Remove Unsent Database Email from SQL Server

Estimated study time: 6 minutes. Clean up a stuck Database Mail queue safely.

SQL Server's Database Mail feature queues emails before sending them, and sometimes messages get stuck in an Unsent or Retrying state — usually because of an SMTP misconfiguration or a mail server that's unreachable. Here's how to inspect and clear that queue.

Checking Mail Status

Start by looking at the status of items sitting in the mail queue:

SELECT mailitem_id, subject, sent_status, send_request_date
FROM msdb.dbo.sysmail_allitems
WHERE sent_status = 'unsent';

Stopping the Mail Queue

Before deleting anything, it's safest to stop the Database Mail external program so nothing tries to send while you clean up:

EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_stop_sp;

Deleting Unsent Mail Items

You can remove specific unsent items using their mailitem_id, or clear all of them in one go:

DELETE FROM msdb.dbo.sysmail_mailitems
WHERE sent_status = 'unsent';

💡 Tip: If deletes are blocked by foreign key constraints on related mail log tables, clean up sysmail_log entries first, or use sysmail_delete_mailitems_sp instead of a raw DELETE.

Using the Built-in Cleanup Procedure

SQL Server also ships a safer procedure for this exact scenario:

EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_delete_mailitems_sp
  @sent_status = 'unsent';

Restarting the Mail Queue

Once the queue is clean and the SMTP configuration is fixed, restart Database Mail: