Recipients receiving an error when attempting to open an encrypted emails.

Question

Recipients receiving an error when attempting to open an encrypted emails.

Steve Mauer 0

We have recently started applying encryption to emails using sensitivity labels created in Purview. We have multiple users who started reporting that recipients can not open any of their encrypted emails. The error received is "Sorry, we can't display your message right now. Something went wrong and your encrypted message couldn't be opened. Please try again by following the instructions in the original email message in 5 minutes." Examining the URL from these emails receiving the error, the URL contains a domain in it that is not the recipients domain. When this issue is happening the sender is able to send working secure emails from OWA and the mobile app, just not from the Outlook desktop app. We have had it pop up on multiple users at random times after we pushed out the labels. The only known fix we have is to rebuild the senders windows profile. Wondering if anyone else has experienced this and has been able to find a resolution?

Ganesh Gurram 7,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-09T17:02:29.0833333+00:00

@Steve Mauer

The error message "Sorry, we can't display your message right now. Something went wrong and your encrypted message couldn't be opened" typically occurs when the Outlook desktop client fails to authenticate or access the required services to decrypt the message.

Potential Causes and Recommended Actions:

Creating new windows profile - Delete the affected user's Windows profile (or Outlook profile), and then recreate it. This forces the system to download a fresh set of user configurations, including Microsoft Purview policies and encryption settings.
Reference: Microsoft Docs – Encrypted message error

Conditional Access Policies - Conditional Access (CA) policies might be blocking access to Microsoft Information Protection endpoints. Review any CA policies to ensure services like Microsoft Azure Information Protection or Microsoft Information Protection are not inadvertently blocked.
Reference: More info on CA and sensitivity labels

Sensitivity Label Restrictions - If the applied sensitivity label is scoped to internal recipients only, external users may not be able to access the message. Review label encryption settings in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal to confirm that intended access is permitted. Reference: Configure encryption for sensitivity labels

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) - MFA requirements can affect external recipients if they are unable to complete the challenge. Outlook Web App and mobile clients often succeed in these cases because decryption is handled in the cloud.
Reference: External recipient can't open encrypted email

For more details refer to this similar thread: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/encrypted-message-sorry-we-cant-display-your/606285fb-98aa-414a-97c0-ac5602165621

I hope this information helps.

Kindly consider upvoting the comment if the information provided is helpful. This can assist other community members in resolving similar issues.
Ganesh Gurram 7,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-12T08:25:34.04+00:00

@Steve Mauer

We haven’t heard from you on the last response and was just checking back to see if you have a resolution yet. In case if you have any resolution please do share that same with the community as it can be helpful to others. Otherwise, will respond with more details and we will try to help.
Steve Mauer 0 Reputation points

2025-05-12T20:17:51.3033333+00:00

Hello,

I have not found a resolution yet.
Ganesh Gurram 7,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-12T22:00:59.16+00:00
@Steve Mauer - Thanks for the update.

According to this MS documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/troubleshoot/office-message-encryption/cannot-display-message

This problem occurs because the MIME types that are associated with the default Outlook Web App policy changed so that the text/html MIME type was removed or changed.

Solution:

To resolve this problem, reset the MIME types that are associated with the default Outlook Web App policy to the default values. To do this, follow these steps:

Connect to Exchange Online by using remote PowerShell. For more information about how to do this, see Connect to Exchange Online Using Remote PowerShell.

Run the following commands:

$owapolicy = Get-OwaMailboxPolicy

Set-OwaMailboxPolicy -AllowedMimeTypes @{remove = "text/html"} -BlockedMimeTypes @{remove = "text/html"} -ForceSaveMimeTypes @{add = "text/html"} -Identity $owapolicy.Identity

Note - It may take as long as 30 minutes for the changes to take effect.

For more details refer: Outlook Web App Mailbox Policy Procedures.

I hope this information helps.

Kindly consider upvoting the comment if the information provided is helpful. This can assist other community members in resolving similar issues.
Steve Mauer 0 Reputation points

2025-05-13T14:36:35.9933333+00:00

Hello,

That looks like it is just for OWA, our problem is with the desktop app. I did give it a try anyway though, it did not make any changes
Ganesh Gurram 7,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-14T17:24:09.9633333+00:00

@Steve Mauer

We haven’t heard from you on the last response and was just checking back to see if you have a resolution yet. In case if you have any resolution please do share that same with the community as it can be helpful to others. Otherwise, will respond with more details and we will try to help.
Ganesh Gurram 7,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-15T15:53:36.0233333+00:00

@Steve Mauer

Following up to see if the below answer was helpful. If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

1 answer

Your answer

Ganesh Gurram 7,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-12T08:25:34.04+00:00

@Steve Mauer

We haven’t heard from you on the last response and was just checking back to see if you have a resolution yet. In case if you have any resolution please do share that same with the community as it can be helpful to others. Otherwise, will respond with more details and we will try to help.
Steve Mauer 0 Reputation points

2025-05-12T20:17:51.3033333+00:00

Hello,

I have not found a resolution yet.
Ganesh Gurram 7,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-12T22:00:59.16+00:00

@Steve Mauer - Thanks for the update.

According to this MS documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/troubleshoot/office-message-encryption/cannot-display-message

This problem occurs because the MIME types that are associated with the default Outlook Web App policy changed so that the text/html MIME type was removed or changed.

Solution:

To resolve this problem, reset the MIME types that are associated with the default Outlook Web App policy to the default values. To do this, follow these steps:

Connect to Exchange Online by using remote PowerShell. For more information about how to do this, see Connect to Exchange Online Using Remote PowerShell.

Run the following commands:

$owapolicy = Get-OwaMailboxPolicy

Set-OwaMailboxPolicy -AllowedMimeTypes @{remove = "text/html"} -BlockedMimeTypes @{remove = "text/html"} -ForceSaveMimeTypes @{add = "text/html"} -Identity $owapolicy.Identity

Note - It may take as long as 30 minutes for the changes to take effect.

For more details refer: Outlook Web App Mailbox Policy Procedures.

I hope this information helps.

Kindly consider upvoting the comment if the information provided is helpful. This can assist other community members in resolving similar issues.
Steve Mauer 0 Reputation points

2025-05-13T14:36:35.9933333+00:00

Hello,

That looks like it is just for OWA, our problem is with the desktop app. I did give it a try anyway though, it did not make any changes
Ganesh Gurram 7,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-14T17:24:09.9633333+00:00

@Steve Mauer

We haven’t heard from you on the last response and was just checking back to see if you have a resolution yet. In case if you have any resolution please do share that same with the community as it can be helpful to others. Otherwise, will respond with more details and we will try to help.
Ganesh Gurram 7,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-15T15:53:36.0233333+00:00

@Steve Mauer

Following up to see if the below answer was helpful. If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

Answer 1

@Steve Mauer

Thanks for the update. Since the issue is specifically affecting the Outlook desktop app and not resolved by the previous steps, another likely cause is related to the permissions configured in the sensitivity label used for encryption.

Please check if the sensitivity label applied to the email includes permissions for external users. Update the label permissions to explicitly allow access to the intended external recipients.

If the issue persists, try the following troubleshooting steps:

Verify the recipient's email address Ensure the email was sent to the correct external email address and that the recipient is accessing the email using the same account.

Ask the recipient to open the email in Outlook on the Web (OWA) Sometimes, protected emails open more reliably in the browser version of Outlook.

Clear the Outlook cache On the affected machine, close Outlook and delete the contents of %localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook (do not delete the folder itself). Reopen Outlook and try accessing the email again.

Ensure the Azure Information Protection (AIP) client is up to date If the AIP unified labeling client is installed, verify it’s the latest version. Outdated clients can cause issues with reading protected messages.

Check for conflicting add-ins Disable any third-party Outlook add-ins that may interfere with message decryption and restart Outlook.

Hope this helps. Do let us know if you have any further queries.

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

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Recipients receiving an error when attempting to open an encrypted emails.

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