Outlook: Cannot move the items. The operation cannot be performed because the message has been changed.

If your problem still hasn't been solved, I suggest you submit a feedback (if you haven't done so yet). See how do I give feedback on Microsoft Office?

This is to let Microsoft developer team know your problems and improve the products and services.

Before I reply to you, I tried to search for similar questions in Microsoft community and I came across this: "The operation cannot be performed because the message has been - Microsoft Community

Most of the methods I suggest you try are what I found from the responses below. I'm unable to reproduce your issue on my own computer, so I'm not sure what exactly is causing this problem. But I think they might be helpful, so I listed them here.

In theory, Microsoft 365 should be updated automatically indeed, but in fact I just manually updated my Microsoft 365 to the latest version last week because the automatic update didn't work. That's why I suggest you to check the Office version.

If you haven't tried 1-6 yet, try it. Due to limited conditions and that the post was published long ago, I can't guarantee that your problem will be solved immediately; but it is worth a try.

Also, there's another way: removing third-party add-ins (especially add-ins from Adobe) in File > Options > Add-ins > Manage COM Add-ins(Need to Click "Go"), as the post mentioned above says.

If this problem still can't be solved, please tell me if your e-mail is IMAP, POP3 or Microsoft Exchange account, with the steps how you try (You can record it with steps recorder).

Thanks for your reply with so many actions - unfortunately none of them address the issue I have posted about. I think you have misunderstood my original post.

This error does not concern emails that I create. It is occurring when I try to move an email that I have received. I am trying to move it from the inbox to a folder.

I am using Outlook 365 which is automatically updated.

This is not a problem specific to me - many other people suffer from this bug. It is a bug in the software which needs to be fixed. In the long distant past I did your items 7-11, I am not going to do them again because they are irrelevant to this problem.

I hope this information helps you understand the problem better.

Hello , Lson5

Welcome to Microsoft Community and appreciate your time taken for sharing detailed information. I know it is annoying when you can't move a message to another folder, especially when this issue lasts for so long.

There are various reasons for such an error to occur. You can try the following methods (please click the link to view the specific steps)

1. Write an email, save it as a draft, and wait a few minutes before sending the email, or close Outlook and reopen it in a few minutes.

2. Use Word or NotePad to write email. Copy the email content and paste it to Outlook.
3. Restore all the emails in deleted items to the inbox.
4. Uncheck When a reply modifies a message, don’t move the original **** (This option is under File > Options > Mail > Conversational Clean Up) **** and click OK on the bottom **** to save the settings. Or simply uncheck all options under Conversational Clean Up and click OK.
5. Check Automatically save items that have not been sent after this many minutes (This option is under File > Options > Mail > Save messages), set a time on the right, and click OK.
6. Check your Outlook version. If it is not the latest version, update to the latest version first.
7. Run Outlook in Safe Mode.
8. Repair Outlook.
9. Disable email scanning in your antivirus software.
10. Download and run the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant and follow the prompts to resolve the issue.
11. Re-install your Outlook.

Feel free to post back if you have any additional questions.

Best Regard,

Yuhao Li| Microsoft Community Support Specialist