• A recent update for Outlook’s “Patch Tuesday” is causing Office 365 and Outlook 2016 to crash upon startup.
• Are you looking for a fix for an Outlook bug? Contact CSN for fast service!
July 14, 2020, Microsoft has received a barrage of criticism from distraught customers around the globe who have Outlook and Office 365 crashing every time upon startup. From Reddit to Twitter, affected users are up in arms about the lack of communication regarding Office 365 and Outlook 2016 crashing.
According to one of the affected users, Outlook opens for “about 2 seconds” before crashing. The widespread issue apparently cannot be fixed even if you open it in safe mode with outlook.exe/safe. Users who examined their application event logs will see an error log stating that the OUTLOOK.EXE program has crashed with an exception code 0xc0000005.
The official Twitter account for Microsoft Office 365, @MSFT365Status tweeted that the issues caused by the new Outlook update are under investigation. See their tweets:
Apparently, the issue stems from Build 13001.20384. A status message in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center title ‘EX218604 stated: Users experiencing Outlook connection issues and crashes’, Microsoft suggests users use web and mobile clients until the issue is resolved.
Fix #1:
However, there are some basic troubleshooting steps you can try if you have some knowledge in IT. Here are the recommended steps *for IT professionals only*:
- Open a command prompt by clicking on the Start Menu and typing CMD. When the ‘Command Prompt’ result appears, click on it.
- In the command prompt type cd “\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun” and press enter.
- You will now be in the ClickToRun folder. Type officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.12827.20470 and press enter.
- Microsoft Office will now download the specified version of Microsoft Office and roll back to that previous version. This could take a few minutes.
- 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 Outlook will now be rolled back to the previous version, and you should be able to start Microsoft Outlook again.
- You can now close the Command Prompt by clicking on the X button.
Some Outlook users are reporting that the above steps do not work for them, but were able to use the officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.12527.20880 command instead to resolve the issue.
Fix #2:
If you’re still having problems after the most recent Patch Tuesday and are unable to use web and mobile clients, the only other solution may be to “rollback” to Build 12827.20470. However, this may require some IT knowledge.
To elaborate, the fix requires running a PowerShell script to update or rollback your Office 365 client, which gives you the option to choose which build to rollback to. In order for Powershell to run properly, you may need to change the execution policy of your system. The rollback script has been verified to work with Windows 10, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows 8. In order for this solution to work for you, you must be running Office 365 Business, ProPlus, or Personal.
We cannot stress this enough: if you don’t know anything about Powershell please contact your IT service provider. Rolling back patches is not a simple fix, and may require extensive IT knowledge. Powershell scripts are not intended for the average Microsoft user; these are very powerful ways in which to modify your computer. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can cause extensive and irreversible damage to your application or even your computer. Please use extreme caution before proceeding with the following:
If you are an IT professional with experience with PowerShell, this script can be found in Microsoft’s TechCenter: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/Script-for-Update-or-8fb223bd This script can also be used to change your update channel for the Office 365 client. You may need to unblock this script with User Unblock-File cmdlet if it does not execute properly.
If this is your first time running a PowerShell script, please consult a professional. We’d love to help professionals and amateurs alike resolve this issue, please contact us today.
Microsoft Outlook and Office 365 Troubleshooting and IT Services
 |
Are you looking for help troubleshooting Office 365 or Microsoft Outlook? Johnny and Computer Service Now would be glad to help, as we know these situations can be frustrating. He will explain how we can help, and decide what actions need to be taken to get your programs running properly again. If you have any questions about our IT services, how this can help your company, or the troubleshooting process, contact Johnny today at 800-440-1662 ext. 360 or contact us here and a representative will reply via email or your method of choice. Follow our blog to stay up-to-date with ComputerServiceNow.com and follow us on social media. Join the discussion by commenting below. |
