How to Turn Off Outlook Notifications (New, Classic, Web and Mobile)

Here's the catch on your phone. Microsoft says that if you turn off push notifications for the Outlook app, Background App Refresh is disabled too, so the app can't fetch your emails in the background and your badge count won't update in real time. If you only want less noise, the app's own settings let you mute by account, by Focused Inbox or on a schedule instead.

Where each Outlook hides its notification switches

Outlook isn't one app, and each version keeps its alerts in a different place. Here's the map, as of October 2026.

Where you use Outlook	Where to switch notifications off	What you can turn off
New Outlook for Windows	View, View Settings, General, Notifications	Mail, Calendar and Documents toggles, plus custom sounds
Classic Outlook for Windows	File, Options, Mail, Message arrival	Desktop Alert, sound, mouse pointer change, envelope icon
Outlook.com	Settings, General, Notifications	Mail and Calendar toggles, and the notification sound
Outlook app on iPhone or Android	Settings, Notifications, inside the app	Mail set to All, Focused or None; Calendar alerts and sounds
iPhone Settings app	Outlook, then Notifications	Allow Notifications and Sounds
Windows itself	Start, Settings, System, Notifications	Notifications from Outlook as an app

Not sure if you're on new or classic Outlook? Microsoft's tip is simple: if the new Outlook steps don't work for you, you probably aren't using new Outlook for Windows yet, so follow the classic steps instead.

Switching off alerts in new Outlook for Windows

1. Open new Outlook.
2. Under View, select View Settings.
3. Select General, then Notifications.
4. Under Notify me about, turn the toggle off for Mail, Calendar or Documents.

You don't have to go all or nothing. New Outlook lets you set custom sounds, so you can keep the pop-ups and change what you hear. In the same Notifications settings, go to Mail and under New Email and Reactions find Play Sound, or go to Calendar and under Event reminders find Play Sound, then pick the sound you want.

Stopping Desktop Alerts and sounds in classic Outlook

1. Open classic Outlook.
2. Select File.
3. Select Options, then Mail.
4. Under Message arrival, clear the Display a Desktop Alert check box, then select OK.

The same Message arrival section holds the other new-mail signals. Clear Play a sound to stop the chime, and check or clear the boxes for changing the mouse pointer briefly or showing an envelope icon in the bottom right of the Windows taskbar. Reminders are separate: go to File, Options, Advanced and, under Reminders, clear Play reminders sound. If you'd rather keep the reminder sound but change it, select Browse there and pick a different sound file.

By default, Desktop Alerts are turned on. For an email, the alert shows the sender's name, the subject and the first two lines of the message. A meeting request alert shows the sender, subject, date, time and location, and a task request shows the sender, subject and start date. Encrypted or digitally signed messages are the exception: the alert won't show their contents, so you have to open them. If you like the alerts but they vanish too fast, rest your pointer over one before it fades and it'll stay visible.

Turning off Outlook.com notifications in a browser

Outlook.com notifications pop up in the app or at the bottom right of your desktop window and disappear after a brief time. To switch them off:

1. Go to Settings, then General, then Notifications.
2. Under Notify me about, go to the Mail section and set the toggle to Off.
3. Go to the Calendar section and set its toggle to Off as well, if you don't want calendar reminders either.

If you only want the sound gone, leave the toggle on, expand the Mail or Calendar section, and choose whether a notification sound plays and how you see your reminders.

Muting the Outlook app on iPhone and Android

On a phone you've got two layers: the phone's own settings and the settings inside Outlook. On an iPhone, open the Settings app, scroll down to Outlook, tap Notifications and toggle Allow Notifications and Sounds on or off. Remember the catch: turning push off stops background fetching and real-time badge counts.

Inside the app you get finer control, on iPhone and Android alike:

1. Open the left navigation menu and tap Settings at the bottom.
2. Select Notifications.
3. Choose Mail or Calendar.
4. For Mail, set push notifications to All, Focused or None, and set timed periods for notifications to be muted with Do Not Disturb or Quiet Time.
5. For Calendar, turn push notifications on or off and choose sounds for each notification type.

You can set this per mail account, which is the setting I'd look at first if a work account is the noisy one. Choosing Focused means you only hear about email that lands in your Focused Inbox. If Focused Inbox itself is the problem, here's how to turn off Focused Inbox in Outlook, and if you haven't got the app working yet, start with how to set up Outlook on iPhone.

The sounds Windows controls, not Outlook

Some Outlook sounds aren't Outlook's to switch off. Microsoft lists alerts that can play when you dismiss all reminders from the Reminder dialog box, permanently delete an item with Shift and Delete, move several conversations to another folder at once, or close an item you've changed without saving or sending it. Whether those play is up to Windows, and so is the volume of every sound Outlook makes.

• To mute everything, select the Windows button, type Sound, open Sound mixer options and drag the Volume slider down. At its lowest level, 0, all sounds are muted.
• To silence one alert, select the Windows button, type sound, open Change system sounds, pick the event in the Program Events list and choose No Sounds from the top of the Sounds dropdown.

Microsoft wrote these Windows steps for Windows 10 and says older versions work in a similar way, though the settings may sit in slightly different places.

When notifications behave oddly

Sometimes the problem runs the other way and alerts don't appear when you want them. Microsoft points to a few causes:

• Windows has notifications switched off for Outlook. Check Start, Settings, System, Notifications, and under Notifications from apps and other senders select Outlook.
• Your Teams status is set to Do not disturb, or a Windows setting such as Notifications, Focus Assist or Do not disturb is turned on.
• Outlook is doing its initial synchronisation of an account, or you've asked for a manual Send/Receive. Desktop Alerts don't appear during either.
• A message rule moved the new email out of the default Inbox, in which case you might not get a Desktop Alert at all.

That last point is handy if you want quiet without losing everything: a rule that files a noisy sender's mail into its own folder may mean you don't get a Desktop Alert for those messages.

My verdict on quieting Outlook

I'd turn off Desktop Alerts in classic Outlook, or the Mail toggle in new Outlook, if you check email on your own schedule and the pop-ups keep breaking your focus. I'd leave Calendar alerts on, because those are the ones that stop you missing a meeting. On a phone, I'd pick Focused or Quiet Time before switching push off completely, so the app keeps syncing. And if the unread count is what's nagging you, you can mark all as read in Outlook and start clean.

Frequently asked questions

How do I stop Outlook pop-up notifications?

In classic Outlook, go to File, Options, Mail and clear Display a Desktop Alert under Message arrival. In new Outlook, go to View, View Settings, General, Notifications and turn off the Mail toggle.

Does turning off Outlook push notifications on iPhone stop email syncing?

Microsoft says turning off push notifications also disables Background App Refresh, so the app can't fetch your emails in the background and the badge count won't update in real time.

Can I turn off only the Outlook new mail sound?

Yes. In classic Outlook, go to File, Options, Mail and clear Play a sound under Message Arrival. For reminders, clear Play reminders sound under File, Options, Advanced.

Can I get notifications only for Focused Inbox email?

Yes. In the Outlook app on iPhone or Android, go to Settings, Notifications, Mail and choose Focused instead of All or None.

Why don't my Outlook notifications appear?

Check that Windows has notifications on for Outlook, and that Teams Do not disturb or Focus Assist isn't on. Desktop Alerts also don't appear during an account's initial sync, a manual Send/Receive, or when a rule moves the message out of the Inbox.