Outlook 365 delete key on keyboard deletes message rather than text when using Preview Pane feature

Anonymous
2020-07-16T16:45:09+00:00

Recently, when I am drafting an email from the preview pane, if I hit the delete key on my keyboard as I am typing, it will delete the entire message rather than the text I wish to delete. If you hit delete multiple times (as you would if you need to delete a few words) before you realize it the first delete button press deletes your current draft email, puts you back in your inbox. Each subsequent delete key press deletes emails from your inbox before you realize what is going on.

Only mitigation is to pop out the draft email and the delete keyboard function works as designed.

Is there a setting that was added recently for the above use case? This is horrible and pretty much negates the purpose of using the preview pane in Outlook as it was designed.

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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Anonymous
2020-07-23T14:19:27+00:00

The Outlook Team had a bug with this issue previously.  It was fixed in version 16.0.13001.10000.  What version is your Outlook (File, Office Account, under About Outlook)?

If you have a version higher than above it should be fixed.  Its possible there is a new issue though if you are still seeing it.  In case you have the option to open a ticket click Help, Contact Support.  Not everyone has that but please check if you do.

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-09-16T13:59:26+00:00

    So, my question is when the mail gets deleted, how do i get it back, cos i cant find it in the deleted folder.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-08-27T19:48:49+00:00

    I just started having this issue in the past two days. Had never experienced it before. We're subscribed to Office 365 so we should always have the latest and greatest.

    I tried a suggestion from a very long time ago, because it's not just the delete button, it's also suddenly not letting me Ctrl+C copy text from an email unless I'm editing a new email reply. The suggestion was Go to File > Options > Mail > Reading Pane... > turn off Single key reading using space bar. I don't know what "Single key reading using space bar" even means. Anyway, it didn't work.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-08-12T19:07:47+00:00

    This just happened to me on August 12, 2021 after updating to the latest patch (Version 2106 Build 14131.20278). Is there a hotfix for this issue available?

    @Joey Dong MSFT

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-06-15T00:41:40+00:00

    This just happened to me on June 13, 2021. It is something I immediately noticed and do not know how to fix it.

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