Outlook "Stuck on top/Foreground". Issue is intermittent, and occurs usually after ~1 hour of use. Can be sooner

Anonymous
2019-08-27T03:07:13+00:00

Hi.

I have been having ongoing issues with Outlook for over 6 months, in which Outlook will become locked to the foreground.

Outlook has no add-ins enabled, and has been repaired, reinstalled, updated and downgraded many times.

The affected OS is a Windows Server 2016, functioning as a terminal server.

The affected users have two screens, and occasionally when a window is dragged to the same screen area as Outlook, Outlook will remain the foreground focus and the application being dragged will be "under/behind" the Outlook window.

This can also happen when the user is using a single screen.

This is not application specific, and even happens with the Outlook "New Email" window if popped-out from the Outlook client.

We have gathered numerous ETL logs and event logs and have come up with absolutely nothing.

Previously, the only known way to resolve the matter was to close and re-open Outlook.

However, strangely enough I have found that opening the options menu and closing it (Not changing any options, hitting either cancel or OK) will also resolve the issue.

From the options menu, we have tried with the following settings both enabled and disabled, with no luck on any setting:

  • Hardware Graphics Acceleration
  • Live Preview
  • Use Animations when expanding conversations and groups

We have tested the Email auto-configuration XML, and the MS partner support rep I was working with has confirmed that it is all okay.

I also provided him with screenshots of the connection status when Outlook is stuck, and we confirmed that all was OK there.

Another potential solution that was tried was unlocking and locking the taskbar. Both when the issue occurs and pro-actively.

We also recreated one of the users Outlook profile. This did not resolve the issue.

The issue is confirmed to not follow the user to other devices.

I'm sure there are more solutions that we have tried, that I have simply forgotten about during the length of this ticket.

At long last, the technician had advised me that I need to rebuild the affected server. This is not an option for us, as the server is used literally every single day inclusive of weekends, and the customer is entirely dependent on the running of this server.

I have now been advised by the technician to log a forum post here.

Please let me know if any other information should be required, but I feel this is quite extensive.

I do have recordings of the issue, and all ETL + Event logs.

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments

211 answers

Sort by: Newest
  1. Anonymous
    2021-06-10T13:14:50+00:00

    Same issue for us. Was there any reply form MS at all on this?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2021-05-25T14:02:10+00:00

    Hi OA_germany,

    I have opened a case a few days ago. Office support closed it and at the moment I'm awaiting Microsoft Windows support contacting me. Office support confirmed this is a known bug. 

    As soon as I have more information I will report it here.

    My assumption based on this forum is that the error only occurs with outlook 2016 on remote systems such as RDS, Citrix, VMware, Win10 Cloud multi-user. The error does not occur on our fat clients.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2021-05-25T13:45:51+00:00

    We had the same Problems!

    Terminal-Server W2K16 - Office 2016

    Outlook Stuck on foreground

    Outlook Fokus Problem

    Anyone there with a solution?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2021-05-10T11:57:59+00:00

    Just wanted to add my "me too". Citrix Terminal Server Farm 2012R2, Office 2016. When we migrated to the newer Citrix Farm without altering much on the Gold Image Usersstart to complain about Outlook being modal (always above other wndows) more and more. All that changed were the Citrix Client Components (which may have included new .NET versions) and a few Microsoft Updates... Maybe someone can share any other solutions that worked - or some long term experiences from those who fixed it already?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  5. Anonymous
    2021-03-25T14:24:24+00:00

    I wonder if this problem will be fixed before covid disappears...

    Don't worry, It doesn't look like covid will disappear in the next few years ;-)

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments