Comments on: "Outlook Not Responding" error - solutions for hanging, freezing and crashing problems

This article explains how to resolve problems with Outlook hanging, freezing or crashing. Our 9 working solutions will help you fix the "Outlook Not Responding" issue and bring your Outlook back to life Continue reading →

Comments page 2. Total comments: 113

  1. every day at some point I get a message "the data file outlook 2010 was not closed properly.
    the file is being checked for problems" then it can take 30 min to 8 hours to go back on...help please

  2. every day at some point I get a message "the data file outlook 2010 was not closed properly.
    the file is being checked for problems" then it can take 30 min to 8 hours to go back on...help please

  3. Hello from Bangkok, since this morning i m having this problem and totally trying with different vdo, after 12 hour trying i found your powerful advice, Thanks million times Alexander. ur such a genius.

  4. Thanks for sharing the article. It helped me a lot. Steps I followed to fix the Outlook hanging issue are:
    Quit the Outlook.exe processes from the Task Manager .To do so, you need to press CTR+Alt+Del keys at the same time. Select Start Task Manager and go to Processes and select the Outlook.exe processes and end those processing by selecting End process button. Also disable or turn off the Outlook Add-ins. For that go to Tools menu and click on the trust centre button and choose Add-ins to turn off.

  5. You saved my 278 Archive folders

  6. Alexander for Supreme Commander!! THANKS!!

    Love You Man!!!

  7. when am open outlook 2007 his mail are receiving but that time show on "outlook not responding "and restate the machine contentiously again and again. pls advise.this issues

    1. outlook 2007 continuously restarted again and again.

  8. Hi,
    I tried everything. Outlook hangs in normal mode & safe mode. I did a repair but with no effect. I even reinstalled the entire Office 2013. Still I have the issue. Even tried with service pack. The problem still persists. Now my IT guy suggesting a total format of the system. My system is i7-4770 CPU, 8GB RAM, 64Bit Win 7 with Service Pack 1. Can you suggest something please?

  9. Hello mam/sir, i have a laptop using ms outlook 2007, when my ms outlook 2007 opened then i choose calendar then the outlook was crash? May i verify mam/sir what is the problem and how to fix it? Thank you.

  10. Hello, i have a pc with outlook 2010 installed however i bought a new lap top and on it was installed outlook 2007. i was trying to put in the same info as the 2010 but its not allowing me to log in...it would search and search and then kick me out. also ak me if i wanted to start in safe mode..i also get error that cant open your default email folder & i dont understand. Can you help i just wants infor to be working on my new pc. my new pc is windows 7 installed on it is outlook 2007.

  11. Dear All.

    I have facing..When i have open MS office 2007 hanging problem..
    Microsoft outlook 2007 hangs on loading profile..
    I have stop windows search
    1.Go to run and type Services.msc
    2.find windows search and open
    3.stop the service.. [windows search]..
    its working fine now.

    Thank you

    1. No its not working that way on win 8 with microsoft outlook 2007

  12. Dear All.

    I have facing..When i have open MS office 2007 hanging problem
    Microsoft outlook 2007 hangs on loading profile..

    1.Go to run and type Services.msc
    2.find windows search and open
    3.stop the service.. [windows search]..

  13. Hello.
    I have a problem where when I go into my email, Outlook only shows a couple of emails and files and has (PREVIEW) next to outlook name. Therefore I cannot do anything with the page at all??
    I am with hotmail and usually goes to live.com and then my email would come up and no problems. I did not change to Outlook, it just comes up now and does what I said above. I would appreciate any help you can give me.
    Kind Regards. Louise

  14. Any update on Outlook not responding issue in 2016 ? Thanks

  15. Hello,

    I Got it one solution update microsoft office service pack update restart your pc check now I think problem solve. :-)

  16. This has really helped.

    Thank you very much for your support.

    Best regards,
    Manoj

  17. i am using office 7, my calendar is not opening up if you click something else it comes up with message: not responding, I have tried to repair also reinstalled office 7 but problem still there, please help.

  18. Great thanks, usefull

  19. Hi Alexander, I am having problem with mail in control panel in windows 7, the mail in control panel is missing when ever I run outlook 2013 it will freeze I cannot make any changes to profile (create or delete).

    How can I solve this problem? please help?

  20. Please help me?

  21. Hi, I have face a problem of that when open the outlook & click on send /received _ then show a error massages :
    Fix it a problem and your outlook is not closed properly.

    How to solve the problem ? please help me?

  22. I grappled with this problem for years. It was obvious that some form od access by outlook.exe was hitting a brick wall and causing a hang-up,

    I had taken ownership of many things on my C: drive to fix other problems.

    I fixed it by searching for outlook.exe and invoking 'run as administrator, no more aces problems, no more freezing.

    Years of frustration resolved.

    1. Run as administrator did not work for me. Outlook 2003 still won't start. Not in safe mode either, not after repair either.

  23. Reference # 18. I was having the exact same issue as Andrea.

    I could successfully open the program in Safe Mode. I unchecked all Add-Ins.

    But it didn't make a difference. I would still receive "Not Responding" error when trying to boot-up Outlook in normal mode. I could only get rid of it by going to the Task Manager. Then Outlook would open and then not respond again. Ran Scanpst.exe several times but did not resolve issue.

    The ONLY thing that resolved it was turning off "Hardware acceleration" option in OUtlook in NORMAL mode.

    1. Thanks Tony turning off "Hardware acceleration" option solved my issue

      Below are the steops

      Click File > Options to open the Outlook Options dialog box.

      In the Outlook Options dialog box, click Advanced in the left bar, and then check the Disable hardware graphics acceleration option in the Display section. See screenshot:

  24. It's really a good article and very helpful. Thanks a lot

  25. Actually, revise that statement:

    1) Close Outlook

    2) Go to task manager > Processes tab > highlight Outlook.exe and end process. Most likely it doesn't go away if your on this thread.

    3) Hold CTRL and open Outlook. When prompted select Yes to open in safe mode. As it starts to initalize simply close it back out.

    4) Open Command prompt > type taskkill /im outlook.exe /f

    5) Go to C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook and delete spscoll.dat, mapisvc.inf and your email account ending in.ost. If it won't let you delete your .ost file then simply drag it into your RoamCache folder.

    6) Outlook should now close out of your processes in task manager

    7) Go to start and type in repairpst.exe

    8) Ponit the applet to your attached .pst file and let it run. If you have more than one then repair all.

    9) After repairing .pst file(s) hold CTRL and launch Outlook again in Safe Mode. If all works well then close it out and try opening it normally.

    Cheers.

    1. taskkill /im outlook.exe /f worked when all other suggestions did not. Thank you!

  26. Go to C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook and delete spscoll.dat. As soon as I got rid of it outlook finally disappeared from my task manager process list.

  27. Hi,

    I am having the 'not responding' Problem with a customers Outlook 2010 running on a Windows 7 64 Bit Machine as well.

    Outlook crashes as soon as it starts up, even in safe mode.

    What i tried so far :

    * scan.pst
    * Repair Office Suite
    * Reinstalling Office Suite (with the FixIt Tool to completely clean registry as well)
    * Set up new profiles

    It always starts with no errors after setting up and while synchronising the inbox i can restart Outlook as many times as i want, but as soon as the synchronisation is complete, Outlook hangs again after being restarted.

    Last test now I'm doing now is to use Outlook on the same machine with a new windows profile ... still snychronising and waiting for it to complete.

    Any other suggesiotns ?

    1. Hi Florian,

      I can only suggest doing one of the following:

      1 Turn off all the add-ins.
      2 Temporarily disable your antivirus software.
      3 Contact Microsoft support service (support.microsoft.com) regarding this issue. They may help you better.

      1. After several days in contact with the office365 support we now found out that the problem was due to an iCloud iCalender. After we disconnected this calender Outlook works fine again

  28. need expert suggestion - I Have issue with 2013 outlook. all the time I will get not responding and I need to kill the service and restart it. we have office 365 service hosted in Microsoft and using MS office stander edition.

  29. still having problems. tried everything. in fact, things are worse. after cleaning up the pst files, now my outlook is looking for a backup file that I deleted. I've re-booted the computer, I've tried to repair outlook and Microsoft office, but I get message saying that it can't do it!!
    Need to get work done, and I am at the end of my rope here!

  30. Hi all,
    I do all thmgs..but same issue

    1. Hi Vinth,

      I am sorry to hear this. Please try contacting Microsoft support service regarding your issue.

  31. thanks A LOT - I found that a bloody webex productivity was killing my processes and freezing outlook up to a minute... killed it and this is working fine and dandy :)

  32. Hi,

    I am using Outlook 2010 and I'm trying to activate or setup the automatic replies, but it goes something like hanging and then pop up appears and it say " Your automatic reply setting cannot displayed because the server is currently unavailable. Try again later". but I check to the other users in our office it's all fine and working. My O/S was Windows 7 / office 2010. pls. help for the solution, many thanks.

    1. Hello jimbo,
      It is difficult for me to say what can cause the problem. You'd better address this question to your system administrator.

  33. I click on Outlook Express and the blue box that says Outlook Express 6 comes up and just stays there....frozen....and you put the pointer on the box and an hour glass shows. It never goes to our emails. It sounds like the computer might be trying to do something...not sure...so what is going on? Why does it not go on to our emails and just stays frozen like that.

    1. Hi Jan,

      I am sorry I cannot suggest anything regarding Outlook Express because I do not use it. You can probably contact the Microsoft Support Team for assistance.

      1. Thank you very much for your reply.

  34. The results are awesome

  35. Thak I could able to open in safe mode and its working yahoooo

  36. I believe I solved my problems by deleting a backup. I have backed up my personal folders when I upgraded my outlook to 2013 from 2007. After a few days I launched a search into the back up to find a file. Shortly after that outlook started crashing at start-up. When I ran the repair tool I noticed that it defaulted to the backup. I deleted the back up and ran a repair on the current files. Problem appears to be solved.

  37. In our case, emails would intermittently hang/stick in outbox when using Outlook 2013 with MS Exchange Server. Problem was solved by updating router firmware to latest version.

    1. Hi Neil,

      Thank you very much for sharing your solution here!

  38. Hi Alexander,

    By any chance are you equally knowledgeable about the glitches going on with Windows Live Mail? Yes, I'm one of those weird people who uses Outlook for my calendar and Windows Live Mail for e-mail but it's suddenly causing me so much grief I may have to switch soon if I can't find a solution.

    Cheers,
    Andrea

    1. Fixed my problem of Outlook opening (thanks again :)) but now two sessions of Outlook open each time......not a real drama closing one but is there an easy fix??

    2. IMHO, you'd better move to some other email client. From my experience, Microsoft's free tools leave much to be desired.

  39. Another "virtual" beer is on its way Alexander :) Been having similar problems to Andrea for the last week or so and everything I've tried to correct to now has failed. So today went through all your steps 1 by 1 and no joy until I turned off the hardware acceleration as outlined in your link and bingo problem appears solved (fingers crossed!!). Thanks for posting such comprehensive and easy to understand instructions that gives us 'non techos' some hope of fixing ourselves. Much appreciated!

  40. Great solutions! Starting in Safe Mode as Administrator and removing the add-ins fixed the problem immediately. Thank you so much for your info - Microsoft should be paying you because their solutions are pathetic.

  41. a simple fix that has just worked for me is to switch to "basic" theme. Hopefully MS will produce a patch ;)

  42. Alexander, you are a genius! I have my computer geek friend over just now to try and help me with my Outlook. Even he couldn't figure it out. Then I remembered I posed this question on here, checked back, saw your reply and you solved it! It was the Hardware Acceleration option that was the issue. My computer geek friend thanks you too. I'd buy you a beer if I could! :)

    Cheers,
    Andrea

    1. Andrea, thanks for a "virtual" beer anyway :)

  43. My problem was solved i just did it in safe mode n dis able the add inns

  44. This was awesome in helping me solve a persistent Outlook issue. It was so annoying that I began to look for a replacement.

  45. Thanks for this article but unfortunately my problem with Outlook 2013 persists. I can successfully open the program in Safe Mode as you explained how to do. From there I have unchecked almost all the Add-Ins I can after following this article about which Add-Ins are really necessary:

    http://www.msoutlook.info/question/751

    But it hasn't made a difference. I still get the annoying "Not Responding" note when trying to boot-up Outlook in normal mode. I can only get rid of it by going to the Task Manager. And oddly Scanpst.exe is nowhere to be found in my system. I even did a search for it.

    Thanks for any other suggestions you may have.

    1. Hi Andrea,

      Try to run Outlook in safe mode and then turn off Hardware Acceleration. If this does not help, set the display's color depth to 16 bit.

      Please see the following page for the detailed instructions: Fix Outlook hanging on Loading Profile.

      If this does not help either, the only solution that I see is to reinstall Office or try to reach the Microsoft Support team.

  46. Under the advanced tab in outlook options try disabling hardware graphics acceleration. This worked for me.

    Chris

    1. Great! Thnaks.

  47. This is really helpful...Thanks for putting up such nice information,,,,

  48. I am using outlook 2007 in my new laptop but I am not able to delete mails from outlook while from my webmail I can delete the mail.

    kindly give solution

  49. hopefully somebody can helop me with this issue.
    When I start Outlook 2013 in Windows 8.1 from tiles, it will start and minimize into the task bar. The inbox will not open. I can start outlook in safe mode: outlook /safe.

    When I log in as Administrator Outlook will start using the same outlook profile.
    I looked at outlook profile, Add-Ins, scanpst pst-files. Everysthing ok. Even repairing, uninstalling and reinstalling office has no effect on this issue.

    Any ideas where else I could look at. Does outlook leave any messages in logfiles?

  50. Scanpst.exe is in Program Files X86 if you are on 64-bit version.

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