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Outlook Desktop 2021 doesn't play animated GIFs in e-mails

Anonymous
2023-06-06T14:25:35+00:00

The title says it all.

Very often I'm embedding animated GIFs into my e-mail messages, depicting tiny screencasts of errors or how-tos.

When I sent these e-mails and open them from the Sent folder, the GIF animations don't play.

How can I make Outlook play animated GIF that are embedded into e-mail messages inline?

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-06-06T16:29:47+00:00

    Hello Katherine,

    thank you for trying to help.

    This seems to be an intermittent issue. I currently am not able to reproduce the issue.

    Yet, when I analyze the e-mail I sent, I notice that it was saved in JPG format.

    So, there is some circumstance causing Outlook to convert an animated GIF file into a JPG file when embedding the file into the message (Menu: Insert > Pictures). Probably Outlook converts the file silently when the overal message size, incl. attachments, goes beyond a certain level, but that's just an assumption of mine.

    Anyway, Outlook should not silently convert the data type of images without prompting for confirmation.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-06-06T15:39:46+00:00

    Dear BetterToday,

    Thanks for choosing Microsoft Community.

    Based on our description, do you mean that when you create the email, the animated GIFs work well but when you open the sent email in sent folder, it doesn‘t play or you mean when you embed into email, it either does not work?

    For this, please be kindly to check if you embed GIFs correctly. In Outlook, there are two ways to insert an animated GIF in Outlook:

    1. If you are using an Office 365 Business account, you can insert Animated GIFs into your email messages using the Online Pictures option.
    2. Or you can add animated GIFs to email by inserting an animated GIF using Insert a Picture or by using an adding from the GIF provider like GIPHY or Gfycat. 

    Here is an article for your reference: Add graphics to messages in Outlook.

    If you did it correctly, regarding this issue, as you can see from this article, please try the solutions povided. If both do not work, for this, as a workaround to view the GIF in the message is to view the message in the Web browser.

    To doing so, double click the message to open it in a new window, under Messagetab > Move> Actions > View in browser. 

    Hope the suggestins above can help you. If there is any update, please feel free to let me know. Your understanding and co-operation are highly appreciated.

    Thanks for your precious time. Have a nice day.

    Sincerely,

    Katherine

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