Forum Discussion
Outlook for mac no longer respects reading pane choice
I normally view my emails on Outlook for Mac with the Reading Pane set to "right". Got an update of Outlook this morning and now Outlook changes the Reading Pane setting back to "Bottom" whenever I quit and restart Outlook.
I am on Version 16.102.2 (25102623)
Please advise how I can get Reading Pane setting back to a default of "Right".
Many thanks.
I have been facing the same issue, but you can try downgrading to solve the issue.
(Version 16.102.1 (25101829))
The old version can be downloaded from the website below.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac
18 Replies
i was facing same issue after updating to Version 16.102.2 (25102623)
i have tried an failed to correct this setting in update 16.102.2 that appeared on my Mac on October 29, 2025. MSFT needs to de-bug this View > Reading Pane setting to allow users to set the Pane to the Right of our email list, and ensure that the setting does not revert back to a forced View > Below the list of recent emails. Hopefully, MSFT won't take months to fix it and will have the fix in a new update shortly --- like early next week.
I’m also experiencing this issue - it started after the latest update on October 29, 2025, for legacy Outlook. It’s frustrating, though not surprising at all, that Microsoft has once again managed to break something that previously “just worked,” forcing users to waste time fixing it instead of being productive for the economy of the society.
I’m also experiencing this issue — it started after the latest update on October 29, 2025, for legacy Outlook. It’s frustrating, though not entirely surprising at all, that Microsoft has once again managed to break something that previously “just worked,” forcing users to waste time fixing it instead of being productive for the economy of the society..
I have the same problem, just appearing today. I tried View > Arrange By > Make This Default View, but that only applied to the arranging of messages & not the Reading Pane. Can't find a Preferences or something similar to preserve settings.
Also running Version 16.102.2 (25102623)
