classic desktop outlook email problem

Question

in clssic outlook desktop email, sometimes when sending an email, error says operation cannot be performed because item has changed. Also happens when try to move email into a folder. Need fix, not work-around

Answer 1

Hi Jack Knoedl

I’m sorry you’re experiencing this incident in classic Outlook. I understand how disruptive it can be when the message appears both while sending email and moving messages to folders.

This message can occur when Outlook’s local copy of an item is no longer synchronized with the version stored on the mail server. Since you are looking for a fix rather than a temporary workaround, please try the following in order:

• In classic Outlook, select File > Office Account > Update Options > Update Now, install any available Windows updates, and then restart the computer.
• Close Outlook, press Windows key + R, enter outlook.exe /safe, and press Enter. Test sending and moving messages. If the issue does not occur in Safe Mode, open File > Options > Add-ins > Manage: COM Add-ins > Go, disable third-party add-ins, and then re-enable them one at a time to identify the conflicting add-in.
• If the incident continues, create a new Outlook profile from Control Panel > Mail > Show Profiles > Add. Add the email account, open Outlook with the new profile, allow the mailbox to finish synchronizing, and test again. Please keep the existing profile until you have confirmed that all mailbox and local data are available in the new profile.

If the same issue also occurs with a new profile and all third-party add-ins disabled, please let me know whether the account is Microsoft 365/Exchange, Outlook.com, or IMAP, and whether the affected messages are in the primary mailbox, a shared mailbox, an archive, or a local PST file. This will help determine whether the remaining cause is mailbox-side synchronization or simultaneous modification by another connection.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Yes". 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.