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Outlook for Mac - Automatic language detection not working

MassimoUn 0 Reputation points
2026-01-24T07:37:35.5833333+00:00

I’m using the latest version of Outlook for Mac on a Microsoft 365 business subscription and I can’t get language autodetection working. I’ve tried everything I’ve found in dozens of online posts but nothing seems to work. I’ve changed the language on my keyboard settings added and changed the languages in Mac OS and enabled automatic detection in Outlook but nothing changes. Did anyone find a fix or knows if Microsoft will sort this out soon?

Outlook | MacOS | New Outlook for Mac | For business

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  1. Nagy Sándor A 5 Reputation points
    2026-03-12T08:26:24.34+00:00

    Hi everyone, has this been fixed? The workarounds above are not working.
    Maybe it will be fixed after the next update?

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    2 people found this answer helpful.
  2. Jayden-P 23,520 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-01-30T13:12:48.1733333+00:00

    Hi everyone.

    Thank you all for reporting this issue and I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

    To get this issue resolved as soon as possible, my recommendation is to contribute your feedback via Outlook · Community.

    When you done submitting, please feel free to drop the link here so more and more people can upvote for the ideas.

    Every vote helps increase visibility to Microsoft and shows that the problem impacts more than one user. With more vote, this issue would be more likely to get noticed and fixed sooner.

    Best regards.

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  3. Ran 0 Reputation points
    2026-01-30T11:13:13.64+00:00

    Yep, I have the same issue. I've chatted with the Microsoft Support Agent.

    We tried installing several versions of Outlook, but the issue persists across all versions. :(

    16.104 (25121423)

    16.101 (25091314)

    And the version which is currently available on the Mac App Store - 16.105.2 (26012530)

    Nothing seems to help :(

    Edit - After talking to Level Two support, they sent me this article - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5606189/how-to-fix-rtl-bugs-in-new-outlook-for-mac-16-102

    And it seems to have (temporarily) solved the issue - more of a workaround, I would say.

    I hope this helps somebody.

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  4. Jayden-P 23,520 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-01-24T10:25:51.7033333+00:00

    Hi @MassimoUn

    Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A forum.

    Can you please confirm if you are using version 16.105.1? You can check this in Outlook > About Outlook.
    Are you referring to this feature? Let Outlook for Mac automatically detect and spell check languages in your emails If yes, make sure you have set your preferred language and restart Outlook.

    From my testing in the same version, I do see the same behavior as yours. The feature sometimes works when I changed to English UK. But it will not detect language a few seconds later.

    User's image

    For this specific issue, please open a support ticket with our support team via Help > Contact Support. Contact support within Outlook for Mac - Microsoft Support

    I apologize for unable to resolve this directly for you, our support team will be able to help you further with this case.

    Thanks for your understanding.

    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.

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  5. AI answer

    2026-01-24T07:37:44.2133333+00:00

    It seems that the automatic language detection feature in Outlook for Mac can sometimes be affected by the language settings in both the application and the operating system. Here are some steps you can try to resolve the issue:

    1. Check Language Settings in Outlook: Ensure that the language settings in Outlook are correctly configured. Go to Tools > Language and select the appropriate language.
    2. Keyboard Settings: Make sure your keyboard settings match the language you want to use. This can be done in the MacOS System Preferences under Keyboard > Input Sources.
    3. Regional Settings: Check the regional settings in MacOS. Go to System Preferences > Language & Region and ensure the preferred language is set correctly.
    4. Restart Outlook: After making these changes, restart Outlook to see if the changes take effect.
    5. Update Outlook: Ensure that you are using the latest version of Outlook for Mac, as updates often include bug fixes and improvements.

    If none of these steps work, it may be beneficial to reach out to Microsoft support for further assistance or to inquire if there are known issues with the feature in the latest version.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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