Microsoft Outlook Application To... field missing

Question

Hello,

I am having an issue where one of our users is not able to use the To... field correctly in outlook. The user either sees a huge To... field that takes up the whole window (resolved by just clicking enter) which then takes the user to a normal looking email except the To... field where you type is missing. The only way to add recipients or verify recipients is to click the To... box which opens the GAL. Not a huge issue since we have that workaround, but would like to resolve this for users convenience.

We have tried different computers where other users have no issues with their email. We have tried repairing and reinstalling the Office package which also has not resolved the issue. I also tried running outlook in safe mode however the same issue occurs. The first "New Email" that draft when opening outlook opens normally with the To... field present. However if you close it and click "New Email" again it will show up as normal just without the field where you type next to To... I have seen a similar issue on this forum in 2018 which the user does have quick steps configured however we tried creating new ones and removing the old ones and it still does not work right.

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019

Additional Troubleshooting Completed:

Checked outlook settings which appear to be fine.

Reset the users local and roaming profile

Re-created the users outlook profile in Ctrl Panel

Multiple workstations tried verifying other users are not having the same issue on these computers.

re-created quick step groups

Ran outlook in Safe Mode (issue still present)

Unfortunately, I do not have access to EAC, however I do have contacts that do. so please include any possible solutions.

Has anyone experienced this recently and have a possible solution for us.

Let me know if you need more information.

Thank you and have a wonderful day!

Answer 1

Hi @Lahr, Ryan ，

Any luck if you run "Outlook /cleanviews" to clear all views?

We have tried different computers where other users have no issues with their email. Multiple workstations tried verifying other users are not having the same issue on these computers.

Do you mean the issue can be reproduced even when the user in question has the email account configured on other users' computers?

If this is the case, seems like the issue is with the user's mailbox itself rather than the Outlook client or the computer.

I have seen a similar issue on this forum in 2018 which the user does have quick steps configured however we tried creating new ones and removing the old ones and it still does not work right.

Came across a similar thread as well, see this link. This does make sense to me considering that quick steps are saved within the mailbox itself. Just wondering have you had a chance to try testing when there's no quick step at all? If haven't, I'd recommend removing all the quick steps temporarily, try it again to see how it goes.

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Answer 2

Hi @Lahr, Ryan ，

So, when the affected user logs in with their domain credentials on someone elses computer on the same domain they experience the same issue. The user who is assigned to this same computer does not have a similar issue. Other users have logged in on the affected users computer and they do NOT experience the same issue as the affected user.

Thanks for the clarification. Seems like the issue does go with the affected user.

In order to further narrow down whether there's something wrong with the user's mailbox, any chance to try adding the affected user's email account in a new Outlook profile on the normal users' computer (logged in with the normal user's domain credential)? Or when other users logged in on the affected user's computer, add the affected user's email account into the Outlook client. If there is no issue in this test, then it doesn't seem to be a problem with the user's mailbox, thus recreating the mailbox probably wouldn't help.

Besides, if the aforementioned "Outlook /cleanviews" switch doesn't work either, below are some other ideas I can come up with for your reference:

1. Switch between Exchange Online mode and Exchange cached mode to see if there's any difference.
2. I understand that you've already tried repairing and reinstalling Office with no luck, but in case it's due to some sort of bit version conflicts, I'd suggest trying to uninstall and then reinstall a different bit version of Office to see the result. (For instance, if the user is now using 32-bit version of Office, try reinstalling 64-bit instead.)
   Here's a thread which mentions about the office bit version in the last comment: The "To" field in field section is taking all the space in a new Outlook message window)
   

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