What to Do If Outlook Crashes Unexpectedly? Try These Tested Solutions
On a random day, you open your Outlook expecting to get an offer letter from your favorite College or may be a confirmation email from the client who agrees to run a million-dollar project with your organization. But Alas! As soon as you attempt to open Outlook, it crashes unexpectedly. Thinking it to be a minor glitch, you try to open it again and again, but only to get the same result.
Now you know that something serious has happened to your Outlook profile, but do not know what it is and how to fix it. Panicking, you search online and find numerous manual and third-party solutions. You try some of the solutions, but could not fix the issue. You really start to worry about the future of Outlook and yourself and decide to call a technician who might be charging you hundreds of dollars.
What you have just read is a common scenario that happens in the life of an ordinary Outlook user when their Outlook crashes at startup. That it is not at all, Outlook crashes when opening an email or Outlook crashes on importing contacts are some other common issues that Outlook users report. All these problems are linked and it is possible to fix Outlook crashes unexpectedly error. In this write-up, we will discuss the reasons for these problems and their remedial techniques.
Reasons Why Your Outlook Crashes Unexpectedly at Anytime
Here are some of the major reasons for this common Outlook error.
- PST File Corruption: Complete MS Outlook data is stored in the PST file that gets created in the back end of the system. If the PST file gets corrupt due to being oversized or some other reason, Outlook can crash at any time.
- Add-Ins Making Issues: Outlook users often configure different add-ins in their Outlook profile for enhanced features. The setting of these add-ins may clash and result in the error Outlook crashes while sending/ receiving emails.
- Damaged Outlook Profile: If the Outlook installation is faulty or incomplete, or the profile has been damaged, Outlook will crash at startup.
What Can Be Done to Avoid Outlook Crashes Unexpectedly
As we have seen the common reasons for this Outlook crashing problem, it is time to pay attention to its solutions. Outlook crashing can occur due to any of the above-mentioned reasons, so we need to try various methods to fix it. Here are some of the prominent methods that users perform to get rid of this problem.
Method 1: Fix PST File Corruption
PST file corruption is the most common cause of this problem so we can say that by fixing the corruption, we can get rid of this issue. As we all know, the built-in PST damage fixing tool Inbox Repair Tool is not useful at all. But, there are chances of a severe level of corruption that can’t be fixed with the inbuilt utility provided by Microsoft.
In that case, we will recommend you to use Outlook PST Repair Tool. This application has been exclusively designed to repair any type of PST file corruption. If the corruption issues are the result of an oversized PST file, the tool also provides an option to split Outlook PST files according to the size of your choice. As it can process the encrypted data, there is no reason for users to look for any other tool to fix PST corruption.
Method 2: Open Outlook in Safe Mode
If you think that your Outlook is having problems due to add-ins, try starting it in safe mode. Click on Windows key + R together to open the Run box. Type Outlook/safe in the box and hit Enter. Outlook will start in safe mode and all add-ins will remain disabled in this session. Check if Outlook still crashes or not.
Method 3: Install the Latest Version of Outlook
The problem may be the result of using an outdated version of Outlook. Therefore, it is always suggested to keep your system updated and use the latest versions of all the applications. To resolve this problem, install the latest available Outlook version on your system and see if the problem disappears or not.
Method 4: Repair MS Office Application
Repairing the Microsoft Office application on your system is another workaround that is worth giving a try. For that, go to the Control Panel of your system and open the list of installed applications. Then select Uninstall a program link from the left side. Select MS Office from the list and click on Change>> Online Repair.
Apart from these, users can scan their system with good anti-virus software and open a new Outlook profile to resolve this problem.
Conclusion
This post provides basic yet necessary information about Outlook crashes unexpectedly problem. We have talked about the causes as well as solutions to this common Outlook problem. Though you can try the other manual methods mentioned in the post, they are not capable of fixing the corruption. Users should try fixing their PST file with the aforementioned tool. This tool offers a complete corruption removal service without losing any of your valuable data.