It doesn’t happen too often but when a message is stuck in the Outbox it can be a real pain. Below you’ll find three methods to get the message out of the Outbox.
Method 1
Open the message from the Outbox and close it again. Now select the message and press DELETE
Method 2
Put Outlook in offline mode. To do this go to File-> Work Offline. Now restart Outlook and see if you can delete it (you can try this in combination with method 1). Don’t forget to put Outlook back On-line again.
Method 3
- Create a new pst-file; File-> New-> Outlook Data File…
- Set this pst-file as your default delivery location in your Account settings; Tools-> E-mail Accounts-> button Next
- When you now restart Outlook your original pst-file will show up as the secondary set of folders where should easily be able to remove the file from or even the complete Outbox folder
- Set the original pst-file as the default delivery location again and restart Outlook; the Outbox folder will be recreated and will be empty.
Method 4
Use the Microsoft MDBVU32.EXE tool to forcefully clear the Outbox. The instructions for this are the same for when removing a stuck read receipt but instead of choosing “MDB-> Open Root Folder” choose “MDB-> Open IPM Outbox”.
Some Knowlegde base articles about this subject in case the problem still persists;
KB291613: Sent Messages Remain in Your Outbox
KB293031: Message Copy Remains in the Outbox When You Send Through a Hotmail or IMAP Account While Offline
KB311001: You Cannot Send Messages if There Are More Than One Thousand Messages in Your OST Outbox
KB293038: A Copy of a Forwarded Message Stays in the Outbox
KB195922: OL2000: How to Troubleshoot Mail Stuck in the Outbox