If you searched “what does the orange clock mean on Outlook”, the short answer is that the person is Away. It is a presence icon that Outlook copies from Microsoft Teams, and the orange and yellow versions are the same icon. In this guide, I’ll show where Outlook displays it, why it appears, how to change your own, and what to check when the thing that is waiting is an email and not a person.
Quick Answer: The orange or yellow clock in Outlook is a Teams presence icon, and both colours are the same icon. Next to a person’s name it means they are Away or have set Be right back, usually after about 5 minutes of inactivity. Outlook only displays it. You change your own status in Teams, not in Outlook.
Where the Orange Clock Shows Up in Outlook
Outlook does not create this icon. It asks Teams for each person’s status and draws it next to their name.
- New Outlook: the icon shows for the recipients, co-recipients and the sender while you write or read a message.
- Classic Outlook: it shows next to the sender in the Reading Pane or an opened message, next to each name on the To and Cc lines, and in Contacts.
- Outlook on the web: it works the same way, with the same Teams information.
A few things decide whether you see it at all. You need a work or school account with a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription (the suite many people still call Office 365). Outlook.com does not show Teams status. Microsoft also says presence in Outlook is meant for contacts in your own organization, and it works from Outlook 2013 onwards. Someone who is not signed in to Teams shows as Offline.
What Does the Yellow Clock Mean on an Outlook Email?
On an email, the yellow clock is the Teams status of the sender or one of the recipients: Away or Be right back. It sits next to their name, not on the message itself. If the clock you mean is on the message, jump to the section on snoozed, scheduled and stuck messages below.
What Does the Orange Clock Mean on Outlook? Away and Be Right Back
On a computer, Teams sets Away by itself when the person has been inactive for about 5 minutes, the computer goes to sleep, or Teams is minimized. A locked computer does the same. The yellow clock on Teams means the same thing. On a phone, Away means the Teams app is in the background, and after 24 hours of inactivity the status becomes Offline.
People can also pick the clock by hand with Be right back or Appear away. Teams never sets Be right back on its own. So the clock tells you that Teams has not seen the person for a few minutes or that they said so, and it does not tell you they have gone home.
Outlook asks Teams for the status when the account is set to TeamsOnly. Otherwise it asks Skype for Business. Skype for Business Online was retired on 31 July 2021, so today that only applies to organizations that still run Skype for Business Server on premises. The screenshot below is from that older client. Its Be Right Back, Off Work and Appear Away options use the same yellow clock.
Outlook Status Symbols: How to Tell If Someone Is Active
How can you tell if someone is active on Outlook? Look at the icon beside their name. These are the statuses Outlook can show, with the icon names from Microsoft’s presence table.
| Icon | Status shown | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Green check mark | Available | Active in Teams, with nothing on the calendar |
| Solid red circle | Busy, In a call, In a meeting | Teams sets it during calls and meetings |
| Red circle with a white line | Do not disturb, Presenting, Focusing | On-screen notifications are stopped |
| Yellow clock | Away, Be right back | Idle or locked, or set by the person |
| Gray circle with an x | Offline, Appear offline | Not signed in to Teams, or hiding |
| Open gray circle | Status unknown | The person is no longer in your organization’s directory |
| Purple circle with an arrow | Out of office | An automatic reply is on, or the calendar shows Out of Office |
Microsoft’s docs call the Away icon the yellow clock and describe no separate orange one, so the two colours are the same status. The shade can look different between Outlook builds. If the artwork looks odd in yours, open the person’s contact card and read the written status next to it.
The purple Out of office status comes from automatic replies and calendar events, not from Teams activity. If you want Outlook to handle meetings while you are away, see how to auto decline meetings in Outlook when out of office.
How to Remove the Orange Clock from Your Own Status
You change it in Teams. Outlook has no switch for your own status. On Teams for desktop or the web:
- Select your profile picture at the top right of Teams.
- Select your current status.
- Pick Available from the list.
On mobile, tap Menu and then your status. You can also type a command in the Teams search box: /available, /busy, /dnd, /brb, /away or /offline.
A status you pick by hand stays until it expires. Without a duration that is 7 days for most statuses, 1 day for Busy and Do not disturb, and no end for Appear offline. To control it, select your profile picture, then your current status, then Duration, and choose when Teams should reset it. To hand it back to Teams, select Reset status.
Why Does My Status Show Away When I Am Working?
Teams sets Away after about 5 minutes without activity, when the computer sleeps, or when you minimize Teams, and Microsoft says you cannot change that inactivity timeout. If your Teams window stays minimized while you work, the clock will show.
The workaround Microsoft gives is a status message:
- Select your profile picture, then Set status message.
- Type a short message, for example that you are available.
- Select Show when people message me.
- Under Clear status message after, choose Today, This week or Never, then select Done.
On Windows you can also keep Teams on one side of the screen in split screen, so it is not minimized. Microsoft’s page on why Teams says you are Away when you are not has both. Teams on the web has one more option: under Settings > Notifications and Activity > Presence, turn on Keep my current status when I’m active outside of Teams on the web.
When the Clock Is Missing, Wrong or Late
If you see no status at all, check these in order:
- In classic Outlook, go to File > Options > People and make sure Display online status next to name is selected (under Online status and photographs).
- Make sure you are on a work or school account. Outlook.com never shows Teams status. Microsoft’s list of Teams status in Outlook covers each client.
- Check that the other person is signed in to Teams. If not, you see Offline or no icon.
- If their mailbox is hosted on premises, Microsoft says presence delays of up to one hour are expected.
IT also controls how far presence travels. External access settings in Teams decide whether status is shared with other organizations. Privacy mode keeps it inside your organization, and an admin turns it on with Set-CsPrivacyConfiguration -Identity global -EnablePrivacyMode $True in the Teams PowerShell module. Changes can take several hours. If you never see status for people at another company, this is a likely reason.
If the Clock Is on a Message and Not a Name
Microsoft does not document a clock icon on a message in the message list. What it does document is three situations where a message is held back. One of them is probably what you are looking at.
1) Snoozed Messages in New Outlook, Outlook on the Web and Mac
Snooze hides a message until the time you choose, and a Snoozed folder is added to your folder list. Classic Outlook has no Snooze: Microsoft says you can’t currently snooze a message there.
In new Outlook, select the message and click Snooze, then pick a suggested time, Choose a date, or a custom time. On the web, open the message and use Home > Snooze. On Mac, select the message and click Snooze. If the button is missing on Mac, go to Outlook > Settings > Reading and select Snooze. The Snooze command carries a small clock icon of its own, as the screenshot shows.
2) Delay Delivery in Classic Outlook
A delayed message sits in the Outbox until its time. To set it:
- While writing the message, open Message Options (the small arrow in the Tags group).
- Under Delivery options, select Do not deliver before and set the date and time.
- Select Close, then Send.
With the simplified ribbon, go to the Options tab and select More commands instead. Microsoft says Outlook must be online and connected for this to work. I covered the closed Outlook case in does Delay Delivery work when Outlook is closed.
To cancel, open the message from the Outbox, clear Do not deliver before, select Close, then Send. A rule can also defer every message you send by up to 120 minutes (File > Manage Rules & Alerts > New Rule > Apply rule on messages I send). Microsoft’s page on delaying or scheduling email has the full steps.
3) Schedule Send in New Outlook and Outlook on the Web
Select the dropdown next to Send, choose Schedule send, pick a time and select Send. The message waits in the Draft folder, not the Outbox. To cancel, open it in Drafts and select Cancel send. New Outlook does not offer this for IMAP or POP accounts.
Fix a Message Stuck in the Outbox
A message still in the Outbox has not been sent. Check Sent Items to confirm what went out. Microsoft says the most likely cause of a stuck message is a large attachment. Not sure where the folder is? See where the Outbox is in Outlook.
- Go to the Send/Receive tab and look at Work Offline. If it is blue, Outlook is disconnected. Click it once (it turns white), then click Send All.
- If the message is still stuck, turn Work Offline on, open the Outbox, and delete the message or drag it to Drafts and remove the attachment. Then turn Work Offline off and send it again.
- If an error says Outlook is trying to transmit the message, close Outlook. If it will not close, end outlook.exe in Task Manager, start Outlook again and repeat step 2.
Also check File > Options > Advanced, under Send and receive, and make sure Send immediately when connected is selected. If the option is greyed out, your administrator manages it through group policy.
If it is cleared, messages wait for the next send and receive. Classic Outlook runs that automatically every 30 minutes by default. You can change it under Send/Receive > Send/Receive Groups > Define Send/Receive Groups, by selecting All Accounts, then Edit, and setting the interval under Setting for group. Microsoft’s Outlook email stuck page covers the rest.
If you only want to know whether a colleague is around, read the written status on their contact card as well as the icon. If the clock on your own name is wrong, make sure Teams is running and signed in, then set the status there.
