"Couldn't save changes" when unblocking an email.

Question

"Couldn't save changes" when unblocking an email.

Aaron 5

Hi there!

I was recently bulk selecting emails to report for phishing and to be blocked when I accidentally selected an email I did not wish to be included.

I can see the email I blocked in Settings >Mail > Junk email > Blocked senders and domains to which I will remove by clicking the bin but when I click save, it says "Couldn't save changes. Something went wrong. Please try again later."

I have tried adding it to Safe Sender but again, it says that it could not save the changes. I do have "Trust email from my contacts" enabled and the email is currently apart of my contacts list.

I am currently using Google Chrome on Windows 11 but I have also tried on Microsoft Edge which gave me the same results.

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Answer recommended by moderator

Aaron 5

@Hornblower409 thank you so much for the suggestion with the chat! After finding "Still need help?" I was sent on a sign-in cycle/loop whilst using Chrome but managed to get in to a chat via Microsoft Edge. Support was super helpful and from what I can see, they have fixed my issue!

Here are the steps that the support officer Anthony did when accessing my computer:
(I will try to remember as best as I can while trying to keep it simple)

He created a restore point (just incase - I am 99.99% sure this has nothing to do with my issue and just so nothing goes wrong),
had spotted my issue after trying to remove the blocked address,signed out of my Outlook,
opened an Incognito window,
had me sign in to account.microsoft.com > Privacy > Browsing and search > Clear History (try and delete history as far as you can. I think the option he selected for me was 190 days)
I then had to sign back in to my Outlook > Settings > Mail > Junk Mail and then deleted EVERY address in Safe senders and domains THEN hit save. Which it did save!
Anthony then was able to go to my Blocked senders and domains, delete the address and saved successfully.

I have signed out and back in and everything seems to have saved correctly!

Just a quick note, I had a Rule set up (Mail > Rules) to try and automatically block blank senders which he disabled before logging out to go to Incognito then having me sign in to account.microsoft.com so if you have a Rule set up, disable it.

I hope this helps everyone else.. fingers crossed!

Flavia Bartoletti 0 Reputation points

2026-09-06T11:58:33.3333333+00:00

@Aaron I followed your steps exactly and it worked!! Thank you so much for taking the time to contribute. I am now receiving very important emails that enable me to have internet service in a remote European island... so once again, thank you.

3 additional answers

Your answer

Flavia Bartoletti 0 Reputation points

2026-09-06T11:58:33.3333333+00:00

@Aaron I followed your steps exactly and it worked!! Thank you so much for taking the time to contribute. I am now receiving very important emails that enable me to have internet service in a remote European island... so once again, thank you.

Answer 1

Tom Mink 5

And as by a magic, everything works again and I never made changes to my settings. I never got a response to my feedback to Microsoft either but I am now able to make changes to my safe sender list and save those changes. This issue had persisted for the last couple of weeks but now it's miraculously fixed. Hopefully yours is too.

Helen Huang 15 Reputation points

2026-09-07T03:10:40.5966667+00:00

Just tried again and it’s fixed for me too! I’m glad I don’t have to get rid of my whole safe / blocked senders list! Thank you Microsoft team (I assume they must have done sth.)

Answer 2

@Aaron said

[Accidentally added an address to Blocked. Could not remove. Tried to add to Safe. Could not add]

If you only need to get an email off your Blocked list, or add to Safe, but can't save changes - Possible Workaround - Add to Contacts.

I just tested this setup, and for me, if the address is in my Contacts (and Trust Contacts is Enabled), then the mail is delivered to my Inbox. Even if that address is also on my Blocked List.

i.e. Trusted Contacts acts like a Safe List and over-rides anything on the Blocked List.

Did you not see the same behavior? Or did you not have a chance to test?

Some screen shots from my testing:

Groupsman's Settings and Contact card for Junksman

User's image

Mail sent from Junksman to Groupsman is received in Groupsman's Inbox.

User's image

(If I remove Junksman's contact from Groupsman's People, then mail from Junksman is not delivered)

Answer 3

Chloe-V 12,610 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Aaron

Since the same message appears in both Chrome and Edge, the problem may be related to the mailbox’s saved junk-email configuration rather than the browser.

Please try the following:

Open Settings > Mail > Junk email.
Temporarily disable Trust email from my contacts.
Remove a few outdated entries from both Blocked senders and domains and Safe senders and domains, then select Save.
Sign out, open an InPrivate/Incognito window, sign back in, and try removing the mistakenly blocked address again.

Outlook has a combined limit for entries in the blocked and safe sender lists. A large contact list may also affect the junk-email configuration when contact trust is enabled.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any further updates, thanks.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Yes". If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Aaron 5 Reputation points

2026-08-31T08:51:42.6433333+00:00

Hi there! I tried your method and unfortunately, I am still being met with "Couldn't save changes. Something went wrong. Please try again later."

I do apologize as I forgot to mention that when I mistakenly blocked/reported the email, the email was sent to my Junk Folder. When I opened the email in the Junk Folder, I clicked "Mark as safe" and the email was sent back to my normal inbox but of course, the email remains in the Blocked senders and domains part.

I'm not sure if that helps any but thought I should mention that as I only just remembered.
Chloe-V 12,610 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-31T23:20:33.2333333+00:00
Hi @Aaron

Thank you for the update. Since the previous steps did not resolve this, please contact Microsoft Support for mailbox-level assistance:

Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators, contributors including external Microsoft employees cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance on reported issues, requests, or ideas only.

Open Contact Us.

Select Show expanded list of products.

Select Outlook > Get Home support.

Search for Outlook live chat, then select Get Help > Contact Support.

Under Products & Services, select Other Products > Outlook.

Choose Chat with a support agent via web browser.

If you cannot sign in to the affected account, use another Microsoft account to access the support options.

Thank you for your understanding.
Helen Huang 15 Reputation points

2026-09-03T07:43:03.8233333+00:00

I have the same issue!
Mr. Usmann 15 Reputation points

2026-09-03T13:19:08.8333333+00:00

I too have the same issue and I'm quite surprised to see this is a recent thing
Aaron 5 Reputation points

2026-09-03T23:03:34.59+00:00

I tried the live chat but the person I was talking to, told me to go directly to my Outlook, search for "Contact support" via Help in the ribbon but upon searching, it came back with no results.. I don't know what else to do so I just give up.
Hornblower409 14,425 Reputation points

2026-09-04T07:51:08.57+00:00
@Aaron said

I tried the live chat but the person I was talking to, told me to go directly to my Outlook, search for "Contact support" via Help in the ribbon but upon searching, it came back with no results

I think what Support was trying to tell you was that you need to open a Char with the outlook.com Support Team directly.

Does this route work for you?

Logon to https://outlook.cloud.microsoft/

From the main menu: Help -> ? Help

{This should open the Help side panel}

Search Help -> {Your problem} and press Enter

Still need help? [Yes]

If you get "We're here to help": Tell us your problem -> {Your problem, again} [Get Help]

[Sign In] {Use any Outlook/Microsoft account}

Choose a support option -> Chat with a support agent in your web browser
Hornblower409 14,425 Reputation points

2026-09-04T07:54:00.6133333+00:00

@Chloe-V

Just FYI. I am tracking multiple reports of the what appear to be the same issue.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5993215/how-to-fix-not-saving-settings-in-undoing-block-se

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5991870/outlook-com-not-saving-blocked-safe-sender-changes

And also on Reddit

[External Non-Microsoft Site] https://www.reddit.com/r/Outlook/comments/1w67w2t/is_anyone_else_unable_to_block_domains_from_junk/
Mr. Usmann 15 Reputation points

2026-09-05T12:30:48.0166667+00:00

@Aaron

So I tried the steps you mentioned and it worked for me also - the blocked address has indeed been removed. The only concern I have is, given I've removed all of the safe senders and domains, where will an email from that list appear should someone attempt to send me a message? I presume the junk folder, which I will now have to keep a keen eye on...
Hornblower409 14,425 Reputation points

2026-09-05T14:06:29.2933333+00:00

@Mr. Usmann said

I've removed all of the safe senders and domains, where will an email from that list appear should someone attempt to send me a message? I presume the junk folder

A valid point. Any mail from someone who was on the Safe Senders List may now go to Junk. Until you put them back on the Safe Senders List.

And since New Outlook for Windows and Outlook Web can not export/import the Safe Senders list, any rebuild will have to be done manually.

I can see the solution from Aaron as an emergency workaround, but not as a fix for this issue.
EmilyS_726 27,215 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-09-05T15:36:20.1466667+00:00

Thanks @Aaron for sharing what support did.

I encourage you all to report this as a bug. Without reporting, Microsoft engineering may not be aware of this issue.

In Outlook.com, go to Help > Feedback > Report a problem.

Provide as much information as possible. You can also include screenshots or a screen recording showing the issue.

I also recommend selecting "Yes" when asked whether diagnostic logs can be shared. These logs contain diagnostic information and can be very helpful to the engineering team when investigating the problem.
Chloe-V 12,610 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-05T23:32:42.75+00:00

Hi

Thank you for sharing your experience. Please also refer to the responses provided by Hornblower409 and EmilyS_726, as they contain additional information and suggested next steps that may help with this situation.
Tom Mink 5 Reputation points

2026-09-06T00:40:46.54+00:00

I also have this issue, discussed in another thread. I have submitted feedback with my description but doubt I will hear anything.

With all due respect, the answer given by Microsoft to Aaron is not workable. Having to nuke my entire safe sender list and start all the way over is NOT a solution.
Aaron 5 Reputation points

2026-09-06T01:05:15.4+00:00

@Tom Mink I completely understand what you mean. I didn't have many addresses in my safe sender list (I want to say maybe.. 20-30? and a lot were duplicates or slight variations) so I didn't mind but I can imagine people that have business accounts or accounts that constantly deal with a high flow of emails where this can be super frustrating.

Heck, just having to start again in itself can be frustrating.

And while this did work for me, I am a tad hesitant about adding addresses to my safe sender list now incase this happens again but I have reported the bug and hopefully Microsoft addresses it in the future.
Aaron 5 Reputation points

2026-09-06T01:06:48.3+00:00

Also, I just wanted to ask, now that I've found a solution that seems to work for others, should I put my solution in the "Your answer" box below?

And if yes, does that close off this thread? Thanks!
Aaron 5 Reputation points

2026-09-06T01:21:29.7733333+00:00

@Hornblower409 my apologies as I only just saw your possible workaround - I did try something similar in terms of Contacts and Trust Contacts being enabled/disabling, removing then readding etc but the address was still in my blocked list and still getting the "Couldn't save changes" message.

I'd be interested to see if this works for anyone else though!

While the blocked address was/is a part of my Contacts list, the email address in question is a business address so I'm not getting a lot of emails from them so it was hard to tell if keeping them in my contacts was a workable solution.

Let me explain because I think I'm terrible at explaining things without context haha

I am currently studying at a college (I guess you could call it?) and had lodged a complaint. I received an email from one of the teachers saying that they will be handling my complaint and will get back to me. Whether that was via email or phone call, they did not say but that initial reply from them took a while so I was expecting a reply but did not know when.

After I had read the email stated above, that's when I decided to clean up my inbox and everything hit the fan. This all happened about.. 2 weeks ago? So it's hard to say if I did get a reply in the meantime but bounced back to them or they hadn't replied yet.

Gosh, I hope this makes sense haha