Outlook 365 crashing on Server 2016

Question

Three terminal servers all with the same error today, all using Microsoft Office 365 and Server 2016:

“The required file react-native-win32.dll cannot be found in your path. Install Microsoft Outlook again.”

“Microsoft Outlook has stopped working”

“A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Please close the program.”

A quick repair, a full repair, even uninstalling, rebooting and installing again didn’t fix the issue. On one server I uninstalled all of the recent security patches and rebooted, but no change.

I rolled it back to 5th December 2024 using the command below and it seems to be stable again:

cd %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun
officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.18227.20152

Answer 1

Here is the Known issue article, Classic Outlook and Microsoft 365 applications crashing on Windows Server 2016 - Microsoft Support.

I am added some steps to the Known Issue article. Here are some steps if you need to revert specific machines.

1. Open a Command Prompt in Administrator context.
2. Type or paste the two commands into the Command Prompt window and press Enter after each:

cd %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun

officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.18227.20162

1. To prevent Office updating back to the latest build you can turn off updates by clicking File, Office Account, Update Options, Disable Updates.
2. Put a reminder on your calendar for February 11^th^ to re-enable updates.  Or, check back on this Known Issue in case it is addressed sooner.

The builds to revert are taken from the Update History page, Update history for Microsoft 365 Apps (listed by date).

Answer 2

I have the same issue. Unfortunately, rolling back using the command line doesn't do anything: it returns immediately without displaying anything and the problem persists. It may be because I'm using the 32-bit version of Office which I need since some 32-bit apps communicate with it.

I hope Microsoft fixes this issue quickly because email on my server is hosed!

Answer 3

Hi:

Can someone provide instructions to roll back the update and avoid automatic updates while the problem is solved?

Answer 4

Am also experiencing this on Windows Server 2016

Uninstalled the aforementioned update and followed rolling back Office which fixed it for me.

Answer 5

To help with investigating/discoverability please share the Event 1001 crash event from the Windows Event Viewer Application log.

This is currently tracked in the M365 service health dashboard as MO978220.

Some users' Microsoft 365 applications may be unexpectedly crashing on Windows Server 2016 devices

Issue ID: MO978220

Affected services: Microsoft 365 suite

Status: Service degradation

Issue type: Advisory

Start time: Jan 13, 2025, 2:56 AM CST

User impact

Users' Microsoft 365 applications may be unexpectedly crashing on Windows Server 2016 devices.

Scope of impact

Impact is specific to some users who are served through the affected infrastructure.

Current status

Jan 13, 2025, 8:51 AM CST

We're continuing our analysis of system logs and reported affected user details to determine our next steps towards remediation.

Next update by:

Monday, January 13, 2025 at 2:00 PM CST