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Actionable message doesn't automatically refresh in the Outlook reading pane

  • Article
  • Applies to:
    Outlook for Microsoft 365

Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

  1. A recipient of an actionable message in Outlook for Microsoft 365 opens the message in a pop-out window.

  2. The recipient performs an action on the actionable message in the pop-out window that causes the message to update. For example, a recipient selects an Approve button in the message, and the following text then appears next to the button: "Your request is approved".

In this scenario, although the user action updates the actionable message in the pop-out window, the reading pane view of the message doesn't automatically refresh to reflect the latest state of the message.

Cause

Outlook refreshes the reading pane view of an actionable message based on a combination of:

Outside the specific combinations that are described in the "More information" section of this article, the reading pane might not refresh.

Resolution

If the actionable message defines the autoInvokeAction property, recipients can resolve this issue by saving the pop-out window view of an actionable message. That procedure triggers an automatic refresh of the Outlook reading pane view, as described in "Scenario A" in the "More information" section of this article.

Note

You can use the Actionable messages debugger for Outlook add-in to check whether an actionable message defines the autoInvokeAction property. Developers of actionable messages can use the Microsoft Actionable Message Designer to define the autoInvokeAction property.

Workaround

If the actionable message doesn't define the autoInvokeAction property, recipients can work around this issue by manually refreshing the Outlook reading pane view. Refer to "Scenario B" in the "More information" section of this article.

More information

After a recipient updates an actionable message in a pop-out window, Outlook refreshes the reading pane view of the message in the following scenarios.

Scenario A: Actionable message defines the autoInvokeAction property

In this scenario, the adaptive card payload in the actionable message defines the autoInvokeAction property, and the recipient performs either of the following procedures:

  • Saves the pop-out window view of the actionable message.

  • Reopens the actionable message in the reading pane. For example, by opening a different message in the reading pane and then switching back to the actionable message.

Note

The autoInvokeAction property provides an HTTP service endpoint for Outlook to retrieve an up-to-date actionable message. Depending on your organization's implementation of the HTTP service, the provided actionable message might have a state that's based on the cumulative actions of all recipients.

Scenario B: Actionable message doesn't define the autoInvokeAction property

In this scenario, the adaptive card payload in the actionable message doesn't define the autoInvokeAction property, and the recipient performs either of the following procedures:

  • Closes the pop-out window, opens a different message in the reading pane, and then reopens the actionable message in the reading pane.

  • Restarts Outlook, and then reopens the actionable message in the reading pane.

Note

If the adaptive card doesn't define the autoInvokeAction property, Outlook refreshes the reading pane view by displaying the latest actionable message that the recipient previously opened in Outlook.