
Outbox is a temporary holding area where your composed messages are stored temporarily until your email client establishes a connection with the mail server and the recipient successfully receives your message. We present an unbiased comparison between the two. Emails stuck in the Outbox are a common issue in email programs, mostly because it fails to connect to the SMTP server.


If the messages fail to send, they stuck in the Outbox folder as the communications in and out of the mail server are blocked. After the messages have been successfully delivered to the recipient, they are being moved to the “Sent” or “Sent Messages folder”. When you compose an email and hit send, it first goes to the “Outbox” folder before it connects to the mail server and is successfully sent to the recipient.

However, they have different meanings in terms of delivery. The terms Outbox and Sent messages are often used synonymously when it comes to sending and receiving emails via an email program such as Gmail, Outlook, and more.
