Reported error (0x80042108): Outlook is unable to connect

Although Microsoft Outlook is pretty good at handling various email accounts, sometimes you may face problems while sending or receiving email. If your email is not being sent or you do not receive any email even after an extended period, maybe it’s time to check a few things. This post will help you if you receive the following error message: “The message could not be sent because the connection to SMTP server smtp.live.com timed out. Try again or contact your network administrator.”

Outlook is unable to connect to your incoming (POP3) email server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).

Most cases, this issue cannot be solved contacting your ISP or server administrator. This error occurs when your antivirus or any security shield behaves unexpectedly. The simple solution is to remove virus scanner integration with Outlook.

Reported error (0x80042108): Outlook is unable to connect to your incoming (POP3) email server

As mentioned earlier, you’ll need to temporarily remove either your security shield or the integration between Outlook and your antivirus in order to test whether you can send/receive emails. In most cases, your antivirus uses an add-in to scan all emails for various suspicious codes or files. This protects you from viruses, ransomware, adware, etc.

Here, you should find a Go button that you need to click.

Next, select the add-ins related to your antivirus or any other security shield and click on the Remove button.

After that, you will be able to do all the things without getting any errors.

Is it safe to remove the antivirus integration?

As some security professionals have said, removing the antivirus integration from Microsoft Outlook is not a cause for worry because Outlook does not automatically execute any code sent by someone. However, users need to be more careful when clicking on any link or file in their email, as they will now need to take extra care to ensure they do not click on anything malicious. We recommend this as a temporary workaround only until you are able to find the cause and fix.

You can also try these things and see if it helps you.

POP and IMAP are used by Outlook to send and receive email. If POP isn’t enabled in your email service provider, you may have this issue. Check your settings to make sure POP is enabled. For Gmail, you can click on the settings gear button and select Settings. Then, switch to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP page and make sure POP Download is set to Enabled.

Outlook or Hotmail users can do the same by visiting this OWA page.

Allow an app through Firewall

If your Firewall has mistakenly blocked the Outlook app, it will disable all incoming and outgoing traffic as a result. This means you won’t be able to send or receive any email using Outlook. To fix this, check your Firewall settings. Open Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Windows Defender Firewall and ensure that the Private and Public checkboxes are selected for Microsoft Office Outlook. Press the Change settings button.

If the checkbox is blocked, make sure to select it and save your change. After that, you shouldn’t have any issues at all.