Outlook 2016 not available to set as default mail app

Bronze Contributor

hello, we have a new Surface with Windows 10 and Office 365 E3 account and yet we're unable to go through the default app settings and select Outlook. She's able to open Outlook and use it directly but links to open new mails are using Mail. The only mail app showing is the default Mail app. Any suggestions?

11 Replies

We will give those a try. Thank you so much for your response!

anyone solved this issue? I am having same error as well. I tried to reinstall / changed regist , also not working at all.

The Repair Office Installation worked for us. Hope it does for you as well!

  1. Open Outlook.

  2. On the File tab, choose Options > General.

  3. Under Start up options, select the Make Outlook the default program for E-mail, Contacts, and Calendar check box.

  4. Click OK.

https://microsoftofficesupport.org/outlook-support/

This worked! All we had to do was a quick repair of office and it started showing up again! thanks!

  1. Open Control Panel and search for Default Programs.
  2. Select Set Default Programs link.
  3. Choose Microsoft Outlook from the list of programs.
    Click "Set this program as default".
    Set Outlook as your default email client

Repair Office installation

If the affected program was installed after Office, try repairing the Office installation.

  1. Open Control panel, Program and Features
  2. Find and select your Office or Outlook installation
  3. Click Change
  4. Select Quick Repair then click the Repair button. (In older versions of Office, the option is called Repair.)
    repair office

Try this once again if you are not able to resolve then you may try their https://officeerror.com/ blog this is not Microsoft Website but they listed resolvable steps.

Repair Office from Add/Remove Programs worked for me too.
I had a similar problem but with Outlook 2013. Running the repair fixed it. Thank you.

The Quick Repair does work, but I'm deploying Feature Build upgrades to our company and randomly the Default App for Outlook is not available until a QR is performed. My question to Microsoft is what is causing this random problem?@Vishal Kumar 

I have a bit of problem with the language, therefore be patient. I was worrying for 3 days about that problem as I am not very good at computers, nursing homes resident.

So here is my positive answer. A friend did come and went to Microsoft store and downloaded Outlook , as I didn't like Mail. Everything was OK , only outlook was no longer showing in apps and features, but in default apps and features, it's within the new download from Microsoft. I hope with my limited computer knowledge I did help someone at least giving them a clue. So the bit is Go to Microsoft Store download missing app and everything should be OK. Glad I registered as I often need help.

Kind Regards