Outlook Cannot Connect to Server" Error?
Below we are going to discuss every plausible method that can help you fix the Outlook won't connect to server problem on your Windows PC, irrespective of the cause.
Hopefully, the video has solved your generic audio service detected issue, but if not, no worries. Below are some other solutions we prepared for you:
In this article
Tip 1: Make Sure Your Account Credentials or Exchange Server Name Are Correct
Ensure that your account details or exchange server name are correct, or otherwise the Outlook cannot connect to server problem will occur when you run this software. Follow the below steps for validating your account credential in Outlook.
Step1 Open Outlook on your computer.
Step2 Now, go to "File">" Info"> Account and Social Network Settings">" Account settings".
Step3 Choose the account from the dialog box, remove the existing account, and re-enter your correct account credentials.
Tip 2: Repair A Profile Using Outlook File Repair Tool
It could be a scenario that the PST file is corrupted and that's the reason you're encountering an Outlook error message cannot connect to the server. In such cases, all you need to do is to repair the PST file. Fortunately, solutions like Wondershare Repairit for Email help a lot when it comes to repair damaged PST files and recovers data in a new PST file. This tool can help you restore the entire mailbox data like contacts, emails, tasks, and more. What's more? You can save verified data as PST or other formats as well.
Repair damaged Files in most of corruption scenarios, such as hard disk crashes & bad sectors, virus attacks & tojan horse, software corruption & malfunctions, improper shutdown procedure, etc.
Get Wondershare Repairit for Email on your system and then follow the below steps to learn how to use it to repair your corrupted PST file:
Step1 Add PST files.
Lunch Wondershare Repairit for Email and click the "Select File" option to add the corrupted PST files.
Click the "Repair" button after selecting files from the desired location. You can add a single or batch of emails.
Step2 Repair the uploaded PST files.
Repairit for Email will automatically restore your corrupt PST files in seconds.
Step1 Preview and save the fixed emails.
Once the repair process is successful, Repairit lets you preview the restored Outlook mailbox data. Select what you want to save, hit on "Save" button to save the fixed PST files on your computer.
Tip 3: Make Sure that Your Computer Is Connected to the Network
If you still experience an error "Outlook cannot connect to the server", then it's time to check your internet connection. If there is a problem with a network or it isn't working, then you won't be able to connect to any server. In such cases, you need to ensure that your internet connection is working and your system is connected to that network.
- Try to connect another device to the same network. If that device has Outlook installed, then try to open it and check if it works now.
- Try to access your browser and head to the mail's website and check if you can receive your emails from there. If you can't, then it means that there is a problem with the server.
- You can give a try to private network if you were using a public one.
Tip 4: Check Your Microsoft Exchange Server Connection
To check your Microsoft exchange service connection, follow the below steps:
Step1 Open Outlook.
Step2 Go to "File">" Info"> Account and Social Network Settings">" Account settings".
Step3 Look at your Exchange account. If there is an issue with the connection, then you will see the indicator icon in orange color.
Tip 5: Use SSL to Connect Microsoft Exchange Server
To use SSL to connect the Microsoft Exchange server, follow the below steps:
Step1 Open Outlook.
Step2 Go to File">" Info"> Account and Social Network Settings">" Account settings".
Step3 Select your email account and tap "Change".
Step4 Click on "More Settings">" Advanced" tab.
Step5 Finally, select SSL as a type of encrypted connection and click "Ok".
Tip 6: Configure A Connection to A Proxy Server
If you're using a proxy server for internet access, then you have to take additional connection configuration steps to address and fix the problem.
Step1 Open Outlook.
Step2 Click on the "File">" Info"> Account and Social Network Settings">" Account settings".
Step3 Select your account and click on the "Change> "More Settings">" Connection" tab.
Step4 Under Outlook Anywhere, choose the "Connect to Microsoft Exchange using HTTP" option.
Step5 Click on the "Exchange Proxy Settings" to specify a proxy server. Then, enter a URL to connect to a proxy server. Select "Connect using SSL only". And select "Only connect to proxy servers that have this principal name in their certificate" then enter "must: URL".
Step6 Under "Proxy authentication settings", select the authentication type: Basic authentication or NTLM authentication and hit "Ok".
Tip 7: Repair Outlook Account
If nothing still works to fix the "Outlook trying to connect to server" error, you can try to repair your Outlook account.
Outlook account refers to the info associated with servers or email addresses that you have entered in Outlook. These settings might be disrupted and thereby causes several problems like the one you're facing now. Repairing an Outlook account could fix the problem. So, try the following steps:
Step1 Open Outlook.
Step2 Click on the "File">" Info"> Account and Social Network Settings">" Account settings".
Step3 Now, select your account and hit on the "Repair" button.
Step4 You will be asked to enter your account details or just to confirm them. It is suggested that you should remove the password and then re-enter it to eradicate the change that you have entered the wrong password.
Step5 Hit on the "Next" button. This, in turn, enables Outlook to automatically make a connection with the server and diagnose the problem if there is any.
Tip 8: Enter Outlook’s Safe Mode and Disable Add-in Extensions
Outlook allows you to install plug-ins to extend the functionality of the email client. However, these plug-ins may cause problems with the application. In such cases, you need to disable the problematic plug-ins to resolve your Outlook issues. It could be possible that there is an extension that enabled your Outlook which makes you face this problem. In such cases, all you can do is to disable each extension and then try to connect. If it goes great, then it means that there is a problem with an extension(s).
Step1 Press Windows + R at the same time to open "Run".
Step2Type the following in the "Run" box and press the Enter key.
This command starts Outlook in safe mode: Outlook.exe /safe
If Outlook is connected to your email server in safe mode, your add-in might be the culprit. In this case, close Outlook and reopen the application in normal mode (not safe mode).
Step3 Go to the "File">" Options">" Add-ins" from the left bar.
Step4 Click on the "Go" button and go to "COM Add-ins" on the right, uncheck all the extensions and hit on the "Ok" button, then check if Outlook connects to the email server.
Restart your Outlook to check whether the problem is resolved.
Tip 9: Rebuild Outlook Data File
Outlook saves your email data in the application's data files, and these files become corrupted or faulty, causing connection problems with the application. You can even try to rebuild the whole Outlook data file to resolve Outlook not connecting to server error. The application saves its data and info to an external file. It is a kind of storage for Outlook that it uses to perform its operations. Here, we will delete this data file. This, in turn, Outlook detects that data loss is lost or missing and then tries to rebuild it from the scratch and it could fix the corruption issues if any.
Step1 Open the "Account Settings" in your Outlook.
Step2 Click on the "Data Files" tab and after that, choose the Email account that's causing issues. Then, tap on the "Open File Location".
Step3 Now, you can rename the file or you can move it to another location.
Step4 Now, launch Outlook again and it will automatically try to recreate your data file.
Tip 10: Repair/Reinstall Outlook
If none of the above methods work and you are still having trouble connecting to the server, then you can try to repair or reinstall the application. However, we still recommend you to repair Outlook. If that doesn't work, then you can try reinstalling it completely. Below is how to repair Outlook:
Step1 Use "Windows + "' and enter "appwiz.cpl" in the box and hit Enter.
Step2 Once you're inside the application manager, find the Microsoft office. Then, right-tap it and choose "Change".
Step3 Choose the "Repair" option and hit "Continue".
If the problem doesn't go away even after repairing, then you can reinstall Outlook.
Tip 11: Verify that Outlook Is Online and Disable Offline Mode
How you can ensure that Outlook is online or offline? There are several visual indications, starting with the Outlook status bar at the bottom. If you see a message that says "Working Offline" or "Disconnected", then it means that your Outlook isn't connected to the server.
To switch from offline to online mode in Outlook, follow the below steps:
- Open Outlook.
- Go to the "Send/Receive" tab.
- Select the "Work Offline" option to reconnect.
Tip 12: Run Outlook’s Inbox Repair Tool
The Inbox Repair Tool is your first-aid-kit that can diagnose and repair errors in your Outlook data files.
Step1 Locate scanpst.exe for your Outlook version, find and double-click the SCANPST.exe file to open the data file repair tool.
Outlook 2019: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
Outlook 2016: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
Outlook 2013: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15
Outlook 2010: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14
Outlook 2007: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12
Step2 Select "Browse" and choose your Outlook data file to start the scanning process.
Step3 Click "Repair" to begin the file repair process.
Let's watch with a video we curated for you, which covers the most common reasons that cause Outlook fails to connect to server, and how to fix them accordingly. You can explore more from Wondershare Video Community.
The Bottom Line:
As you can now see that there are several workarounds to help you resolve Outlook server error. If the problem is due to a damaged PST file, then we recommend you to use Wondershare Repairit for Email. For repairing corrupted PST files, this tool has no competition on the market.
