Outlook crashes when drafting emails

Hello,

Good day.

Thank you for posting in the community.

We've received your query and you can expect to receive a response from one of our community moderators accordingly.

At this point, we appreciate your patience and cooperation. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Community moderator

Hello Emily C_817,

Good day.

Thank you for posting in the community.

First please make sure that your Windows Operating System does not have any integrity issues:

Open Command Prompt as Administrator (Start Menu > Type CMD > right-click the Command Prompt and choose Run as Administrator.

In the Command Prompt type sfc /scannow and press enter. Wait and see the result. Please proceed with the next steps.

• Safe Mode:
  • First, try opening Outlook in Safe Mode. Press Windows + R, type Outlook /safe, and click OK.
  • If Outlook doesn’t crash or hang in Safe Mode, it indicates that an add-in might be causing the issue.
  • If the problem persists, proceed to the next steps.
• Check for Add-In Issues:
  • Go to File > Options > Add-Ins.
  • Under COM Add-ins, click Go.
  • Disable any third-party add-ins and restart Outlook to see if the issue persists.
• Repair Office Programs: Repair an Office application
  • Sometimes repairing Office can resolve issues. You can do this through the Control Panel:
    1. Open Control Panel.
    2. Go to Programs and Features (or Add or Remove Programs).
    3. Find Microsoft Office in the list, right-click, and choose Change.
    4. Select Repair and follow the prompts.
• Check for Antivirus Conflicts:
  • Temporarily disable any antivirus software and see if Outlook behaves better.
  • Some antivirus programs can interfere with Outlook’s functionality.
• Create a New Outlook User Profile: Create an Outlook profile
  • Sometimes a corrupted profile can cause issues. Create a new profile and see if the problem persists.
• Outlook SaRa Tool:
  • Download and run the Outlook Support and Recovery Assistant (SaRa).
  • It can diagnose and fix common Outlook issues. You can download it here.

If none of these steps resolve the issue, please provide additional details such as:

1. Any recent changes to your Office setup?
2. Specific characteristics of the draft emails (large attachments, special formatting, etc.).
3. The version of your Outlook client (you can find this under File > Office Account).

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. I look forward to hearing from you.

Please understand that our initial response may not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

Best regards,

Community Moderator

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I followed your advice but was still not able to resolve the issue and Outlook SaRa was not able to help either.

Outlook still shut down in "Safe Mode" so I don't think the problem is with Add-Ins.

For additional details -

1. Any recent changes to your Office setup? No, but I have had this issue before and it has gone away on its own. However, this time it has lasted several days.
2. Specific characteristics of the draft emails (large attachments, special formatting, etc.). Nothing unusual, even just writing text only with no special formatting or attachments will cause the crash
3. The version of your Outlook client (you can find this under File > Office Account). Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise

Emily, did this issue ever resolve for you? I am experiencing something similar in my environment with Outlook stalling out when saving drafts.

The issue still pops up from time to time, but I have found that switching to the "New Outlook" using the switch in the top right corner under the close window X and then switching back will fix the forced closing.