May
4
Microsoft Outlook hangs forever synchronizing subscribed IMAP folders
The Problem:
Outlook hangs on “Synchronizing Subscribed Folders”
The Fix:
Go to to Send/Receive, then Send/receive groups, and Define Send/Receive Groups.
On the right side of the send/receive groups window click on the Edit button.
Uncheck the “Get folder unread count for subscribed folders”.
Under Received mail items check the option “Use the custom behavior defined below”.
In the next window below select INBOX and leave the other folders unchecked.
Click OK and then exit out of your options.
This worked! I had a Cox Internet legacy IMAP email account that I configured Outlook 2016 to read. It kept locking up trying to sync folders. Reconfiguring Outlook as described in this page (“Microsoft Outlook hangs forever synchronizing subscribed IMAP folders”) solved the problem after a forced kill of the Outlook process in task manager, and a restart of Outlook. Thanks so much!