Microsoft Outlook bug prevents viewing or creating email worldwide

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Microsoft Outlook bug prevents viewing or creating email worldwide

 

 

A Microsoft Outlook update released today for the desktop client introduced bugs that prevent users from creating or viewing mail.

 

Today, Microsoft released Outlook version 2104 build 13929.20372, and after installing the update, users of the click-to-run desktop client found that they could no longer properly view emails or create new ones.

 

When attempting to view an email, instead of seeing the entire message body, they only see a small portion or a single line of the email message, as shown below.

 

Missing Outlook email content

Source: BleepingComputer

 

To make it even more frustrating, when creating a new email message, every time you press enter, all the previously written content will be removed, as shown below.

 

Outlook email text disappearing when you press enter

Source: BleepingComputer

 

The Microsoft 365 Status Twitter account has tweeted that they are investigating an issue with "email message visibility in Outlook," and that Outlook on the Web is unaffected.

 

 

In an incident status message in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center titled 'EX255650: Issue affecting viewing email content in Outlook', Microsoft suggests users use web and mobile clients until the issue is resolved.

 

Title: Issue affecting viewing email content in Outlook

 

User Impact: Users may be unable to view email message content within Outlook.

 

More info: Initial reports indicate that Outlook on the web is unaffected and users with access to Outlook on the web can view email messages there while we work on a solution.

 

Current status: We're gathering and analyzing data in an effort to isolate the cause of impact. Initial reports indicate that impact is specific to the Outlook client and users with access to other protocols, such as Outlook on the web or the Outlook mobile app, can view message content in those platforms as a potential workaround.

 

Scope of impact: This issue could affect any user attempting to view an email message in the Outlook client.

How to fix the Microsoft Outlook issues

If you are experiencing this issue in Microsoft Outlook, users have reported that you can fix the bug by rolling back to a previous Microsoft Outlook version.

 

BleepingComputer has tested this method, and it resolved the problems in our Outlook desktop client.

Method 1: Roll back Microsoft Office to latest April 2021 release

To roll back to the April 23rd, 2021, release and fix the Microsoft Outlook problems, please follow these steps:

1. Open a command prompt by clicking on the Start Menu and typing CMD. When the 'Command Prompt' result appears, click on it.
2. In the command prompt type cd "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun" and press enter.
3. You will now be in the ClickToRun folder. Type officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.13901.20462 and press enter.

    

   
    

   Entering commands in Command Prompt
4. Microsoft Office will now download the specified version of Microsoft Office and roll back to that previous version. Please be patient as this may take a few minutes or longer, depending on your computer and Internet connection speed.
   Rolling back Microsoft Office to the previous version
5. When the updates are finished installing, you will be shown a screen stating 'Updates were installed.' You can press the Close button on this screen.
   Microsoft Office updates were installed
6. Microsoft Outlook will now be rolled back to the previous version, and you should be able to start Microsoft Outlook again.
7. You can now close the Command Prompt by clicking on the X button.

 

Please let us know if this works for you.

 

This is a developing story.

 

 

Source: Microsoft Outlook bug prevents viewing or creating email worldwide