My outlook email does not forward the emails

Question

My outlook email does not forward the emails

Slim Adkison 0

My outlook email will not forward emails. I need to speak to someone about this issue.

[Moved from Microsoft 365 and Office | Access | For home | Other]

Slim Adkison 0 Reputation points

2026-02-19T19:36:47.74+00:00

Need to speak to a representative. I am old and not very techno savvy.
Anonymous

2026-06-11T12:27:03.1133333+00:00
I hope I don't come too late to this... but I had the same problem, and at least, for my case, I found a workaround and maybe it can work for you too.
First, some context:

I have an Outlook account

I have a Gmail account

I have a personal self hosted email account. Let's call this "personal" from now on.

I have active email forwarding (NOT email RULES, but the forwarding feature) in Gmail and Outlook, so the email is automatically forwarded to my personal account.

Forwarding in Gmail works like a charm. Never had an error. Forwarding in Outlook is quite erratic. Sometimes it worked, most of the times it doesn't.

Coincidentally, I have been troubleshooting this today again, and I found a workaround:

DEACTIVATE email forwarding in Outlook.

Then, create an EMAIL RULE with these settings:

apply to all email

select REDIRECT (not FORWARD... forwarding would make the emails arrive to the destination inbox like if someone manually forwarded them, you know, with the "Fwd:" in the subject).

In the email field, enter you desired destination email

Optional: For safety reason, add also the option "Move to" and in my case, I've selected Archive.

So with this, now all the emails that arrive to my Outlook account are automatically delivered to my personal account without that "Fwd:" in the subject, like if the email was originally sent to me. This solved my problem, at least for now...

Why for now? Well, one of the things I tried to do was to deactivate the forwarding, log out from Outlook, close the browser, open it again, log in again, and activate the forwarding again. It worked for the first two minutes. Then stopped working again. And without logs from Microsoft, is quite difficult to pinpoint where's the culprit. So far I can say the problem relies at Microsoft side.

Hope this helps!
Benito

3 answers

Your answer

Slim Adkison 0 Reputation points

2026-02-19T19:36:47.74+00:00

Need to speak to a representative. I am old and not very techno savvy.
Anonymous

2026-06-11T12:27:03.1133333+00:00

I hope I don't come too late to this... but I had the same problem, and at least, for my case, I found a workaround and maybe it can work for you too.
First, some context:

I have an Outlook account

I have a Gmail account

I have a personal self hosted email account. Let's call this "personal" from now on.

I have active email forwarding (NOT email RULES, but the forwarding feature) in Gmail and Outlook, so the email is automatically forwarded to my personal account.

Forwarding in Gmail works like a charm. Never had an error. Forwarding in Outlook is quite erratic. Sometimes it worked, most of the times it doesn't.

Coincidentally, I have been troubleshooting this today again, and I found a workaround:

DEACTIVATE email forwarding in Outlook.

Then, create an EMAIL RULE with these settings:

apply to all email

select REDIRECT (not FORWARD... forwarding would make the emails arrive to the destination inbox like if someone manually forwarded them, you know, with the "Fwd:" in the subject).

In the email field, enter you desired destination email

Optional: For safety reason, add also the option "Move to" and in my case, I've selected Archive.

So with this, now all the emails that arrive to my Outlook account are automatically delivered to my personal account without that "Fwd:" in the subject, like if the email was originally sent to me. This solved my problem, at least for now...

Why for now? Well, one of the things I tried to do was to deactivate the forwarding, log out from Outlook, close the browser, open it again, log in again, and activate the forwarding again. It worked for the first two minutes. Then stopped working again. And without logs from Microsoft, is quite difficult to pinpoint where's the culprit. So far I can say the problem relies at Microsoft side.

Hope this helps!
Benito

Answer 1

samzuercher 1

At least if its a business account this seems to be needed and can only be done in powershell:

Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

Connect-ExchangeOnline

Enable-OrganizationCustomization

Set-HostedOutboundSpamFilterPolicy`` ``-Identity`` ``"Default"`` ``-AutoForwardingMode`` On

Otherwise forwarding outside of your domain is blocked.

0 comments

Answer 2

Hi Slim Adkison

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum. I understand how frustrating it is when Outlook won’t forward your emails, and you prefer to speak with someone directly.

1. First, please check your forwarding settings in Outlook on the web

Sign in to Outlook on the web
Select Settings > Mail > Forwarding
Make sure:
- Enable forwarding is turned on
- The forwarding email address is correct
- Keep a copy of forwarded messages is checked (recommended)

You can see this official guide: Turn on automatic forwarding in Outlook - Microsoft Support

2. Make sure no Inbox rules are blocking or overriding forwarding

Still in Outlook on the web, go to Settings > Mail > Rules, review any rules that may move, delete, or stop messages.
If something looks unusual, try turning rules off temporarily.

3. If you want to contact Microsoft Support team directly

For personal account/product It mainly offer live chat and, depending on your subscription/region, and an option to request a callback. Here's how to reach out directly to the Microsoft Support team.

Please go to Contact - Microsoft Support and sign in to your account.
Type a brief description of your issue in the search box.
Click "Get Help", then scroll to the bottom and select "Contact Support”.
When prompted to select Products & Services, select "Other Products"; Under Category, select "Manage account security".
Look for and select "Chat with a support agent in your web browser" (during business hours) or a similar callback option (if available). Explain your situation clearly.

Please feel free to let me know how it goes. Thank you for your precious time and understanding.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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Winnie-B 8,630 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-22T07:00:06.66+00:00

Good day Slim Adkison, I hope you're well. May I know if you've got any chance to check my reply? If you have any further updates on this issue, please feel free to reach back. I'm happy to help you.

Answer 3

If your Outlook email is not forwarding emails, there are several potential causes and solutions you can explore:

Check Mailbox Forwarding: First, ensure that mailbox forwarding is not enabled, as this can interfere with Inbox rules that redirect messages. You can verify this by running the following PowerShell command:
```
   Get-Mailbox <user ID> | FL ForwardingAddress,ForwardingSmtpAddress,DeliverToMailboxAndForward
```
If forwarding is enabled, you can disable it with:
```
   Set-Mailbox <user ID> -DeliverToMailboxAndForward $False
```
Inbox Rules Limit: Make sure that the number of recipients in your forwarding or redirect Inbox rule does not exceed the limit of 10. If it does, consider creating a distribution group to manage the recipients more effectively.
Remote Domain Settings: Check if your mailbox is in a remote domain that has automatic forwarding disabled. You can check this with the following command:
```
   Get-RemoteDomain | Where {$_.AutoForwardEnabled -eq $False}
```
Outbound Spam Filter: Ensure that the outbound spam filter is not blocking automatic forwarding to external recipients, as this can result in nondelivery reports.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, it may be beneficial to reach out to Microsoft support for further assistance.