Outlook New doesn't open desktop microsoft apps

Question

Outlook New doesn't open desktop microsoft apps

Mwesigwa Moses 30

Hello Support,

Of late we have been having issues with the outlook new windows app.

Most of our clients are encountering the same problem.

We can no longer open email attachments with the edit in the desktop app option.

It instead goes ahead to save in OneDrive, and you can only open it online.

Is there a fix for this issue.

Closey1200 0 Reputation points

2026-10-28T09:52:55.04+00:00

We're having the same/similar issue since the update.

Outlook - 1.2026.1013.100

Windows - 26H2

If someone sends you an attachment regardless if its local or cloud based and you click on the attachment via the email in your inbox, it opens the preview and at the top gives you the option to 'Open on the web' or 'Desktop app - default' (see image). Selecting the app, saves the file to OneDrive automatically and tries to open the app (see Opening your file img) and then does nothing.

I've tried this for Excel, Word and pdf's, although now for a .pdf Adobe Reader no longer shows as an option.

5 answers

Your answer

Closey1200 0 Reputation points

2026-10-28T09:52:55.04+00:00

We're having the same/similar issue since the update.

Outlook - 1.2026.1013.100

Windows - 26H2

If someone sends you an attachment regardless if its local or cloud based and you click on the attachment via the email in your inbox, it opens the preview and at the top gives you the option to 'Open on the web' or 'Desktop app - default' (see image). Selecting the app, saves the file to OneDrive automatically and tries to open the app (see Opening your file img) and then does nothing.

I've tried this for Excel, Word and pdf's, although now for a .pdf Adobe Reader no longer shows as an option.

Answer 1

Hornblower409 18,160

Know Bug EX1528992 - Users may not be able to open email file attachments or see the "Open" option in the new Outlook desktop app.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/a/13023974

Oct 29 2026 16:32 UTC - We've completed deployment of our targeted fix to disable the impacting configuration and confirmed with a subset of affected users that the impact is remediated as a result. Any users still impacted will need to close and reopen new Outlook for the change to take effect and resolve the issue.

0 comments

Answer 2

Andro Kartvelishvili 5

Problem resolved after system updates the versions of Edge and Web View to version 156.0.4314.56 (Official build) (64-bit)

0 comments

Answer 3

Hello everyone,

As Andro mentioned, this issue seems to be related to Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime 156.x and does not appear to affect version 155.0.4283.62. Based on my understanding, and from the reports shared so far, attachments may fail to open in New Outlook when using WebView2 156.x, whereas the same behavior does not occur with version 155.0.4283.62.

Since my environment is currently running WebView2 155.0.4283.62, I have not been able to reproduce the issue on my side. If you are using a WebView2 Runtime 156.x build and are encountering the same issue, this behavior may indicate a regression in the 156.x runtime branch.

As a temporary workaround, you may consider using Classic Outlook while this issue is being investigated. Additionally, I would recommend submitting feedback directly from New Outlook via:

Help > Feedback > Report a problem

User's image

This will help ensure the issue is routed to the Outlook product team for visibility and investigation. Based on the reports observed so far, the team may already be aware of the issue and could provide a fix in a future update.

Answer 4

Hin Vo 1,730 Independent Advisor

Hi @Mwesigwa Moses

To ensure I fully understand your situation and provide the most effective assistance, I’ll need a few additional details, such as:

May I know your current New Outlook version and build?

Does this affect all Office attachment types (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) or only specific file types?

Is the "Open in Word/Excel/PowerPoint Desktop app" option still available in the attachment menu? If yes, what happens when you select it?

Could you please confirm whether the affected attachments were originally uploaded from a local device and attached to the email, or shared from OneDrive/SharePoint as cloud attachments?

Any update would be appreciated.

Andro Kartvelishvili 5 Reputation points

2026-10-28T07:29:08.8966667+00:00

I have the same problem on many computers:
i try:
Reset Outlook from Apps, repair, reinstall, recreate from %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\olk attachments, delete the olk and OneAuth folders, and recreate them, but I still have this problem
No attachments are opening from Outlook NEW
For Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, I have the option to open or edit in MS Office apps, and it is not opening, but for other formats like .pdf or .txt, I have only one option to save it to OneDrive; the open option is missing

Outlook new (olk.exe) version 1.2026.1013.100

EDGE version Version 156.0.4314.50

Microsoft Edge WebView2 version 156.0434.50

MS Office 0365 version 2610 build 20527.20088

For note:

With the same user in Outlook Classic, there is no problem opening attachments with any file type; also, no problem opening attachments from Edge; the problem is only with Outlook New
Allan Bøgh Madsen 0 Reputation points

2026-10-28T08:35:22.1+00:00

We have exactly the same problem. The problem is with all office documents (Word, Excel etc.). The option to open in desktop app is still there, but nothing happens. We can still open in browser.
Hin Vo 1,730 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-10-28T09:26:13.2433333+00:00

Hi Andro and Allan,

Could you please confirm whether the affected files are attached directly from a local device or shared as OneDrive/SharePoint (cloud) attachments?

I tested this in my environment and observed different behavior between regular file attachments and cloud attachments. Regular attachments can still be opened in the desktop application, whereas cloud attachments may be redirected to the browser experience depending on how they were attached and shared. My current New Outlook version is 1.2026.1013.100.

Could you also test with a newly created file attached directly from a local device and let me know whether the same issue occurs?
Andro Kartvelishvili 5 Reputation points

2026-10-28T10:33:55.6266667+00:00

https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/WebView2Feedback/issues/5782

Inside this link
Actual results:

WebView2 156.0.4314.42 -> FAIL
WebView2 156.0.4314.50 -> FAIL
WebView2 155.0.4283.62 -> PASS

The problem occurs after the update; attachment preview is OK - it is not opening in desktop Excel, Word, or PowerPoint, and it is attached not through the cloud/onedrive it is attached in email. It comes after updating to a newer version of WebView2

Answer 5

Use Outlook on the web to select Edit in desktop app as the immediate workaround, then check Microsoft 365 Service health and open a support case because the same failure across multiple users indicates a possible New Outlook service or build regression rather than a documented feature removal.

Microsoft documents that New Outlook for Windows supports Edit in desktop app when Office is installed; redirecting every attachment to OneDrive and allowing only browser editing is not the documented baseline behavior.^1^

Immediate workarounds

Open the affected message in Outlook on the web.
Select the attachment’s dropdown arrow.
Select Edit in desktop app. Outlook on the web also supports this option when Office is installed.^1^
If that option also fails, select Download, save the attachment locally, and open it from File Explorer in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

Downloading creates a separate local copy. Changes to that copy are not automatically written back to the original email attachment.

A recent matching report describes multiple New Outlook users suddenly losing the desktop-edit path while it continued to work through Outlook on the web.^2^ However, Microsoft’s current New Outlook known-issues page does not list a published fix or workaround for this exact symptom.^3^

Administrator checks and escalation

Because several clients are affected:

Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center with an account assigned an appropriate admin role.
Go to Health > Service health.
Review Exchange Online, Microsoft 365 apps, and active advisories. Also check Issue history if the behavior started recently.^4^
If no relevant incident appears, reproduce the issue on one affected device and record:
- New Outlook version/build
- Windows version
- Office version/build
- Attachment type, such as DOCX or XLSX
- Whether Outlook on the web successfully opens the same file in the desktop app
- Whether the issue affects newly received attachments, linked cloud files, or both
In New Outlook, select Help > Feedback. Enable contact permission and include diagnostic information.
For a support case, select Help > Get Diagnostics, then Upload Logs or Send Diagnostics when requested by the support agent.^5^

Submitting one case with affected-user counts, timestamps, builds, and diagnostics is preferable to independently repairing every workstation when the behavior appeared across multiple users at approximately the same time.

If only OneDrive or SharePoint links are affected

This branch applies only if ordinary attached files work and the failure is limited to files hosted in OneDrive or SharePoint:

Confirm that the OneDrive sync client is installed and running.
In OneDrive My Files or SharePoint Documents, select the file.
Select More > Open > Open in app.
Confirm that Files On-Demand is enabled, because it is required for this operation.^6^

Do not deploy the Open in Desktop Group Policy as a New Outlook fix: Microsoft documents that policy for OneDrive/SharePoint links opened from classic Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—not New Outlook.^7^

References