Outlook 2019 and 2021 Stop Opening Email in Different Windows After a Few Emails, and Other Functionality Issues

Daniel Lagerman 0

Multiple Users are reporting an issue with their version of Outlook (2019 and 2021).

The Double-Click to open emails in different windows stops after 1 or 2 emails. Using the preview view on Outlook, the users are unable to reply, forward, or open attachments. If we change the view to Compact or Single the emails open in a side window, and the reply, forward, and attachment work through the built in toolbar on the view window.

This issue only occurred after the most recent Office update, in which some of the toolbar layouts changed.

We are also receiving an error message that too many actionable messages are open, and to close other actionable message to continue. We can bypass this by clicking OK, but it pops up with most/all internal office emails.

Furthermore, one of my users attempted to click the "try new outlook" tab on their Outlook App. The Outlook App crashed, and they received a message stating the new outlook feature could not be enabled.

Faery Fu-MSFT 16,816 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-05-23T01:57:19.2666667+00:00

Hi @Daniel Lagerman ，

It sounds like you are experiencing an issue with Outlook after a recent Office update. Can you provide me with your Office and Outlook version numbers, as well as the version of Windows you are using?
Daniel Lagerman 0 Reputation points

2023-05-23T13:11:09.39+00:00

Office versions affected are 2019 Home & Business, 2019 Professional, 2021 Home & Business, and 2021 Professional. The version is 2304 and build is 16327.20248.

I checked 2 other users running Office 2021, and found they were both also experiencing this issue, however, didn't report it because they didn't use the preview view, nor used the double-click to open feature. This issue appears to be affecting all of my users running Office 2019 and 2021.

The are all running Windows 10 21h2 and Windows 10 22h2.
Daniel Lagerman 0 Reputation points

2023-05-25T19:39:52.04+00:00

I ran a reinstall of Office on one of my users computers. This did not help fix the issue, but I did notice the fan running constantly. When I checked Task Manager, I saw that Outlook was consuming way more processing than it should. The computer is a Core i5 processor, and it was showing around 60%-80% processing usage. Opening an email would cause the percentage to rise slightly, and after around 80% processing utilization, Outlook is unable to double-click to open the window.

The processor runs fine with 6%-13% utilization when you close Outlook.
Faery Fu-MSFT 16,816 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-05-26T07:26:08.7133333+00:00

Hi @Daniel Lagerman ，

Are you able to open Outlook in Safe Mode? To do so, press and hold the Ctrl key while you open Outlook or enter outlook.exe /safe in Command Prompt. If it opens successfully in Safe Mode, this could indicate an issue with an add-in or customization setting. Try disabling all of your add-ins and see if this helps.

Besides, it is recommended you try to repair Office and see if it works.

1 answer

Daniel Lagerman 0 Reputation points

2023-05-30T12:32:31.6866667+00:00

The processor is still running at a much higher utilization than it should. I am going to attempt to revert my version of office to an earlier version using the office deployment tool. Here is the link https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-revert-to-an-earlier-version-of-office-2bd5c457-a917-d57e-35a1-f709e3dda841
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Faery Fu-MSFT 16,816 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-06-01T06:44:59.2166667+00:00

Hi @Daniel Lagerman ,

Thanks for your quick reply and let me know your current workaround.
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