Error 0x800CCC0E, Outlook cannot synchronize subscribed folders

You can add different email accounts to Outlook. Outlook automatically syncs data and shows you all the emails you receive in your Inbox. Sometimes, syncing issues occur in Outlook and users stop receiving emails in Outlook. The syncing issues can occur with one or more email accounts added to Outlook. A similar type of syncing issue is reported by some users where they encountered the “Outlook cannot synchronize subscribed folders, Error 0x800CCC0E.” This article lists some solutions that will help you fix this issue.

The complete error message that Outlook shows is:

Task ‘Synchronizing subscribed folders for [email protected].’ reported error (0x800CCC0E) : ‘Outlook cannot synchronize subscribed folders for [email protected]. Error: Cannot connect to the server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).’

Fix Error 0x800CCC0E, Outlook cannot synchronize subscribed folders

If you see the “Outlook cannot synchronize subscribed folders, Error 0x800CCC0E” due to which you cannot receive new emails in Outlook, the following solutions will help you.

Check your internet connection
Remove and add your account again
Temporarily disable your antivirus
Troubleshoot in a Clean Boot state
Repair Outlook data files
Change the Send/Receive Groups setting
Unsubscribe and subscribe to your folders again
Delete or rename the Windows.edb file
Repair Office

Let’s see all these fixes in detail.

1] Check your internet connection

The first thing that you should do is check your internet connection. Syncing issues can also occur due to an unstable internet connection. If your internet connection Is working fine, go ahead and use the other solutions provided here.

2] Remove and add your account again

It is also possible that the email account you are experiencing the issue with may have been corrupted. In these types of cases, removing and adding the email account helps.

The steps to remove an account from Outlook are provided below:

Open Outlook.
Go to “File > info > Account Settings.”
Click Account Settings again.
The Account Settings window will appear. Under the E-mail tab, select the problematic account and click Remove.
Restart Outlook.

Now, add your account again. Some users reported that multiple Gmail accounts in Outlook created a conflict due to which the syncing issues occurred. To fix this problem, they removed all the accounts, then restarted Outlook. After that, they added the problematic Gmail account first and then added the other Gmail accounts.

3] Temporarily disable your antivirus

Antivirus software offers different types of protection to the users’ systems. One of these features is Email Protection. In most antiviruses, this feature is enabled by default. When Email Protection is enabled, antivirus scans emails for threats that may compromise the user’s system. Sometimes, this Email Protection feature causes problems with Outlook and other email clients.

Disable your antivirus and then check if this fixes the problem. This step will help you know whether the issue is occurring due to your antivirus or not. If this step fixes the issue, configure the Email Protection settings in your antivirus. You can turn off Email Protection to fix this issue.

After disabling this feature, you should be more careful while downloading an attachment or clicking on a link in an email. This is because emails are one of the mediums of phishing scams.

4] Troubleshoot in a Clean Boot state

A background app or third-party service may conflict with Outlook due to which the syncing issues occur. You can check if this is the case with you or not by troubleshooting in a Clean Boot state.

When you are in a Clean Boot state, open Outlook and check if Outlook can sync emails or not. If the issue disappears in the Clean Boot state, your next step should be to identify the problematic background app and third-party service.

To identify the conflicting app, open the Task Manager and then enable some of the startup apps. After that restart your computer and see if the issue persists. If not, enable some other startup apps and restart your computer again. Check if the issue persists. If the issue persists after enabling startup apps, any one of them is the culprit. Now, start disabling the startup apps one by one and restart your computer after disabling each app. Check the status of the issue. When you identify the culprit, uninstall it.

Similarly, you can identify the problematic third-party Service by using MSConfig.

5] Repair Outlook data files

One possible cause of this problem is the corrupted Outlook data files. Repair the corrupted Outlook data files and see if it helps.

6] Change the Send/Receive Groups setting

If the problem still persists, changing the Send/Receive settings can help. This step has fixed the issue for some users. Hence, it should also work for you. Follow the steps provided below:

Open Outlook.
Go to “File > options.”
Select Advanced from the left side.
Click on the Send/Receive button under the Send and receive section.
The Send/Receive Groups window will appear. Click Edit.
On the next screen, select the problematic account from the left side. Uncheck the “Get folder unread count for subscribed folders” checkbox on the right side.
Now, select the “Use the custom behavior defined below” radio button.
Select INBOX and leave all other folders unchecked.
Click OK.

This should fix the issue. If not, restart Outlook.

7] Unsubscribe and subscribe to your folders again

If the issue still persists, unsubscribe and subscribe to your folders again. The steps to do this are written below:

Open Outlook.
Right-click on Inbox and select IMAP folders.
Select the Subscribed tab and then click on the Query button.
Select all the folders from the list and click Unsubscribe.
Click OK in the confirmation prompt.
Now, go to the All tab and select the unsubscribed folders one by one and click on the Subscribe button.
Click OK.

Now, see if the problem is fixed or not.

8] Delete or rename the Windows.edb file

The Windows.edb is the database file that belongs to Windows Search Service which provides content indexing, search results for files, e-mail, and other content, etc. Deleting or renaming this file will cause Windows Search Indexing to start again. Hence, this step can fix the issue. We suggest you move this file to another location instead of deleting it, but if you want, you can delete it. However, deleting this file will not cause any issues on your system.

You will find the Windows.edb file at the following location on your system:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows

Now, locate and delete the Windows.edb file. In Windows 11, you may also see Windows.db file instead of Windows.edb file.

9] Repair Office

You can also run an online repair to repair the corrupt Office files.

Related: Outlook cannot download folder Inbox from the IMAP email server, Error 0x800CCC0E

What is 0x800CCC0E Outlook Cannot synchronize subscribed folders for?

The error code 0x800CCC0E in Outlook occurs when Outlook cannot synchronize email messages. It can occur on any of the accounts added to the Outlook Client. Sometimes, the Email Protection feature of antiviruses causes such types of issues.

How do I fix error 0x800CCC0F in Outlook?

The error code 0x800CCC0F in Outlook occurs while sending or receiving emails. Your antivirus or firewall may be responsible for this error. Hence, disable it temporarily. Corrupted Outlook data files can also cause this error. Repairing them can fix it.