What Does the Yellow Clock Mean in Outlook?

Next to a person's name or photo, the yellow (or orange) clock in Outlook means that person is Away or Be right back. Outlook shows the status Microsoft Teams sets: Teams turns you Away after about 5 minutes without keyboard or mouse input on your computer, or the moment you lock it, and people can also pick Be right back or Appear away by hand. On an email, a clock means something else: Outlook is holding that message for later, either a scheduled send that has not gone out yet or a message you snoozed. Microsoft's colour for the clock is marigold, between yellow and orange, so people call the same icon both.

The status side works the same way in classic Outlook, the new Outlook for Windows, Outlook on the web and Outlook mobile, because all of them read the one Microsoft 365 presence that Teams keeps. Slack keeps its own status, separately: its dot goes grey 10 minutes after your last input on the computer, whatever Outlook shows.

Yellow clock next to a name: Away or Be right back

You see presence on the contact photo in a message, in the To and Cc lines while you write, on the people card, and in the scheduling view of a meeting invite. A yellow circle with a clock means one of three things:

From Outlook you cannot tell which one it is. All three use the same yellow clock. Hover over the photo, or open the people card, and the status name shows under the person's name.

The other presence colors are in Outlook status colors meaning, and every icon shape, including the grey x and the purple arrow, is in Microsoft Teams status icons meaning.

Why the clock looks yellow to some people and orange to others

Microsoft's open-source Fluent UI library has a presence badge component, and its code draws Away as a filled clock in a colour called marigold. We downloaded the current packages from npm on 27 October 2026 and printed the lines that pick the icon and the colour:

set -e
cd "$(mktemp -d)"
B=$(npm view @fluentui/react-badge version)
npm pack @fluentui/react-badge@$B --silent >/dev/null && tar xzf fluentui-react-badge-$B.tgz
echo "@fluentui/react-badge $B"
grep -A1 "case 'away':" $(find package/lib -name 'usePresenceBadge.js')
grep -h -A1 "statusAway: {" $(find package/lib -name 'usePresenceBadgeStyles.styles.raw.js')
rm -rf package
T=$(npm view @fluentui/tokens dist-tags.latest)
npm pack @fluentui/tokens@$T --silent >/dev/null && tar xzf fluentui-tokens-$T.tgz
echo "@fluentui/tokens $T"
grep -h "Background3\`\]" package/lib/alias/lightColorPalette.js | head -1
grep -A12 "export const marigold" package/lib/global/colors.js | grep "primary"

@fluentui/react-badge 9.5.7
        case 'away':
            return outOfOffice ? presenceOofRegular[size] : presenceAwayFilled[size];
    statusAway: {
        color: tokens.colorPaletteMarigoldBackground3
@fluentui/tokens 1.0.0-alpha.24
        [`colorPalette${color}Background3`]: statusSharedColors[sharedColor].primary,
    primary: '#eaa300',

So the Away badge is the presenceAwayFilled icon in marigold, #eaa300, a colour between yellow and orange. With Out of office on, the same status switches to presenceOofRegular, an outlined icon, which is why an away person who is on leave looks different again.

Yellow clock on an email: held for later

A clock on a message in the message list has nothing to do with anyone's status. It marks an email Outlook is holding back:

• • A scheduled send. In the new Outlook and Outlook on the web, Send later keeps the message in Drafts until the time you chose. In classic Outlook, Options, Delay Delivery keeps it in the Outbox. To send it now or cancel it, open the message, remove the schedule, and send it again.
• • A snoozed message. The new Outlook and Outlook on the web can snooze an email. It leaves the inbox, waits in the Scheduled folder, and returns to the top of the inbox at the time you set.

If a message sits in the classic Outlook Outbox and you did not schedule it, check Send / Receive, Work Offline first. With Work Offline on, nothing leaves the Outbox. A rule with a delay (for example "defer delivery by 2 minutes") also holds every message you send.

Why do I have a yellow clock in Outlook?

If the clock is on your own photo, Teams has you as Away. The usual causes:

• You stepped away for about 5 minutes. Any keyboard or mouse input on the computer brings you back to Available within seconds. Teams counts input anywhere on the computer, not only in Teams. The timing is in how long before Teams shows you as Away.
• The screen locked. A locked computer sets Away at once.
• You set it by hand. In Teams, select your photo. If Be right back or Appear away is set, choose Reset status.
• Teams is closed or signed out. Outlook reads your status from Teams. With Teams closed you show Away for a while and then Offline. If Outlook shows no status at all, see Teams status not showing in Outlook.

If you stay Away while you are working, the causes and fixes are in Teams status stuck on Away. To stay green through reading, calls on another device or a long document, see how to keep Teams status available and how to keep your Outlook status green.

What does the yellow clock mean on Teams?

The same thing: Away or Be right back. Teams is where the status is set, and Outlook, SharePoint and the Microsoft 365 people card all show the result. Choosing Available by hand does not stop Away when you go idle; Microsoft's presence rules let a manual status be only less available than the one Teams calculates.

Slack uses a different set of icons and its own timer. Slack shows a grey or hollow dot for away, not a clock. The meanings are in Slack status icons meaning.

FAQ

Is the orange clock in Outlook different from the yellow clock?

No. It is the same Away icon. Microsoft's Fluent UI code colours it marigold, #eaa300, which reads as yellow to some people and orange to others.

How long until Outlook shows the yellow clock?

About 5 minutes without keyboard or mouse input on the computer, or at once when the screen locks.

Does the yellow clock mean the person is offline?

No. Offline is a grey circle with an x. The yellow clock means they are signed in but away from the computer or chose to look away.

Can someone see I am away in Outlook if I only use email?

Yes, if you are signed in to Teams. Outlook shows the same status Teams sets for you.