Outlook is stuck at Loading Profile

Copper Contributor

I use Office 365. Update 16.0.12730.20250 was just installed. My Outlook client on Windows 10 now hangs while loading, stuck on the message "Loading Profile". Loading in /safe mode gives the same result: first select a profile, then stuck at "Loading Profile".

 

My Outlook client on Mac (for the same mail account) still works fine.

 

I did some research on the internet, but there is an abundance of all kinds of potential solutions, and I don't have the time to read and test everything. So a hint to a first few steps would be greatly appreciated.

 

5 Replies

@patrickcoom 

 

I would suggest starting with the Support and Recovery Assistant

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/100607

 

@patrickcoom 


"Registry DISCLAIMER: Modifying REGISTRY settings incorrectly can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the configuring of REGISTRY settings can be solved. Modifications of these settings are at your own risk."

'

Other troubleshooting besides the SARA tool :

 

1. Inspect the registry key : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins

Most of the Addins have easy enough names to be able to identify and determine if they are needed.

Change the LoadBehavior value to 0 for testing.

2. Do you know if the profile being loaded has any PST files , try unlink them from the Outlook profile and see if this resolves the issue , PST size around 10GB will usually cause a burden to any system.
The way to tell how much of a burden is to view the Outlook.exe process -> Disk activity via Resource Monitor , then expand the column showing which files the process is utilizing.

3. How many background connections is Outlook.exe making : hold down left CTRL and right click on the Outlook.exe system tray icon , click "connection status" ; this is handy if Outlook.exe isn't reading anything other than ETL files while it's seemingly hanging.
You can reduce the number of background connections by reducing the number of shared items the user is accessing ( assuming there are any unneccessary shared mailboxes / calendars etc.)

 

4. Try with cached exchange mode turned off to see if the scenario changes at all , if the profile is newly created , caching into OST may take forever for large mailbox on 'slow' connection.



Typically when troubleshooting this scenario with Outlook 2016 , once you have an idea on what's really slowing the load time of Outlook , increasing the speed of the bottleneck resource helps.

eg. Upgrade old HDD with SDD , upgrade internet line speed if the user is working from poor connectivity scenario.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, it wasn’t slowing down but really stuck indefinitely. I deleted the local mail profile and recreated one and now it works again.

@PeterRising 

Hello Peter, 

 

Hoping you can help me too.

 

I am having the same issue... Outlook either will not open/start or if it does, it gets stuck at "Loading profile". My issue is compounded by the fact that my account is a part of a MS Family account. The issue is new after refresh/updates to MS Office last week. It is working fine on my phone and iPad, just not on my laptop.

 

I downloaded Microsoft Support & Recovery Assistant from the link previously shared here. After 15 min, it is still trying to create the log files.

 

My technical skills are nowhere as good as others' in this community so I might need a little more hand-holding.

 

Thank you in advance

HOW DID YOU FIX IT? I'M STRUGGLING@Aarti_Malik