Exchange/Outlook: the “send me an email” process

1. You create a new email message. Outlook™ create it and saves it automatically in the “Drafts” folder.

2. You click “Send”. Outlook now moves the message to the “Outbox” folder - the message is now ready to be sent but not yet transmitted to the mail server (any SMTP server, Exchange, …). The message is kept there until it is successfully transmitted to the mail server.

3. Outlook connects to the mail server and transmits the mail message. If it is successful sending the message to the mail server, the message is moved to the “Sent Items” folder. If not, the message is left in the “Outbox” folder. It is kept there until message delivery from Outlook to the mail server is successful.

4. Depending on who the recipient of the message is, the mail server routes the message to its destination. If the mail server hosts the recipient’s mailbox, it drops the message into the “Inbox” folder of the recipient. If the recipient’s address is hosted by a foreign mail server, the message is routed to it.

So — if the message is stuck in the “Outbox” folder, you may want to check connectivity to your mail server/Exchange. There may be issues sending the message.