Two Linked Outlook Issues Causing Accidental Emails to Wrong Clients Feature Request + Bug Report
Hi Outlook Community, I'm posting this after a real incident at work where I accidentally sent a confidential email to the wrong client. After reflecting on what went wrong, I've identified two separate but related Outlook issues that compounded the mistake and I want to raise both here so they reach the right people. Bug: Autocomplete Recipient Changes After You Press Enter This one is subtle but dangerous. When you start typing a name in the To/CC/BCC field, Outlook shows an initial autocomplete suggestion. If you press Enter before the search fully resolves, the dropdown refreshes mid-selection and the contact that actually gets added is *different* from the one that was highlighted when you hit Enter. You don't get any warning. You believe you've selected the right person. You haven't. I've submitted this via the Feedback Portal here: https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/9a32197e-5424-f111-9730-0022485314bc Suggested fix: Freeze the highlighted contact reference at the moment Enter/Tab is pressed, independent of any ongoing background search refresh. --- Feature Request: Cross-Domain Recipient Warning (like the missing-attachment check) Outlook already warns you before sending if it detects you may have forgotten an attachment. I'd love to see a similar pre-send check for this scenario: You are about to send an email to recipients across 3 different organisations. Did you mean to do this? In consulting, legal, finance, and any client-facing role, it's very easy to accidentally include someone from Client B on an email meant only for Client A especially when contacts share similar names. A configurable domain-count threshold (default: 2 external domains) with a soft confirmation prompt would catch this class of mistake before it becomes a compliance incident. Key asks: - Configurable threshold (user-level) - Domain whitelist support (e.g., always allow your own org + a known partner) - Covers To, CC, and BCC combined - Non-blocking same UX pattern as the attachment warning I've submitted this as a feature request here: https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/9a32197e-5424-f111-9730-0022485314bc --- Has anyone else run into either of these? Would love to know if the autocomplete bug is reproducible for others that would help push it up the priority queue. Thanks for reading. Sudharm POutlook Not Syncing
Outlook is not syncing my emails properly. New emails are not coming, and sometimes sent emails stay in the outbox. I also get connection or server error messages. I have checked my internet connection and restarted Outlook, but the problem still continues. Please suggest how to fix this issue."Add to Calendar" functionality in the New Outlook
When a user receives an email with a Calendar meeting attached to it, they are able to click on the dropdown in the attachment and select "Add to Calendar". This functionality is supposed to add the meeting to the calendar without opening the attachment/invite itself. However, when the user clicks on "Add to Calendar", the meeting is displayed temporarily on the Calendar and then disappears. If another calendar meeting is being "Added to Calendar", it doesn't show up at all, even temporarily. Occasionally, the second meeting is added successfully, however, the first meeting then disappears. This behaviour is reproducible using different, independent accounts and devices - personal devices, corporate devices, personal Live accounts, corp email accounts, etc. The only thing that does work is to open the attachment and use "+Add to Calendar" feature from the invite. Any ideas on what is causing this or how to address this?
I can't log in to my Microsoft account
This is incredibly frustrating, to put it mildly. Over 48 hours ago, I changed the passwords for my three email accounts. Once I made the change, I could log into Hotmail and see my emails and everything. Now, when I try to access them through my mobile phone, it says the password I'm entering is incorrect (obviously, I'm entering it correctly for each account). I also had access on my PC. Just in case, I thought, "Okay, I'll change it again," and when I try to change it through my mobile phone, it says "Not available at the moment, please try again later." I thought it was just a one-off... A while passes, I try again, and it still says the same thing. On one of the accounts, after trying several times with the code they sent me, it locked the account. They told me to wait 24 hours and it wasn't fixed. Then they told me to wait a week because after so many attempts to remove the "block" (you can check if it's blocked by entering it in the help section)... Are we crazy or what? This afternoon I spoke with Spanish support, and the woman who helped me really tried. We tried to log in and change the password through a VPN, but this time I didn't receive the code, so she opened a ticket and escalated it to a higher level, telling me to wait 3 to 5 business days. I know what that smells like: wait and then the same thing again. The real surprise was that I couldn't access my other two accounts for 48 hours, so I thought, "Okay, I'll check." I entered the password correctly, but it still said it was incorrect (even though it was correct), and I tried mobile verification, but it wasn't available... even using a VPN. I checked the status of both accounts in the help section, and they said there were no problems with them. Why am I never going to be able to access my three Hotmail accounts again? What's the solution? It doesn't matter if I use a VPN, if the account is blocked, or if it's unblocked. It's always the same. It doesn't accept the correct password -> you try to reset it -> you don't receive a code -> if you try again, it blocks you. Can someone tell me WHAT I NEED TO DO TO FIX THIS ATROCITY? Because waiting is clearly pointless, since the other accounts aren't blocked and I can't log in or reset my password. Furthermore, the account I blocked for trying to access it was unblocked after 24 hours, but it was still the same until it was blocked again. The other two accounts have gone 48 hours without me trying to log in, and I'm still stuck. MICROSOFT, do you plan to offer any solution other than "waiting"? I'm sorry if my English isn't very clear, I'm Spanish and I use a translator
How do I stop Copilot from adding to my Outlook?
I'm using Outlook Classic, and every day Copilot adds itself to my Outlook. I right-click and select uninstall, but the next day it comes right back. I do not want Copilot. How do I stop Copilot from adding to my Outlook. I've included screenshots to see what I'm talking about. Version: Microsoft® Outlook® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2504 Build 16.0.18730.20122) 64-bitOutlook 365: Folder sorting resets automatically to A–Z
Outlook 365 – Folder sorting resets automatically Environment: - Outlook desktop app (Microsoft 365) - Exchange / Office 365 mailbox - Dark mode enabled - Multiple shared mailboxes Problem description: Outlook automatically changes the folder sorting/display settings without user action. The option “Sort subfolders A to Z” reactivates randomly during the day. The configured sorting (e.g., Received – Descending) resets several times per day. In View Settings, the sorting remains configured correctly, but visually Outlook displays a different order. The issue occurs across multiple folders (Inbox, shared mailboxes). Actions already taken: - Verified and modified sorting via View > View Settings > Sort. - Applied the same view to multiple folders. - Confirmed that the settings remain saved correctly. - Issue persists: the parameter stays the same, but Outlook displays mails differently after refresh. Possible causes considered: 1. Outlook bug – display refresh resets the sorting visually even though settings remain unchanged. 2. Corrupted Outlook views – local view definition might be corrupted (outlook.exe /cleanviews). 3. Outlook add-in – third-party add-in may override sorting. 4. Exchange synchronization – server-side policy may enforce default sorting on shared mailboxes. 5. Recent Microsoft 365 updates – some users have reported similar issues in 2025 (views automatically resetting). Request: - Confirm whether this is a known Outlook 365 bug related to automatic resetting of folder views/sorting. - Provide solution or patch/workaround. - Official Microsoft recommendations to prevent Outlook from reverting to A → Z sorting automatically.
Outlook 2016/2021 remains running after CreateObject() from VBA in Version 2412 and later
Hi everyone, I’d like to report a behavior change that affects Outlook (Classic) in Office 2016 and 2021, starting from Version 2412 (Build 16.0.18324.20168). We use VBA to check whether Outlook is installed and configured for sending/receiving mail. We do this at startup of MS Access (2016, 2021 and 365) apps on Windows 11, but I guess this will be the same out of Excel, Word,... . The check is simple and basically does nothing like this: Dim objOutlook As Object On Error Resume Next Set objOutlook = GetObject(, "Outlook.Application") If objOutlook Is Nothing Then bolOutlookIsThere = False Else bolOutlookIsThere = True Set objOutlook = Nothing End If On Error Goto 0 In Build 16.0.18227.20162 (Version 2411) and in Microsoft 365 Outlook, this results in no lasting Outlook process - the instance is released properly. However, starting with Version 2412, this same code causes OUTLOOK.EXE to remain running in Task Manager after execution. The System tray shows up a grayed-out outlook symbol saying "outlook is going to be closed" --- forever. If Outlook had been started manually before running this code, everything works fine, that is: the extra instance will be released and a subsequent manually closing of Outlook will remove the whole. This causes problems in scripts and services that expect to perform a "clean" check without side effects. This same COM automation pattern works exactly as expected with both Excel and Word - they terminate automatically when the last object reference is released (via Set = Nothing), assuming they were not already running. Outlook, however, remains running in memory starting with Version 2412, even though no UI is shown and all references are cleared. This strongly suggests that Outlook now maintains additional internal session state or background services that prevent the process from terminating - unlike other Office applications. Confirmed behavior: Office 2016/2021, Version 2412+ -> OUTLOOK.EXE remains in memory. Office 2016/2021, Version 2411 -> no leftover process. Microsoft 365 Outlook -> behaves as expected. Excel, Word -> behave as expected Can anyone from Microsoft confirm whether this is an intentional change in COM/session behavior (possibly due to caching or MAPI preloading)? If so, is there a recommended workaround for non-interactive detection of Outlook availability? Is anyone else able to duplicate this behavior and/or able to find a workaround (other than downgrading Office to Version 2411)? Thanks in advance!
Migrated users in a new MS Tenant have old calendar invites from previous tenant users
Good afternoon. We recently moved a group of users to a new Microsoft tenant. Before the migration, some users had sent out meeting invitations while using the old tenant. Now that they’ve transitioned to the new tenant, they were able to remove those meetings from their Outlook client. However, the attendees who received those invitations still see the meetings in their calendars I have tried to use the command "Remove-CalendarEvents" but because the original account was used to create the invites under the old tenant, the command cannot find that email address in the new tenant. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Old Outlook image on external Microsoft sites
An old Outlook profile photo persists when I create accounts on sites outside of Microsoft. I've updated my profile photo several times, but when I create an account, only providing my email address, sites that use a Microsoft photo associate an old photo of me that I'm embarrassed to see. One example was when I created my profile on ChatGPT, where the photo used there is this old photo. I've tried contacting Microsoft support several times, but they haven't answered my question. They always instruct me to update my profile photo, but I've had this problem for eight years, and it's never been resolved.
