Outlook - set of folders cannot be opened - unable to fix this error via any method

Anonymous
2021-11-14T11:31:50+00:00

Hello,

i have an issue i've been unable to resolve for a few weeks, maybe even months now.

I was setting up a new All-in-One PC for an employee at a company we do IT support for. The setup went without a problem, he has Windows 10 OS and a Microsoft 365 Business Standard license.
A week or two go by and he informs me hes getting the known error when opening Outlook - The set of folders cannot be opened. To simplify, I decided to create another mail profile. This seemingly resolved the issue but I get another call from him a few days later saying the same problem has occured. We repeat the process and create a 3rd email profile. The same error pops up again, even sooner (maybe a day or two). The most peculiar thing is (he has 3 or 4 profiles at this point) that if I keep swapping between the profiles randomly and trying to start Outlook, lets say 1 in 20 times it actually starts up.
So I start troubleshooting the issue with everything I could find on google.

A list of possible solutions I've tried to far:

  1. Starting outlook in safe mode - still does not start
  2. Disabling add-ins - did not help
  3. Reinstalling Office365 - did not help
  4. Repaired Office365 - did not help
  5. I believe i've tried some other repair/scan tools but nothing ammounted to anything

At this point I figured it might have to be something on his domain profile, so we delete the local profile and recreate it, the error still appears.

We replace his new PC with his older one on which everything works without any problems. We try creating a local account on his co-workers account, Outlook works fine there.

So a few days ago I decide to just reinstall the windows again hoping it would solve the issue (I did the reset with keeping the personal files). I install Outlook, it opens up. To test it out I close it down and try to re-open it - im hit with the error. I create a new profile again and manage to open Outlook exactly once, when i close it down and reopen the error hits me again. Just to make sure i repeat the process a 3rd time, same result - so in short whenever i create a new profile i manage to start up Outlook exactly once before the error appears.

At this point I'm out of ideas on what to try, I plan to bring another machine, domain join it and create his profile on it to see if the problem repeats - so far this only happens on 1 machine, on 2 others in the same domain it works fine.

Is there any reason this could be a hardware issue? Because thats the only thing that somewhat makes sense to me altho on the other hand I can't imagine it being hardware related. The OS and O365 are all updated.

Thanks for any advice or input in advance

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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Anonymous
2022-02-21T18:49:57+00:00

Had the same problem

These steps fixed it.

If updating the Outlook application was not able to fix the error in Outlook “the set of folders cannot be opened” then you have to recreate the Outlook email profile. This method has helped many users to fix the error. 

  1. Go to the Windows search bar and type regedit. This will launch the Registry Editor.
  2. Then, navigate to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Profiles (Outlook 2019,2016)
  3. Now delete all the folders listed under Profiles.

Note: If you are using a different version of Outlook this will change as follows. Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.

  4. Restart the computer.

  5. Relaunch Outlook and recreate your email profile.

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-07-17T20:02:27+00:00

    My issue is that i get the "cannot load Outlook profile" message and have to do the regedit EVERY single time I shut down my computer. For example, I open in the morning, I do the regedit, delete the profile, restart the computer, reload both profiles ,start outlook. Next day, when I start the computer again, we are back to square one with the error message. How can I stop having to do this every day?

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-04-05T07:57:40+00:00

    When I got this message, ](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/fd55a9f2-0a79-44eb-9013-72e101589001?platform=QnA&fud_access=wJJIheezUklbAN2ppeDns8cDNpYs3nCYjgitr%2BfFBh2dqlqMuW7np3F6Utp%2FKMltnRRYFtVjOMO5tpbpW9UyRAwvLeec5emAPixgq9ta07Dgnp2aq5eJbnfd%2FU3qhn54723lBZPCvEd%2FU4TD%2Bmda1soDFR5PO1%2FLWqz7%2BHKFi654q%2FXxvbty9mwRGkANtmZDGx89Uep2JsX4yYDWgjo57zQBazlhJV2Kbdc7ewSaDiBOgXaA4nou4XtNp9hVWBsnR1RJOlDUn9CCe%2FkuGSDjdqDqA9nB6eSp79RXnlEFqKnEsJ4z%2B06ZD%2FFC3MWD1U4nBaU6132kl0u3waaKGc72q%2BVWaPgxN2JmKLfuxZde8Wpi13Qqt2AbCG0G0tvzhpoKwFYur84nQjlLYZOplza8KqRwI7qB00Ik7p8adlASsa8%3D "answers.microsoft.com")the answer was there was a problem with the profile stored by Outlook. Thanks to [Alberto-cruz 's answer here, for putting me on the right track by suggesting deleting the Outlook profile from the Windows Registry. Unfortunately on Windows 11 Microsoft doesn't always store the profile where you'd expect, Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Profiles . In my situation I have a perpetual license to Office 2021, I work for a consultancy firm which uses Microsoft 365, and I'm the admin, admittedly an amateur of a small nonprofit radio station. This means I could login to Office, Outlook and Teams with any of two personal accounts or two work accounts, and my license was separate from that. I'm guessing that's why the profile wasn't in the usual place in the Windows Registry? I also have access to several shared mailboxes for the radio station which (according to several answers elsewhere) seem to contribute to profile problems sometimes.

    Anyway, I discovered that even if Outlook crashes immediately after launch, if you hold down SHIFT and then launch Outlook it opens a profile manager. You could probably create a new profile here, and then sign into your accounts from that. I didn't try, instead I deleted my profile, and created a new one, that got things working right away.

    For additional help and understanding you may find this article on Outlook email profiles useful,

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/overview-of-outlook-email-profiles-9073a8ac-c3d6-421d-b5b9-fcedff7642fc 

    Further, the Microsoft Support and recovery assistant at

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/about-the-microsoft-support-and-recovery-assistant-e90bb691-c2a7-4697-a94f-88836856c72f?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us#ID0ED6=Outlook

    specifically "Troubleshoot Outlook won't start issue" might magically fix your problem, Microsoft troubleshooters are reliable and safe. I only found that after I solved my problem.

    Best of luck and here's hoping this helps.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-11-05T13:55:19+00:00

    Thanks so much - was tearing my hair out trying to get this sorted but this worked a treat - thanks Alberto!!

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-09-01T08:31:00+00:00

    Why is the standard reply "create a new profile" for all manner of Outlook failings?
    We are CONSTANTLY bombarded with "new look", "fresh design" rubbish, pointless changes when the basics of email storage are terrible.

    Microsoft, fix your flaky program before [OT removed]

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