Email remains a crucial part of our personal and working lives, and when it goes wrong, the impact it has can be devastating. Which is why keeping your email secure against attackers is vital, with recent warnings from Microsoft about files that Outlook users must not open, and account password compromise, being cases in point. It’s also why updating Windows and applications in a timely fashion is so important. Sometimes, however, those updates can introduce new disruptive issues of their own. Such would appear to be the case with a recent update to Microsoft Outlook which, it has now been confirmed, has left some users facing emails that crash when the user opens them or attempts to start writing a new message. Although there isn’t a new update to fix the old update as of yet, Microsoft has now issued a temporary fix. Here’s what you need to know.
Microsoft Outlook Email Crashes — What You Need To Know
First things first, although it is understandable to think that someone might have hacked your system or Outlook application, and that it is malware causing your messages to crash when you try to read or create them, that’s not the case here. Microsoft has confirmed that, as far as Outlook crashing when opening or starting a new email is concerned, “this issue occurs because Outlook cannot open the Forms Library.”
A June 16 Microsoft Outlook support posting, stated that while the classic Outlook crashes can occur to Outlook users on all Microsoft 365 Office channels, it would appear the most significant factor is those who are using a virtual desktop infrastructure.
It has been reported that those most at risk seem to be users who have updated Outlook for Microsoft 365 starting with version 2504.“This issue has been escalated for investigation,” Microsoft said, adding that it will update the support posting when more information is known.
Microsoft Outlook Email Crashes — The Temporary Fix
Although it is to be hoped that a new update to fix the Microsoft Outlook email message crashing problem will emerge sooner rather than later, there is a workaround that can be applied right now.
Microsoft recommends that those users who are affected should create a FORMS2 folder at: C:Users<username>AppDataLocalMicrosoftFORMS2.
To do this, close Microsoft Outlook and all other Office applications.
Select Start > Run and enter the path %localappdata%Microsoft and select OK.
In the File Explorer menu, select New > Folder and name it FORMS2.
Your Microsoft Outlook emails should no longer crash after applying this temporary fix. Good luck.
