How to Get Outlook out of “Work Offline” Mode

David, usually when I have Outlook open my mail comes in automatically, but now I have to hit Send/Receive every time. How do I fix this?

I get asked this question at least once a month, so I figured it was worth writing up here.

If Outlook loses its connection to the Exchange server for a while, it may go into Offline mode. As long as Outlook is set to work offline, you will not be able to send and receive messages in the background – you will have to hit the Send/Receive button.

To see whether Outlook is working online or offline, look in the lower right corner of the screen. If you are connected to Exchange, it will look like one of these two pictures:

(Outlook 2007)

(Outlook 2003)

If you are working offline, it will look like this:

(Outlook 2007)

(Outlook 2003)

To remedy the problem, click the arrow to the right of “Offline” and uncheck the Work Offline option:

If you are still unable to connect to the Exchange server after unchecking Work Offline, it may look like this:

If that’s the case, then the problem is more serious and you need to figure out why your computer is not communicating with the Exchange server at all.