The server configuration prevents you from synchronizing

Some Windows 10 users when they try to open the Outlook email client on their device are encountering the error message that the server configuration prevents synchronization. In this post, we will provide the most suitable solutions you can try to resolve this issue.

When you encounter this issue, you’ll receive the following full error message;

Microsoft Outlook
The server configuration prevents you from synchronizing.
Contact your system administrator.

The server configuration prevents you from synchronizing

If you’re having trouble, our recommended solutions below may help. Be sure to try each one in order and see if that helps resolve the issue.

Check the email server configuration
Repair Outlook account
Repair Office
Reinstall Office
Uninstall update
Perform System Restore

The process is simple: we’ll take a look at each of the listed solutions and explain the process involved.

Check the email server configuration

As per the error message, the issue appears to be with server configurations. In this case, check email server configurations as follows:

The incoming email server address is usually in the format of mail.contoso.com or imap.google.com. You can get this information from your ISP or administrator. For many email accounts, you can find this information in the POP and IMAP server name reference provided by Microsoft.

Make sure you have the outgoing email server information from your ISP or administrator. The outgoing email server address is usually in the format of mail.contoso.com or smtp.contoso.com.

The servers are configured to use the server’s name (mail.contoso.com) followed by a colon (:) and then the port number followed by another colon and then another number (usually 1). If the server’s name is valid, you only need to change the number between the two colons.

POP3 and IMAP servers use different ports for incoming and outgoing emails. Contact your email provider to determine the ports they support for POP3/IMAP and SMTP. If you’re connecting to a Microsoft Exchange server, your organization’s Exchange server administrator can provide you with this information.

Uninstall update

If you started experiencing this sync issue after you recently installed a Windows update, you can uninstall the update.

Perform System Restore

If you’re still having trouble despite trying all of the above, you can try doing a system restore to a point before you started encountering the issue.