Issue with Office.context.mailbox.item.body.getAsync API in New Outlook - Incomplete Email Thread Retrieval

Question

Issue with Office.context.mailbox.item.body.getAsync API in New Outlook - Incomplete Email Thread Retrieval

Ashwath Jadhav 0

Dear Microsoft Support,

I am currently developing an Outlook add-in and have encountered a inconsistency in the behavior of the Office.context.mailbox.item?.body.getAsync API between the classic and new versions of Outlook.

Current Behavior:

In classic Outlook, the API works as expected:

It retrieves the full content of the current email, including all previous messages in the thread.
This behavior is consistent in both read and compose modes.

In new Outlook, the behavior is inconsistent and problematic:

In read mode, the API only retrieves the content of the current message, excluding previous threads.
In compose mode, the API fails to retrieve any content at all.
Even when the email is opened in a full window, the API only reads the content above the vertical line (which separates the current message from the thread). It does not access any content below this line unless the user manually places the cursor there.

Expected Behavior:

The API should consistently retrieve the full email body, including all threaded messages, regardless of the Outlook version or mode (read/compose). This is essential for building robust and context-aware add-ins.

Request:

Please investigate this discrepancy and confirm whether this is a known issue or a limitation in the new Outlook. If it is a bug, I kindly request a fix or a recommended workaround to ensure consistent behavior across Outlook versions.

Thank you for your support.

1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Steven-N 2,755 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Ashwath Jadhav

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A forum support and apologize for the inconvenience

Based on your description, I understand that you've encountered inconsistent behavior when using the Office.context.mailbox.item?.body.GetAsync API across the classic and new versions of Outlook.

To better understand the issue and provide accurate troubleshooting guidance, I’d appreciate it if you could share a few additional details:

Could you let me know the source or documentation you’re referencing for this Outlook add-in API?
If possible, could you also provide the TypeScript definition or snippet of the API implementation you're currently using?

With this information, I’ll be better equipped to analyze the situation and offer a more precise solution or recommendation.

Thank you for understanding

Ashwath Jadhav 0 Reputation points

2025-07-01T05:58:50.0766667+00:00
Thank you for your response and for looking into this issue.

As requested, here are the official Microsoft documentation sources I referred to while implementing the Outlook add-in:

Get or set the body of a message or appointment in Outlook

Office.CoercionType Enum

Office.Body interface

Below is the TypeScript snippet I’m using to retrieve the email body:

`

export async function getEmailBody(isHtml: boolean = false): Promise<string> { return new Promise((resolve, reject) => { Office.context.mailbox.item?.body.getAsync( isHtml ? Office.CoercionType.Html : Office.CoercionType.Text, (asyncResult: Office.AsyncResult<string>) => { if (asyncResult.status === Office.AsyncResultStatus.Succeeded) { resolve(asyncResult.value); } else { reject(asyncResult.error?.message); } } ); }); }

Please let me know if you need any additional details to help investigate this further. I appreciate your support in resolving this.

Thanks
Steven-N 2,755 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-07-08T06:40:24.7433333+00:00

Hi Ashwath Jadhav

Thanks for replying and I am do apologize for the delayed response

I'm not certain whether the issue you're experiencing is still ongoing at this point. However, based on the information you've provided, I’ve conducted some research and testing within the scope of my own environment. I can now share the following insights with you:

The limitation of the Office.context.mailbox.item.body.getAsync API in the new Outlook experience is not a defect in the API itself, but rather a result of architectural changes in how Outlook renders and exposes email content. In classic Outlook, the entire email thread is rendered as a single HTML document, allowing the API to access all messages in the conversation. In contrast, the new Outlook isolates each message in the DOM and only renders the currently active message. This design improves performance and modularity but restricts programmatic access to previous messages in the thread.

Because of this rendering model, the API can only retrieve what is currently visible and initialized in the editor. In compose mode, if the user has not interacted with the body area, the editor may not be fully loaded, causing the API to return an empty string or partial content, that it is a platform-level limitation rather than a bug in the API.

You can find more insight at:

[javascript - Error calling Office.context.mailbox.item.body.getTypeAsync when reading an Outlook message - Stack Overflow ]

Issue: getAsync Returns <span> Instead of <div> When Retrieving Long Email Body in Outlook Add-in (Modern Browsers)

Note: Microsoft is providing this information as a convenience to you. The sites are not controlled by Microsoft. Microsoft cannot make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. Please make sure that you completely understand the risk before retrieving any suggestions from the above link

Hope my answer will help you

If you have any updates, feel free to let us know

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.
Ashwath Jadhav 0 Reputation points

2025-07-08T10:47:03.3566667+00:00

Hi Steven,

Thank you for your detailed explanation and for taking the time to investigate this behavior. I now understand that the limitation stems from architectural changes in how the new Outlook renders email threads.

That said, this limitation presents a significant challenge for developers. In the add-in I’m building, accessing the entire email thread is crucial, the add-in reads the full conversation and generates context-aware replies or summaries using on-device LLMs.

I have fully functional add-ins that rely on the Office.context.mailbox.item.body.getAsync API, which work seamlessly in the classic Outlook. Unfortunately, they no longer function as intended in the new Outlook.

The inability to access previous messages in a thread makes it extremely difficult to build intelligent and meaningful use cases. This significantly limits the potential of Outlook add-ins, particularly those leveraging AI to enhance user productivity.

Is there any supported method or alternative API available in the new Outlook that would allow programmatic access to the full conversation?

Looking forward to your guidance.

Thanks,
Ashwath
Steven-N 2,755 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-07-10T06:30:47.91+00:00

Hi Ashwath Jadhav

Thanks for replying

I understand that these limitations are affecting certain development capabilities, especially for developers working on LLMs and applying AI to improve productivity.

Personally, I truly wish I could provide you with a concrete solution to this issue. However, it seems the problem goes beyond my current capabilities. As a forum moderator, my role is to help guide discussions and share information based on Microsoft documentation and community knowledge. I don’t have access to internal product insights or the ability to provide a definitive answer from a developer’s perspective due to the limitations of my role.

That said, from my point of view, here are a few suggestions that might help you gain more clarity on this issue:

You could try raising this topic in the Microsoft Tech Community. This forum is more technically focused than Microsoft Q&A and brings together experts who may be able to offer deeper insights and guidance.

In case the Tech Community answer doesn’t fully address your concerns, I’d recommend following up directly on that thread to ask for clarification. And if you still need a more definitive answer, the best next step would be to open a Unified Support ticket here:

Link: Unified Support

Please note that this is a paid support ticket, which means it requires an active support plan or a one-time support purchase. However, the benefit of using this channel is that your inquiry will be routed directly to the Microsoft Product Group responsible for the specific service or feature in question. This team includes engineers and developers who work on the product itself, so they are best positioned to provide accurate, in-depth, and authoritative answers especially for complex or edge-case scenarios that go beyond publicly available documentation or community knowledge.

Hope you will solve the problem soon.

And if possible, could you consider Accepting this answer so that other users facing similar issues can benefit from the suggested approach, and together we can contribute to building a stronger and more helpful community.

Best Regards

Share via

Issue with Office.context.mailbox.item.body.getAsync API in New Outlook - Incomplete Email Thread Retrieval

1 answer

Your answer