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Troubleshooting in Outlook: Microsoft Outlook not working? List of the most common reasons and how to solve them

Even if Outlook is one of the most stable and widely used email platforms of the world, It is not impossible that at some point it suffers a failure, fall or damage.

The range of failures that can occur is so wide ranging from a simple internet crash to an Outlook server crash, so it is important to know what may be happening if your Outlook is not working.

On this note, we list the possible failures that may be interfering with the normal functioning of the email platformWe will also teach you the most common causes of them and the ways to solve them.

The most common reasons why Outlook is not working and how to fix them

exist many potential causes why Outlook may be presenting a trouble. Most of these reasons have to do primarily with connection difficulties or outdated Outlook-related programs. For this reason, Most of these drawbacks have solutions that can be applied directly by the user.

Here are the most common problems that can occur in the desktop version of Outlook:

Outlook won’t open

Relatively frequently, Outlook presents the message “Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Can’t open Outlook window ”.

This error message can occur for the following reasons:

  • Trouble in the panel navigation.

What to do when Outlook won

  • Defects in one or more accessories.
  • Profile from outlook damaged.

These are the top three causes of the error message in Outlook. Each of the possible causes has a method to be solved, and the solutions are adapted to work in the written versions of Outlook 2010, 2013 and 2016.

The first method is to restart the navigation pane, as follows:

  • From the desk of Windows, press the key combination “Windows + R” to open the text box “Run”.

How to fix bugs in Outlook

  • Login in the text box the command outlook.exe /resetnavpane and click “Accept”.
  • Start Outlook.

This command resets the Outlook navigation pane to factory settings and returns them to a setting in which it does not interfere with the use of the program, thus letting you open Outlook normally. The second method focuses on identifying faulty plug-ins.

This task can only be done through the safe mode, so it is necessary to activate it before starting to repair the add-ons:

  • On the Windows desktop screen, open the Windows “Run” by means of the key combination “Windows + R”

How to start Outlook without add-ins

  • Enter the command outlook.exe /safe and select “Accept”.
  • Start Outlook in mode safe, no add-ons.

Yes Outlook starts normally, the problem resides in one of the plugins, so you will have to access these to disable them. This action is completely harmless to the normal operation of Outlook.

To do this, the procedure is as follows:

  • click in the tab “Archive” and enter “Options”.

Add-in options in Outlook

  • Choose the option “Accessories” and click “Go”.
  • Remove the check marks of all accessories for disable them.
  • Restart Outlook normally out of safe mode.

Another reason why Outlook can fail, it is because a mishap has occurred with the user profile, and it needs to be repaired.

Fortunately, Outlook has a tool that allows you to perform this action and you can access it through the following procedure:

  • Open the Outlook app on your computer.
  • Login to the tab “Archive” .

How to repair accounts in Outlook

  • Enter the option “Setting” and access “Account settings”.
  • Enter the tab “Email” and click on your profile.
  • Select the button “Repair”.

The Outlook Profile Repair Wizard will guide the rest of the process, after which you must restart outlook to check that it is working properly.

Outlook freezes on “Processing” screen

In certain cases, Outlook freezes on a screen of “Processing”, preventing you from accessing your inbox and total use of your Outlook account.

The procedure to solve this problem is relatively simple:

  • Close the application of Outlook.
  • Open the box “Run” pressing “Windows + R”.
  • Enter the command Outlook /safe, and select “Accept”.

How to exit Outlook correctly

  • Start Outlook in mode sure.
  • Close Outlook again and reopen it without safe mode.

Once the process is finished, the Outlook application should open normally and allow you to access your inbox and other user folders.

Connection failure

This reason is one of the most common and simple to solve, since more than a problem with Outlook, it is a failure of the computer connection.

The main actions you should take are the following:

  • Check the connection of the team.
  • Use Windows’ built-in troubleshooter, by right clicking on the icon “Internet access” and selecting the option “Solve problems”.

Internet troubleshooter interface in Windows 10

  • Check the connecting network cables.

If the problem is not found in the internet connection, you can try to repair the Outlook profile by means of the following procedure:

  • Enter the Outlook application on your computer.
  • click in the tab “Archive”.
  • Choose the option “Setting” and enter “Account settings”.

Outlook account setup

  • Choose the tab “Email” and enter your profile.
  • click on the button “Repair”.

I can not log in

This situation occurs when you try to log into your Outlook account, only to find that the app doesn’t allow it.

This failure can arise for several reasons and has several forms of solution, among which the following stand out:

  • Restart the device.
  • Check connection to Internet.
  • check Password.
  • Log in on a different account.
  • Enable safe mode of Outlook.
  • Reset your password, by clicking on the option “I forgot my password”, after which you must resolve the captcha, perform the identity check and follow the instructions.

Error sending emails

Yes when trying to send an email it gets stuck in the outbox, it could mean a connection failure or a problem with the weight of the attachment.

To solve this type of problem, the steps to follow are the following:

  • Follow the path “Sending or receiving> Work offline.”
  • Choose “Outbox” in the navigation pane.

Work offline in Outlook

  • Delete the message by clicking on it and selecting the option “Remove”.
  • If you see a message saying that you are trying to get the message across, close Outlook.

Delete messages in Outlook application

  • Open Outlook again and retry delete the message.
  • One time removed, repeat the route “Sending or receiving> Work offline” to reconnect Outlook to network.

Outlook works slowly

East Issue regularly affects Outlook on unmaintained computers. To solve this problem, the best thing you can do is to clear the inbox to avoid the overfeeding of files.

To solve this problem in Outlook, it is necessary to activate the automatic archiving of messages:

  • Follow the route “File> Options> Advanced”.

Auto-archive option in Outlook

  • Enters in option “Autoarchive” and click “AutoArchive Settings”.
  • click in “Run autoarchive every number of days” and select how often the function will run.

Can also modify the action to be performed, a possible modification is delete messages instead of archiving them.