Outlook issue I haven't seen before

[seedubya]

Maybe everyone here except me has seen this before but I definitely haven't.

Got a client today where Outlook 2016 (Office 365) was hanging at launch. Would not launch using outlook.exe /safe either. Installed all Windows and Office updates, reboot, still nothing.

OK, I'll rename the OST file and see what happens but when I try to view the location of the OST files using the mail applet in Control Panel it hangs. Open the \AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook folder and try to rename the OST and it tells me that file is in use - by Microsoft Word! . Word is not open but the exe is running in the background. Kill the exe and Outlook starts in less than a second. Reboot a couple of times and it's still fine.

Anyone else had this before?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Something in one of the emails probably had Word hanging up on an attachment....possible corrupted a bit.

I just blow away the OST file....it'll recreate on the next launch of Outlook. Assuming the users mailbox is still intact and active, no data is lost by deleting an OST...it's all just a cached local copy of the mailbox.

 

[seedubya]

Something in one of the emails probably had Word hanging up on an attachment....

Yeah seems right but I thought that attachments were copied to the tmp folder before being opened! Didn't know that this was even possible.

 

[GreyWolf]

@seedubya Your for Ireland the luck of the Irish doesn't apply to Microsoft products...

 

[seedubya]

Yeah seems right but I thought that attachments were copied to the tmp folder before being opened! Didn't know that this was even possible.

I depend on my clients unluckiness to make a living