Forum Discussion
Classic Outlook Keeps "Not Responding" and freezing
Hi there,
I tried to scour for something similar, but I couldn't find anything and/or it didn't work - so here I am - hopefully someone can help.
Okay the facts - I use Classic Outlook (CO moving forward) and I run 5 email address in it - 3 are a domain for my company that I run and 2 are POP emails brought in from AOL. I run Windows 11. This is happening to 3 or my 5 work stations, all three are the ones on Windows 11. This started slow a few weeks ago, thought it was just low memory so went through and cleaned up old emails. I am not seeing these issues when using the 2 pop emails - just my company domain ones. Can open CO, taking some extended time but it is getting there. As soon as I try to send an email, reply to an email, change a signature within a new email - it either takes 5-10 minutes to load if we do not click again and just let it sit and think. The second I try and click something or try and scroll while waiting - it goes into 'Not Responding'. Some times it will load after 1 minute and sometimes it just get stuck. I have updated my CO, I tried the advanced 'online repair' through my system, I have tried disabling all my add-ons, I tried deleting my email account from CO and re-loading/logging in, I have checked my graphics card (something on google said to check it for updates), I have ran command prompts to check for internal Windows errors and I have come up short on everything.
17 Replies
Same is happening again today! I survived the Jan 13 terror by getting out of PST's and have uploaded all the updates...
Today I'm crashing again.. All I get is "not responding"
So frustrating!!!
Well guess what??? Microsoft did another cumulative update including KB5074109 with coding that does not allow the update to be deleted. And now I have no CO! Again! Any suggestions?
Uninstall KB5074109 and MS CO will work again.
-- Microsoft did another cumulative update including KB5074109
Do you mean KB 5078 127 ?
If so, I have seen some small number of users still having problems with Classic Outlook even after this update.
The only workaround I can suggest is to use the option that was suggested for fixing the original KB5074109 problem without uninstalling it:
Move your PST/OST files out of your OneDrive folder.
And then use ScanPST to check for errors.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/repair-outlook-data-files-pst-and-ost-25663bc3-11ec-4412-86c4-60458afc5253Is that what the deal is??? My classic outlook is broke again!
Uninstall KB5074109 and MS CO will work again.
I was having crashes of Outlook Classic dozens of times a day until I discovered that the problem is that the Microsoft Update KB5074109 that was automatically put on my computer in early January has serious issues regarding POP email accounts. When I uninstalled KB5074109 Outlook Classic again worked fine. However, last night Microsoft did a "forced-install" again of their crappy KB5074109 and my Outlook Classic crashed again. So I uninstalled it again and Outlook works again. It's outrageous that Microsoft is doing forced-installs of an update they know has serious issues!
CO can be sluggish for a few reasons, here is my list to check:
Windows updates
Office updates
Size of PST files of the AOL POP
Size of OST file (for the 3 domained accounts)
Antivirus is a leading cause of sluggish CO
Firewalls
VPN
If you are still having problems, happy to try to help if you answer those questions.
Lisa
Lisa, what is going on with this Outlook Classic issue? I read that MS is planning a February fix? THAT is unacceptable. Completely unacceptable. I can't imagine the number of Classic users that can't use Classic at all...
OST files for 2 of the 3 email accounts are around 3,500,000 KB the third that is not used often is only 65 KB - Could this be the issue - my smaller account is not having as many issues.
the AOL accounts are running fine
I've had my antivirus - with no changes on my part/company's part for over a year, is this still something worth looking in to?
Windows and CO all updated/current
Notes to make that I found after posting - When sending test emails between my small OST file account and the two largers. When I didn't attach our signatures it seemed to work much better. - not perfect but better. Could html be the cause of this in any way?Hi Brittany, thanks for the replies! My answers in dashes --
OST files for 2 of the 3 email accounts are around 3,500,000 KB the third that is not used often is only 65 KB - Could this be the issue -
--That's not too much, 3.5 gigs. Should be ok!
my smaller account is not having as many issues.
--Noted
the AOL accounts are running fine--Noted
I've had my antivirus - with no changes on my part/company's part for over a year, is this still something worth looking in to?--Probably not if there are no changes
Windows and CO all updated/current
--Noted
Notes to make that I found after posting - When sending test emails between my small OST file account and the two largers. When I didn't attach our signatures it seemed to work much better. - not perfect but better. Could html be the cause of this in any way?--Possibly, does the signature have a lot of links in it or a bad image? Try using a Text signature and see if that works better. If it does, check the signatures and verify the links and images of size, could be part of the problem
Are you using it in the cloud or locally? One Drive lacks the memory to make alterations to large spreadsheets. Open it locally and try again.
Check the extent of your data. Start at the top and press CTRL + down area. Does it stop at the last cell or continue? If so your data contains non printing characters. Since Excel processes every cell,, it overwhelms the available memory. There are a number of complex ways to remove them, but the easiest is to copy a seemingly empty cell and paste it into find. Put a character group you don't expect to have in the rest of the sheet in the replace line (vvv, for instance), and replace all. Then find vvv and leave the replace with space empty, replace all again.
Try removing all conditional formatting. (Home>Conditional Formatting>Clear rules.Are your corporate accounts on-premises Exchange accounts or hosted at Microsoft 365?
Do you have Cached Exchange Mode enabled for these accounts? If not, make sure that you do and to cache it for at least 3 months.Does this happen when you are inside the corporate network (on location) as well as when you are working from home (if possible)?
Which COM Add-ins and which web add-ins do you have installed for your corporate mailboxes?
Additionally see; Outlook doesn’t start, crashes or shows Not Responding - Robert 365
Exchange accounts. - It was enabled but it was set to a year so I lowered it to 3 months as suggested.
Only at work as I have not checked it on my home computer lately. All COM add-ins are off at the moment while I've been troubleshooting.
After I played with it a bit more on Friday, it seems it may be linked to html in the emails. I had the 1 account running okay within an email thread with no html - not perfect but it was better.
Still at a loss at the moment.Can you "View Source" one of the offending emails? We've had this happen and it was narrowed down to signatures created in Outlook Classic that was populating an excessive number of "<div>" code in the body. Obviously you would not see this but Outlook would. Temp resolution is to have them create a new signature completely deleting the old one. It still returns every now and then.
