Outlook notifications are not working on Mac – Explanation Guide

If your Outlook email client on your Mac computer is not showing any notifications, try these suggestions. No matter if you added Gmail or Outlook, or any other email account, these solutions will work for all of them. Outlook is one of the best email clients for Mac after the in-built app, but if it has stopped showing new email notifications, read on.

Outlook notifications not working on Mac

Related Article: How to Turn On/Off Focused Inbox feature in Outlook

To fix the Outlook notifications not working issue on Mac, follow these suggestions-

  • Display an alert on my desktop
  • Verify Outlook Sounds settings
  • Check System Preferences
  • Use Outlook Reset Preferences Tool
  • Reset alerts in Outlook
  • Do not disturb.

Display an alert on my desktop

How to Get Message Notifications on Mac If you’re using Microsoft Outlook on your Mac computer, you can choose how you want to get new message notifications. You can get notified about new messages in different ways, including through an alert sound, in the Dock, or in a floating window. You can also choose whether you want to get a notification for every new message, or only for messages from your contacts.

To verify that, open the Outlook app on your computer and click on the Preferences option in the top menu bar. Next, go to Notifications & Sounds settings. Here you can see a checkbox saying Display an alert on my desktop.

Verify Outlook Sounds settings

If you’re not hearing a notification sound when outlook shows a notification, it’s time to check the sound settings. The setting is available in the same place as the previous setting. Make sure all the checkboxes in the notifications and sounds window are ticked.

Check System Preferences

Mac offers options to tweak notifications for different apps, including Microsoft Outlook. You can open System Preferences on your computer, go to Notifications > Microsoft Outlook, and make sure the panel looks as it says below.

  • Allow Notifications from Microsoft Outlook must be enabled. If not, toggle the corresponding button.
  • You must choose either Banners or Alerts as the Microsoft Outlook alert style. If it is set as None, it won’t show a notification.
  • Play sound for notifications must be ticked. If not, make a tick in the checkbox.

Use Outlook Reset Preferences Tool

As the name suggests, this tool resets all the custom Outlook preferences settings at once. Microsoft has developed this tool to fix common issues like this one. Therefore, click here to download the Outlook Reset Preferences Tool. Once you unzip the file and open the app, it will show a “Reset Now” button.

Click on it and wait for the process to complete. Once it’s done, you’ll see a message like this:

Now restart the Outlook app.

Reset alerts in Outlook

The “Reset Alerts” setting in Outlook Preferences clears all “Don’t show this message again” checkboxes. If you’re not getting notifications for new messages, use this option: open the Notifications and Sounds panel and click Reset Alerts.

Disable Do Not Disturb

If you have enabled “Do Not Disturb” on your Mac computer, you might not get notifications from almost any app. Hence, it is advisable to ensure you do not have it turned on. For that, open the “System Preferences” window and go to “Notifications.” Here you can find an option called “Do Not Disturb.” Make sure it is not enabled. If you’re not receiving any notifications from Outlook on your Mac, there are a few things you can try:

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