How to fix "Operation cannot be performed because message has been changed" message. when using Outlook and Gmail.

Anonymous
2020-04-21T11:53:43+00:00

Over the last two years, I have been using Outlook 2013, now Office 365. I've been experiencing an ongoing issue where I receive this message "Operation cannot be performed because message has been changed" message.  Typical scenarios: 1) A new email arrives in my Outlook inbox. I preview, or read the email. I attempt to delete the email. Operation cannot... message appears.  I either type a new email, or reply to an email, go on to another task leaving the draft until later. When I return to the draft email, complete the email, and attempt to send the email, Operation cannot... message appears. I also cannot even save the draft, same error message. This is the worst part of this bug, as I've wasted/lost the time effort spent on the draft email.

I have run the Office repair utilities. I have tried unchecking the email cleanup boxes, and a variety of fixes recommended on these Microsoft answers communities. I've noticed sometimes when I come back to a message, it does allow me to move/delete the message. It's like there's a sync issue that needs time to resolve. However, nothing appears to work when a draft message gets hung in this loop. I have to start over with a new reply email.

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-07-15T02:09:30+00:00

    I have the same issue with IMAP accounts (not GMail)

    I too have tried the email cleanup fix, adding INBOX to the Root Folder path, deleting the user profile and account. Nothing seems to fix it.

    The issue only occurs with Office 365/Outlook 2016 and not Outlook 2013.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-04-21T16:42:46+00:00

    PS, There is no >more settings under account settings. 

    Options are: 

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-04-21T16:37:00+00:00

    Company has G Suite, so Google/Gmail hosts our email. I was using Office 2013 up until last week, now using Office 365. 

    The conversation clean up check box you referenced was unchecked. I've tried that before. I've also tried creating a new profile. Same result. I have not tried moving my inbox to the Root Folder Path because I don't fully understand these instructions: (If your all folders disappear, simply remove INBOX from here)

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-04-21T16:20:22+00:00

    This works on about half the messages.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-04-22T14:02:32+00:00

    Thank you for the information, but I should have been more clear in stating my concerns. I don't understand the part about "(If your all folders disappear, simply remove INBOX from here)"

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