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.

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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
    2020-08-13T15:42:57+00:00

    Hi Gabriel,

    I got a new laptop on Monday and started using Outlook on Tuesday this week. I'm also using 13029.20308. The use case is simple:

    1- Reply to a message (do no Pop Out)

    2- Start typing

    3- Press the Delete key

    Result: The message is deleted instead of a character.

    This does not happen if Pop Out the edited message to a new window.

    This is a constant issue, not an intermittent one, i.e., it happens for all messages, all the time. 

    It seems your bug is back!

    Thanks,

    Daniel

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-08-13T15:54:06+00:00

    Thanks Daniel.  In your repro step 2 do you highlight any text to delete or are you deleting a line?  Does it matter how you delete the text?  Does it happen if you hit delete regardless of selecting any text?

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-08-13T16:11:12+00:00

    Hi Gabriel,

    This happens consistently:

    • Without any text selected
    • With a word selected
    • With a paragraph selected

    So, selecting text or not does not matter. Cheers.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-08-14T16:31:06+00:00

    Although I don't have the latest build in which the bug was supposedly fixed (doesn't seem to be the case based on the above messages), I can confirm that it's a random behaviour: sometimes it works as expected, most other times not. I run into this issue so many times a day and it's really killing my Outlook experience, which was quite satisfactory until this bug.

    My laptop will soon die from all the times I hit it in frustration from this bug ;)

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