Outlook 365 - What's all this?!

[britechguy]

First, background . . . I don't use Outlook as a daily driver at all, the only reason I have it set up is for when questions arise for using it with a screen reader. From the initial setup I did when I got M365, I had only included a Gmail account accessed via IMAP. No issues at all with that.

Last night I decided that I would add the Outlook.com account that I have. It's since then that things have gotten interesting. After adding it, what showed up in the folder tree for that account name did not match what I had entered for the account name (and that came from my MS account where I have that particular Outlook.com set up as a secondary alias). Yet, if I created a new message, the correct account showed up in the From: field.

Today, when I try to fire up Outlook, this is what I'm getting. I wish to note that this is happening even after a fresh reboot where what it's saying is not true about resource use. I've got nothing but Windows and a couple of background processes running. Everything else, if I choose to open it, works without a hitch. In order, here are the dialog boxes:








I have literally nothing to lose, so nuking anything related to Outlook is just fine. This particular trifecta of error messages is entirely new to me, and seems to be tied to having set up an account using Exchange.

All advice gratefully accepted.

 

[Markverhyden]

What happens if you search>outlook.exe /safe

 

[Sky-Knight]

The wonderful thing of being all in on Exchange...

Nuke the Outlook Profile and start over. Safe mode isn't a bad idea, but if I see Outlook behaving strangely, I just blow away the profile and rebuild. It's not worth the time to fix.

 

[britechguy]

@Markverhyden: Exactly the same result.

@Sky-Knight: Check. I do find it odd, though, that contrary to much expressed hatred of IMAP in these parts (and not just by you) I've never had any issue, ever, with IMAP and this catastrophe has occurred immediately after adding one of Microsoft's Own Exchange-based accounts

 

[britechguy]

Curiouser and Curiouser.

Ran "outlook /manageprofiles" and deleted the one and only profile that existed, named "Outlook." I have not restarted the machine, which I will do in a few moments. But attempting to fire up Outlook right now gives precisely the same result.

 

[britechguy]

Post restart I've been allowed to create a new profile. The initial automatic attempt to set up my Gmail account failed, but after hitting Retry it went throughthe standard OAUTH process. Syncing now.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I use the mail icon in the control panel to manipulate Outlook profiles, but that should work.

And It's not that I hate IMAP, the protocol is fine. It's just that it's just email, and there is a ton more data in Outlook than email!

 

[callthatgirl]

@britechguy I'm saying this with some humor, but when you say "This has never happened to me ever", this is a common error that techs who support Outlook see frequently.

Tip from me, always setup Outlook.com first with any profile, it sets the tone for the profile to run better. Microsoft will default outlook.com either way but at least you don't have the TCO for cal/contacts.

 

[Sky-Knight]

She's right, you do an Exchange account first and add all the rest and it generally just works.

I didn't actually think of that honestly, I just do this out of reflex. But she's absolutely right!

 

[britechguy]

She's right, you do an Exchange account first and add all the rest and it generally just works.

I didn't actually think of that honestly, I just do this out of reflex. But she's absolutely right!

The problem being, in the real world, one often doesn't have the luxury of picking the order of account setup. If setting up an Exchange account in an Outlook instance where multiple IMAP and/or ::shudder:: POP accounts are already configured actually triggers a debacle such as this one as a matter of course, that's a major bug.

I understand what you're both saying, but that doesn't change the fact that one often needs to add an account into an existing mix, and that should work gracefully.

 

[britechguy]

this is a common error that techs who support Outlook see frequently.

Which I have noticed just reading here. That, however, doesn't change the fact that it is a first for me. I don't support Outlook, per se, but it's been a part of the mix for me "since dirt." It just never happened to me before now.

I also hear frequent complaints about how awful Outlook is with IMAP, but the vast majority of my clients who use Outlook use it only with IMAP and I've never had a problem with that, for any of them, either. Even the third-party sync apps to snag calendar and contacts tend to work gracefully for very long periods of time after initial setup.

 

[Sky-Knight]

The problem being, in the real world, one often doesn't have the luxury of picking the order of account setup. If setting up an Exchange account in an Outlook instance where multiple IMAP and/or ::shudder:: POP accounts are already configured actually triggers a debacle such as this one as a matter of course, that's a major bug.

I understand what you're both saying, but that doesn't change the fact that one often needs to add an account into an existing mix, and that should work gracefully.

The real world uses the tool for the task. Outlook is an Exchange client. It's not an IMAP client, it's not a POP3 client... it really isn't an SMTP client either. It is an Exchange client.

The fact it almost sort of mostly works with things other than Exchange, especially at this point now that M365 owns the market AND GMail connectivity is while using IMAP, proprietary to Google... is almost a miracle.

Don't worry though! The "new" version of Outlook will bring with it a whole new set of rules! It'll release soonish, you'll get to start all over and you'll have even LESS support for these ancient protocols.

 

[britechguy]

The real world uses the tool for the task.

And contrary to your oft-repeated assertion, Outlook is a multi-purpose program, and its email capabilities have included IMAP and POP for decades. It is not, in any way, shape, or form, as limited to Exchange as you would like to present it.

And that's not to say that Microsoft has not (for obvious reasons, its own ecosystems) favored Exchange. But there are undoubtedly many millions of non-Exchange users of Outlook and there will continue to be for decades. Microsoft may occasionally be stupid, but they're not dumb, and they know everything I've just restated.

 

[britechguy]

For the fun of it, I decided to try to add that outlook.com account again this morning after having added the Gmail account last night. Everything looked perfectly fine until I exited Outlook and attempted to restart it again them, BAM!, exactly the same nonsense as last night.

Again, it's no crisis or skin off my nose, but it is a catastrophic bug, and one I'll be reporting via the Feedback Hub. This sort of thing should never occur just because you've added a new email account that uses Exchange after other(s) using IMAP already exist. It's insane.

 

[britechguy]

Feedback Hub Feedback: https://aka.ms/AAmfake

Comment and/or upvote as you see fit.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Microsoft has made changes to M365 services that leave anyone below the premium subscription level HILARIOUSLY insecure, and you think the new Electron based Outlook app is going to support IMAP?

I repeat, the only IMAP Microsoft is interested in supporting is the hacked up variant that lets Outlook connect to a GMail box. Anything that happens to work beyond that isn't supported, it's an accident.

Now you can continue to reject this reality, but you will also continue to have problems. Outlook is an Exchange client, period... full stop. That's what it does, that's what it's always been. Everything beyond that is barely supported if at all, and Microsoft has shown no evidence they're going to change course on this. They've had decades to to do, and they haven't.

Go play with the new Outlook yourself if you want. You'll see the truth laid out before you. Though, it might just solve your immediate problem. While creating new ones...

You see, the NEW Outlook, doesn't have an OST anymore. It's an Electron app, which means it's just a copy of Chromium with Outlook paint on top. It gives you ZIP, ZERO, NADA when it's offline. It's just a browser! No more *ST files, just MS Teams, painted Blue.

 

[britechguy]

I have played with "The New Outlook" and actually wrote this tutorial for my vision impaired clients who were foolish enough to accept the invitation to try it: Getting back to Outlook Classic User Interface if you're in the Inaccessible New Outlook User Interface (AKA Outlook Preview or Outlook PRE)

There's zero issue with IMAP, just as there isn't now, but accessibility with a screen reader is non-existent.

You can insist that Outlook is an Exchange client until you're blue in the face. That flies in the face of how it's used in the wild, and has been used for decades. Your saying that somethings true doesn't make it so.

 

[fincoder]

You can insist that Outlook is an Exchange client until you're blue in the face. That flies in the face of how it's used in the wild, and has been used for decades.

I agree. I've been using Outlook for IMAP personally for years, and many of my customers do as well. A few glitches from time to time, but generally it's OK.

Lately, Outlook seems to have more problems with outlook.com accounts (ironically). Mainly in the account setup, e.g. after seemingly successfully adding the outlook.com account it doesn't appear in the left-hand-side folder tree! That has had me scratching my head a couple of times, but the solution is you need to restart Outlook for the account to appear! Ridiculous enough, but the fact there's no mention of that after adding the account is unacceptable.

I've seen the errors you've reported in this thread @britechguy (on a customer PC). Can't remember how I resolved it, sorry.

 

[britechguy]

but the solution is you need to restart Outlook for the account to appear! Ridiculous enough, but the fact there's no mention of that after adding the account is unacceptable.

They've apparently changed that. I do get a "You must restart Outlook" message after adding an outlook.com account. And it shows up on the first restart cycle, but after you exit that first time, you don't get in again.

Although I appreciate your apology, it's certainly not necessary. This is Microsoft's screw-up to fix. Each and every one of us here has fixed so many problems that were, for us, one-offs that it's just not possible to remember every solution we ever came up with (no matter how clever!).

 

[callthatgirl]

Outlook is amazing, works best with Exchange but I can configure the shhiit out of it to do so many functions. Trust this, I have some IMAP abusers and it works flawlessly. They will call though with one weird glitch and I warn them "Um, you have 12 IMAP accounts and this will be a full rework....." Then those little buggers don't matter so much.