Windows Live “One or more messages in your Outbox” error

Snapshot of One or more messages in your Outbox do not have a valid account specified. error

Recently we had a customer with an error in their Windows Live Mail IMAP account. This happened after they were moved to a different server and the email settings for the email client were changed. Below is an excerpt of the error message.

One or more messages in your Outbox do not have a valid account specified. Would you like to use your default acct to send these messages?

Problem

The problem is that you have an email stuck in your outbox (that failed to send for previously), which was initially written from an email address that no longer exists in your Windows Live Mail. This email account may technically “no longer exist”, for example, if you’ve updated the email account’s settings within Live Mail. When you then attempt to send and receive, Live Mail will not send the email stuck in the outbox because the original email account that created it no longer exists.

Solution #1

The easiest solution is to simply re-create the email messages that you want send that are stuck in the outbox. It is as easy as going through each email in the outbox and copy / pasting it into a new message, and then sending.

Solution #2

During our research in finding out what causes this problem, we read many online forums that suggested the problem may be due to a conflict with an anti-virus program running on your desktop. While we don’t believe this is the case, you may want to try temporarily disabling any anti-virus programs (or related programs) and attempting to send the emails again.

How to fix the error

  1. Open your Windows Live mail program.
  2. Select the Home tab at the top right of your Windows Live Mail.
  3. Windows Live Mail Outbox

    Click the Outbox to the left.

    Find any emails that are not sending out. You will need to copy the content of the email and send it as a new email with the new account.


  4. Once you send the email again, you can delete the email in the Outbox. The error will go away after the sent email is deleted.

19 thoughts on “Windows Live “One or more messages in your Outbox” error

  1. I had 2 emails with photo attachments stuck in my Outbox of Windows Live Mail. Now I cannot open Windows Live Mail.  A message box comes up saying TASK  “Send 2 messages using Gmail(sylviamarsh5)’   Executing”

    I went into my Gmail & both are showing up in the Sent box so why is my WLM jammed?  I can’t delete anything and can’t open my Windows Live Mail!

    1. If your Windows Live mail account is configured to connect with InMotion, then I recommend that you contact our live technical support team to help troubleshoot your account. However, if you’re using Microsoft’s Windows Live mail to be hosted with Microsoft, then I recommend that you consult with Microsoft’s technical support team for further assistance. I did look up the issue through search and found this post that may help to resolve the issue.

  2. I have tried many times now to click the ” WORK OFFLINE ” button to no avail. No Outbox any where. Does this not work any more because Windows no longer supports Windows Live Mail? I love my Windows Live mail. I have a Outlook mail account but I just don’t like it. Can I still get some kind of help to remove this email that will not send/be dilvered? Thank-you

     

    1. You can try re-sending the messages or checking/disabling anti-virus software on your computer as a test.

  3. Hello,

    I am using Windows Live Mail (Version 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331)) and I have messages stuck in my outbox. But the people receive the e-mails (I am not sure everyone receives them).

    Furthermore some e-mails goes directly to send items and others are stuck in the outbox. 

    What can I do? Can someone helps me?

    Cheers, Lucas

  4. doesn’t work.

    when I click work offline it give me error at lower left “error ! working offline”

    still no “outbox” appears.

    though months ago there would be one.

    1. Hello brian,

      Thank you for contacting us. The outbox should be able to be deleted from the WIndows Live mail client, is this what you are using?

      Thank you ,
      John-Paul

  5. My problem is there IS NO OUTBOX. There IS NO WORK OFFLINE tab. And there’s a message stuck in the nonexistant outbox causing trouble. Srsly wtf do they do this to us. Clicking on the HOME tab gets me nowhere.

  6. I like to use my live.ca email sometimes, but lately I am getting an error that I have 5 emails stuck in OUTBOX. When I check I don’t have an OUTBOX listed on the left with the other options. So where are those emails going? Thanks for your help.

    1. Hello Donna,

      Sorry for the problem with your LIVE mail client. Fortunately, the issue does have a solution. Follows these steps:

      1. Login to your Windows Live Mail application
      2. Click Work Offline – you will need to be on the HOME page of Windows Live mail to see the option.
      3. When you are offline, you will then see the Outbox folder. Click on it to open it.
      4. Click on the message(s) that you want to delete, then click on the DELETE key to remove them.

      If you want to keep a copy of the email that’s failing to send, then make sure to copy the offending email to another folder so that you can try editing it and re-sending at a later point.

      If you are having trouble finding the Outbox folder, you will need make sure that you are in the HOME menus (Microsoft calls the set of menus a “ribbon”), make sure you can see ALL of your folders. In the MAIL folder you should be able to select Outbox. This issue is fairly common for Microsoft users, so out the solution for it in their forum.

      I hope this helps to answer your question, please let us know if you require any further assistance.

      Kindest regards,
      Arnel C.

    2. I would rename the article along the lines of “Error Pop Up When Trying to Send/Receive Messages” and messages cannot be sent. I kept looking in the Sent folder and other folders, but could not find my goofed up message.
      The Outbox folder is so far down the list of folders that I never thought to look for it. Once your article reminded me to look at that, I was able to easily fix my problem.

      You could point out that it is not necessary to resend all messages – just fixing the bad message as noted in the error message is all that it takes – hit send/receive again and all blocked messages that are ok will go. It takes only one bad message to stop all subsequent messages from being sent.

  7. I’m getting an error message that says “Error can not delete this e-mail” sometimes it tells me it can not open the e-mail.

    what do I do?

  8. Ok I got it I opened up task manager and end task on live mail then proceeded to open my email then I could do my thing. Delete the outgoing mail.

  9. Open your Windows Live mail program. I can’t the only thing that opens is the window on my desktop says executing under status send 2 message(s) using verizon

    1. Hello Ron,

      It sounds like something may be stuck in your outbox. I found a similar post on the official Microsoft website, where they provide a possible solution.

      Have you tried restarting your computer?

      If you have any further questions, feel free to post them below.
      Thank you,

      -John-Paul

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