Outlook stuck opening

Question

Outlook stuck opening

Zac Avramides 91

On my PC, if my network drops momentarily while Outlook is open it loses all connectivity to Office 365.

This happens to the normal version, and the "new" preview version. I can pretty much replicate this problem 100% of the time.

Ending the Outlook.exe or olk.exe process and then trying to open Outlook again both in and out of Safe mode do nothing. It simply hangs.

The only resolution I have come across is rebooting the PC.

What other services\process could still be running on this PC that I need to restart in order for Outlook to open without having to reboot.

Ideally it would be nice to know why Outlook shits the bed when its connection to Office 365 drops for a second or 2.

I am running Windows 11.

1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,376 Moderator

Hi @Zac Avramides ,

From the description, do you mean the issue is that the Outlook desktop client fails to reconnect automatically and cannot be reopened after network drops?
Is this a recently occurred issue? If so, have you made any changes on either Outlook or Windows OS right prior to the issue?
What's the detailed build number of the Outlook client? You can view the version information via File > Office Account > About Outlook.

Besides, in order to eliminate whether it's an issue with any background services or programing, it's recommended to try performing a clean boot in Windows and check the result.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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.

Zac Avramides 91 Reputation points

2023-06-09T05:56:10.0933333+00:00

After a network interruption is when the problem presents itself. This can simply be brought on by unplugging from the network and letting Wifi kick in. Issue has been happening for a few months. As mentioned this happened across a few different versions, including the preview version of the new Outlook.
Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,376 Reputation points Moderator

2023-06-12T08:26:00.9533333+00:00

Hi @Zac Avramides ,

Have you had a chance to perform Windows clean boot and check if the issue persists?

If the issue can still be reproduced, could you catch a screenshot of the Connection Status (Hold down Ctrl while Outlook is running, right click the Outlook icon in the system tray and choose "Connection status") when the problem occurs and see if we can get any clues for digging deeper? Be sure to remove all private data like email addresses.
Zac Avramides 91 Reputation points

2023-06-12T23:23:15.9433333+00:00

I will try to catch a screenshot of it. I head ahead for 5 weeks shortly that may take a while. How can I be force closing Outlook so that it opens fresh in the mean time, without having to restart? Outside of the Outlook.exe and olk.exe process depending on version what else is there?
Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,376 Reputation points Moderator

2023-06-13T08:47:41.6766667+00:00

Hi @Zac Avramides ,

Outside of the Outlook.exe and olk.exe process depending on version what else is there?

Chances are that there might be some other interrupting programs or services running. What it reopening Outlook in safe mode(Press Win+R, type "outlook /safe", press Enter.) after ending outlook.exe and olk,exe?
Zac Avramides 91 Reputation points

2023-06-13T10:15:26.04+00:00

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter how I open Outlook. Safe mode or not, it hangs opening if the situation presents itself.
Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,376 Reputation points Moderator

2023-06-14T07:21:07.89+00:00

Okay. Then you can go ahead trying the windows clean boot at your convenience to help narrow down the issue.

Share via

Outlook stuck opening

1 answer

Your answer