Outlook 2016 CPU usage running continuously at around 100%

Anonymous
2015-07-29T05:38:02+00:00

I recently purchased a Office 365 Business plan, and have installed the desktop Office 2016 apps. I am experiencing continuous high CPU utilization, causing the fan in my MacBook to run much of the time. Activity Monitor shows that Outlook is the culprit.

I have Outlook 15.11.2 and OS X 10.10.  I have one Exchange 2010 (SP2) accounts and two IMAP accounts. All are showing folders up to date, and mail is being sent & received normally.

I haven't noticed any issues with the other Office 2016 applications.

I have already tried creating a new identity and setting up accounts again from there (rather than importing from OUtlook 2011 which I did at first installation), but it did not help.

I have also installed the suite on my iMac, and experience the same issue there, so it is not specific to my laptop.

There is an earlier thread on this issue, started in 2014 and with posts up to mid July this year, with not a single response from MSFT. It is clear there is a bug here, as it stands I am going to have to abandon Outlook 2016 and revert to 2011, so if it can't be fixed I'd like a refund.

Outlook | MacOS | Legacy Outlook for Mac | For business

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Anonymous
2017-03-14T12:50:52+00:00

I tried every option listed in this thread - to no avail.

What worked for me was to turn off Dictation:  (System Preferences\Accessibility\Dictation) 

As soon as I did that, the CPU use returned to normal instantly.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-10-15T22:04:34+00:00

    I'm using OL 2013....same problem.  I don't think it's a version problem  But I can say this problem just started for me about 3 weeks ago.  It literally brings my computer to a stop...sometimes 2-3 minutes.  I've tried all of the suggestions in this thread and another I ran across.  this is a real problem...there should be a solution out there.  Crossing my fingers.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-10-06T16:06:58+00:00

    Same here with current version

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-09-08T10:48:07+00:00

    Thanks for the detailed explanation, Keith,

    unfortunately, it didn't help a thing for me, CPU usage is high again after the complete procedure, and also after trying what everyone else was already trying. So need to wait for Microsoft to fix the issue...

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-09-01T15:45:16+00:00

    I'm afraid this didn't help in my case. I have two installations of Outlook 2016 15.13.1 and both are running at about 100% of CPU load when idle. I went through and cleared all my follow up flags. It has made no difference.

    I also tried a new profile. No change.

    At this point I'm not using Outlook as it's killing my battery life - I'm accessing my Office 365 account through Mail.app and Calendar.app

    Here's hoping that eventually Microsoft will issue an update that fixes the issue.

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