Reply All does not work showing "The operation failed" error

Anonymous
2022-02-06T18:14:06+00:00

Using Microsoft Outlook version 2201 (Preview Channel) I get the same error on two different computers when I use Reply All:

The operation failed. The messaging interfaces have returned an unknown error. If the problem persists, restart Oulook.

I already tried to restart outlook, change profile, create another profile, but the error continues.

Creating a new profile I also created a new .OST file, so I would exclude that the issue is a corrupt file.

The error does not show when I am connected to a personal Hotmail account. The error only shows up on my work account.

Because it happens now on two different computers (desktop and notebook) it does not seem something corrupted at the PC level.

Additional note: also ReplyAll from VBA (using Outlook.MailItem) failed, in that case without showing the dialog box UI.

The Reply and Forward buttons and corresponding VBA commands work regularly.

I also monitored with Process Explorer to see whether there are errors accessing Registry or File System, but I didn't see any particular error when I click "Reply All".

In the Event Viewer I have this entry in the Microsoft Office Alerts:

Microsoft Outlook

The operation failed.  The messaging interfaces have returned an unknown error. If the problem persists, restart Outlook.

P1: 301670

P2: 16.0.14827.20186

P3: 

P4: 0x80004005

My only suspect at this point is that there is something that happens with version 2201, but I don't know how to get more details about the error to investigate deeper. Any help would be welcome.

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-04-04T22:17:42+00:00

    cedricc,

    Where are you seeing the Global Address Book? If that is in the Portal, is it EAC or some other section? What I am seeing for Aliases is to go to the portal https://admin.microsoft.com/ then to Users, Active Users, and then click on the account and see the Aliases there (see image below). Does that show the same you are seeing in the Global Address Book?

    I checked with the team about PR_PROFILE_USER_MANAGED_ALIASES_W. It is stored in the registry of the profile encoded so we cannot see it with Regedit. There is an internal tool called PeekProfile and it is supposed to show it but I never found the aliases using that tool. The bug for the Reply All Operation Failed says that the max aliases Outlook could handle was 30. If you still repro and can remove some aliases down lower than 30 and test please do and see if that helps. The Outlook Team was supposed to remove this part of the feature until the alias issue could be fixed so we should not be seeing the issue as far as I know. I still want to make sure we are accounting for the aliases wherever they are stored though.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-04-07T13:10:47+00:00

    I wrote out the steps here to resolve this issue if anyone is interested.

    http://ctobob.com/2022/04/07/outlook-365-reply-all-not-working/

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-04-22T01:32:07+00:00

    Gabriel,

    It appears that creating a new Outlook profile doesn't always eliminate the problem. I have a number of accounts and a number of Outlook rules on several, so creating a new profile is a tedious process.

    Further, elsewhere there are reports that claim this error occurs when a Google Apps Sync for Outlook and an Exchange Server account are configured in the same profile. See: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/troubleshoot/profiles-and-accounts/operation-failed-send-email-outlook

    It turns out that I don't use Google Apps Sync for Outlook, so that isn't my problem. But since you didn't know that, I am even more skeptical that you have a full grasp of the problem. I am not trying to be rude here, but while I will be pleased to help Microsoft isolate the cause of it reporting an "unknown error" that is at best a mis-feature. I am reluctant to go through something that is, at best, going to make the error disappear in this one instance, but not get to the fundamental cause.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-04-22T13:42:31+00:00

    George,

    As far as I know we are not seeing any more reports of this issue after users create a new Outlook profile. We are not getting any support cases on this issue anymore. After the Outlook Team turned off this feature from the service there has not been any new occurrences of it. I know it's a huge pain, but the best course of action is to create the new Outlook profile.

    The issue with Google Apps Sync I also have not seen reports of in a long time. Sometimes different issues can cause the same error condition.

    If you have Office Subscription there is an option to create a support case from Outlook (Help, Contact Support). If you still see this issue after a new profile, then please open a support case so it can be investigated further.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-04-25T17:49:37+00:00

    I've had this issue for almost 3 months.

    The issue still exists for me. I've been working with support and I'm on my 5th profile.
    They gave instructions to move to the Beta Channel, I followed, but I was already on the beta channel.

    I have over 100 aliases.

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