- Outlook 2010 sends and receive all email accounts every 5 minutes by default: press F9 or click on "Send/Receive All Folders" to manually check for messages at any time.
Productivity tip: select the "Send / Receive" tab in the Ribbon and click "Work Offline" to avoid distracting emails (Outlook will show a red "x" icon, so you won't forget you're offline!)
Tip # 2: To avoid distractions but still receive messages in the background, you can hide the new mail icon and/or configure desktop alert settings to fit your workflow. - As long as the send/receive button remains in first position (default) in the Quick Access Toolbar (top left), you can also press Alt+1 to manually send all and check for new emails.
- To change how often Outlook checks for new emails, click on "File" (top left) and choose "Options": select "Advanced" on the left and scroll down to "Send and Receive".
- When sending emails with Outlook closed, those stay in the outbox: with "Send immediately when connected" checked (default), Outlook automatically sends message in the outbox.
- Click the "Send/Receive" button to see by default only one "Send-receive group" ("All Accounts") - the first checkbox makes sense if you've separated accounts into groups.
- If you uncheck "Schedule an automatic send/receive every [5] minutes", you'll need to remember to manually check for new messages and send anything in your outbox; optionally increase/decrease the default number of minutes between automatically sending/receiving.
- Check "Perform an automatic send/receive when exiting" to force Outlook to send emails in your outbox and check the mail server for new ones just before it closes.
- Under "When Outlook is Offline", pressing F9 or clicking "Send/Receive" will still work unless you uncheck the "Include this group in send/receive (F9)" checkbox.
- Likewise, Outlook won't send or receive emails when offline, unless you check "Schedule an automatic send/receive every..." (and optionally include a different number of minutes).
- Click "Close", and then click "OK" in Options, to return to your emails.
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