Outlooks keep crashing

Catherine Stannard 140 Reputation points
2026-06-30T07:23:10.6566667+00:00

When i go to send an email, try to right click on a spelling mistake or add a snapshot - The email crashes and closes down not even saving into drafts? please can anyone advise?

Moderator note: thread updated with version of Outlook (classic Outlook for Windows)

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For business
Answer accepted by question author
James Burney 150 Reputation points
2026-06-30T09:02:53.4133333+00:00

We have some users that were affected by this issue. The version was 20026.20182. Typical fixes such as Quick Repair did not resolve the issue.

Updating to the latest version of Office apps resolved the issue for the users. The latest version is 20131.20090 and was released on June 25.

To update the apps on one machine, go to: Outlook > File > Office Account > Update Options > Update Now

Was this answer helpful?

100+ people found this answer helpful.

14 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Mika 0 Reputation points
    2026-07-08T13:52:33.6433333+00:00

    Hello everyone,

    our company is experiencing almost the same issues, but the trigger appears to be different. No matter what we do, Classic Outlook keeps freezing — even when simply scrolling through emails. It happens regardless of how Outlook is being used.

    We have been analyzing and testing possible causes for more than a week now.

    At the moment, the most effective workaround for us is switching users to the new Outlook. However, while it does not suffer from the freezing issues, it comes with other problems of its own.

    The issue mainly affects one department within the company, but it seems to be spreading to other users as well. For some users, Outlook freezes only once per day; for others, it freezes every 30 seconds.

    We did not deploy any updates ourselves. The problem simply appeared overnight from Sunday to Monday last week.

    After performing an Online Repair, Outlook worked normally for a few hours for some users, but then suddenly became unusable again.

    Troubleshooting steps already attempted

    • Restarting Outlook
    • Restarting Outlook multiple times
    • Office Online Repair
    • Complete Office reinstallation
    • Downgrading to the following versions:
      • 2606 (Build 20131.20112)
        • 2606 (Build 20131.20090)
          • 2605 (Build 20026.20182)
            • 2605 (Build 20026.20168)
              • Even Outlook 2401 (Build 17231.20182)
              • Deleting: 
                             HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs
              • Temporarily disabling and immediately re-enabling the setting: "Turn on shared calendar improvements"
    • Setting RestUpdatesForCalendar to 1 in the registry: 
        HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options\Calendar
      • Uninstalling Windows Updates:
        • KB5074109
          • KB5073724
    • Deleting and recreating the PST file

    At this point, we are running out of ideas. Has anyone found a root cause or a reliable workaround for this issue?

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
  2. Abel Llamas 0 Reputation points
    2026-07-02T15:05:43.6666667+00:00

    Running the latest update, Version 2606 Build 16.0.20131.20112) , We still are getting prompted if we would like to start in Safe Mode. Either answer results in the program not opening. Same issue that started last Friday and hit majority of our user base on Monday morning.

    Log Name: Application

    Source: Microsoft Office 16

    Date: 7/2/2026 10:01:53 AM

    Event ID: 2001

    Task Category: None

    Level: Error

    Keywords: Classic

    User: N/A

    Computer:

    Description:

    Microsoft Outlook: Rejected Safe Mode action : Outlook couldn't start last time. Safe mode could help you troubleshoot the problem, but some features might not be available in this mode.

    Do you want to start in safe mode?.

    Event Xml:

    <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

    <System>

    <Provider Name="Microsoft Office 16" />

<EventID Qualifiers="0">2001</EventID>

<Version>0</Version>

<Level>2</Level>

<Task>0</Task>

<Opcode>0</Opcode>

<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>

<TimeCreated SystemTime="2026-07-02T15:01:53.8805539Z" />

<EventRecordID>21018</EventRecordID>

<Correlation />

<Execution ProcessID="20316" ThreadID="0" />

<Channel>Application</Channel>

<Computer></Computer>

<Security />
```  </System>

  <EventData>

```typescript
<Data>Microsoft Outlook</Data>

<Data>Outlook couldn't start last time. Safe mode could help you troubleshoot the problem, but some features might not be available in this mode.
```Do you want to start in safe mode?</Data>

  </EventData>

</Event>

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
  3. JK 0 Reputation points
    2026-07-02T07:57:31.3233333+00:00

    A update that was done behind the scenes by Microsoft has resolved the issue as this morning everyone has turned their machines on and the issue is gone despite no updates being manually done so it appears a blind update has been done and resolved the issue, spoke to me friend who has Outlook 2016 and he's is now working also.

    Hopefully everyone else is now back up working.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
  4. Daniel Segura Salazar 0 Reputation points
    2026-07-01T19:24:58.0933333+00:00

    Hi

    Does any one know how to download the office offline installer, normaly I was able to create the XML file from the web site https://config.office.com/deploymentsettings, then with CMD download the package with all the binaries and files necesaries using the command setup.exe /download configuration.xml, it downloads and the with the command setup.exe /configure configuration.xml it installed. But now it fails to be installed, there is something wrong with the installer.

    This is necessary to make the update process to 2606 with the fix of this Outlook error, because online repair takes a lot to be completed

    If anyone knows how to get this offline installer and use it, I will be more than glad.

    Regards

    Was this answer helpful?

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.