What’s causing the Outlook error message 0x80042109?
Method 1: Adjusting SMTP settings manually
As it turns out, this particular issue can occur due to some incorrect SMTP settings that Outlook will configure by default. Several Windows users that have been struggling with the 0x80042109 Outlook error have reported that they managed to get it fixed by using the classing control panel interface to adjust some settings manually in order to allow the SMTP communications to go through. This procedure was confirmed to be effective by a lot of affected users and can be followed regardless of the Windows version that you’re using. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide on adjusting the SMTP settings manually: If the same error message is still appearing and you’re still unable to send ongoing emails, move down to the next potential fix below.
Method 2: Disable 3rd party firewall (if applicable)
According to several affected users that also encountered this problem, if you’re using a 3rd party firewall to protect your network connection from being abused, it’s likely that you’re using an overprotective suite that is interfering with the connection between Outlook and the external email server that is being used for SMTP. If this scenario is applicable, you should be able to resolve the issue by disabling the 3rd party firewall that is triggering this false positive. Comodo and McAfee are among the most commonly reported suites that will cause this type of behavior. If you believe that this particular scenario might be applicable to you, you should be able to resolve the 0x80042109 error either by disabling the real-time protection or by uninstalling the entire 3rd party suite altogether. However, with most firewall suites, this operation will not be enough since the same security rules will remain in place even if the real-time security protection is disabled. In this case, the only viable fix is to white list the communications between Outlook and the email server (the steps of doing this are different depending on the security tool that you use. If you’re not exactly sure how to create exclusions, one universal fix that will work regardless of the firewall that you’re using is to uninstall and delete any remnant files and see if the same problems are still occurring. Here’s a step-by-step guide on doing this: If you’re still encountering the Outlook error 0x80042109 when you try to send out an Ongoing email or this method was not applicable to you, move down to the next potential fix below.
Method 3: Opening Outlook in Safe Mode
Add-ins can add to the already rich Outlook functionality, but in some cases, they can affect core functions such as sending Outgoing emails. Some affected users that were previously struggling with the 0x80042109 have confirmed that the issue was resolved for them after they managed to start Outlook in Safe mode. Safe mode will launch the application without any other 3rd party modules (add-ins). If the email sending module works in Safe Mode, it’s evidence that some 3rd party add-in is actually causing the problem. If this scenario is applicable and you confirm that one of your installed add-ins is causing the problem, you can then systematically re-enable all add-ins until and test the email sending function until you discover the module that’s responsible for the issue. Here’s a quick guide on opening Outlook in safe mode and discover the add-in that’s causing problems:
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