Outlook: Get Rid of Items Stuck in Outbox

Ever had something stuck in the Outbox folder of Microsoft Outlook and gotten this lovely message when you try to get rid of it?:

"Can't open this item. Outlook has already begun transmitting this message."

It's an annoyance, for sure. Sometimes this can happen if you, like I did today, misjudged the size of your attachments and your server is suddenly struggling to send a massive e-mail. The irritating thing is that Outlook doesn't seem to have a mechanism in place to tell it, "Wait! I don't want to send that e-mail anymore!".

Here's how to delete the e-mail from your Outbox, or at least have the ability to open it and to get rid of the gigantic attachment(s). Go to the 'Send/Receive' tab on the ribbon, and click on the 'Work Offline' button. You're temporarily preventing Outlook from trying to send the e-mail, which should allow you to go to your Outbox and then open, edit, or delete the offending message as you please. When you're ready to go again, just go back to the 'Send/Receive' tab, and click the 'Work Offline' button once more to go back online.

Phew!

1 comment:

  1. Thank you I was looking everywhere for how to fix this.

    ReplyDelete