Outlook cannot open saved emails after closing them (from saved location on harddrive)

Question

We save a lot of mails outside Outlook (2013) into folders on a harddrive (in the network based on Server 2012) where it is easy to find later for archiving. Since a while we have the problem that i we locate these saved mails and open them, that we cannot open them anymore after closing this mail. The only thing that works is shutdown Outlook and start it again. Then we can read the mail again. But after closing it we get the same problem again that the file cannot be opened anymore because it is already openend or you do not have the accessrights ?!

Has someone seen this problem before?

Answer 1

Hi all, this popped up for my colleagues recently so I did some digging.
Teams Meeting Add-In is the culprit.
After disabling this me and my colleagues can opened saved email multiple times without issue.

How to disable
File > Options > Add-in > Go > Untick Teams Meeting Add-In

Full diagnosis below.

SYSTEM
Windows 11, 64 bit,
Microsoft® Outlook® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2306 Build 16.0.16529.20100) 32-bit

I have run Outlook in safe mode (Start > Run > Outlook /safe) and this works fine...
So it must be one of the add-ins... I have done some extensive testing and found the answer

There are 11 add-ins (on my system)

• AntiVirus Add-in is enabled by default by the administrator, so I cannot turn this one off.
• Microsoft Access Outlook Add-in for Data Collection and Publishing is disabled
• Sykpe Meeting Add-in for Microsoft Office is disabled

Leaving 8 for testing - I have enabled each one and left it enabled until I replicated the issue:

• DSTNY (my phone app) outlook add-in enabled - tested - works fine
• Microsoft Exchange Add-in - tested - works fine
• Microsoft SharePoint Server Colleague Import Add-in - tested - works fine
• Microsoft Teams Meeting Add-in for Microsoft Office - tested - FAILED - DISABLED TO CONTINUE TESTING
• Microsoft VBA for Outlook Addin - tested - works fine
• OneNote Notes about Outlook Items - tested - works fine
• Outlook Social Connector 2016 - tested - works fine
• TeamViewer Meeting Add-in - tested - works fine
• re-enabled Microsoft Teams Meeting Add-in for Microsoft Office - tried again - FAILED

**
Teams Meeting Add-In is the culprit

**
Please note this affected me and my colleagues, your setup may be different.

Answer 2

Hi @Werner Vermelis ,

Is this a problem that has only recently occurred? Can everything work fine before?

Does this issue only happen to the message files stored in the network based path? To further confirm if your issue is related to your Outlook desktop client, it is suggested for you to try to save the same email messages to other local locations(desktop of your Windows server for example) and see if this issue has any difference.

I did similar tests in my environment and it could work fine when saving Outlook emails to the desktop of Windows server. Have not been able to test about network based path yet since lack of conditions.

If you have any update about this issue, please feel free to post back.

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Answer 3

Hi @Werner Vermelis ,

Thanks for your reply and update.

In order to exclude version-related issues, please make sure you have upgraded your Outlook and Windows to the latest version.

In the past few days, I did lots of search and tests about your issue, but still could not reproduce the same issue in my environment. According to your description, seems that you first opened your Outlook desktop client and then tried double clicking to open those test emails, and then the issue would exist after reopening those emails, right?

If this is your case, considering that multiple devices in your organization have the same issue, sounds like there might be something (these devices both have) which still keeps occupying those test emails after you closed them:

1. As I know, there could be some add-ins in your Outlook client that cause this issue, so it is suggested to firstly start your Outlook in safe mode (Press Win + R, type “outlook /safe”, press Enter.) and then do the same tests to see if the issue has any difference.
2. Antivirus software programs and other third-party programs might cause similar issues like this. In order to confirm this, if possible, it is suggested for you to select one problematic device, start in safe mode in Windows 10 and only run Outlook desktop client to test about this issue to see if the issue still continues.
3. Besides, according to my tests, we can also open local email messages when Outlook is not running. So, please just try to exit your Outlook and open those test emails directly to see if it could work fine.

Any update, please feel free to post back.

Answer 4

Hi @Werner Vermelis ,

Thanks for your reply.

Outlook safe mode is a feature that lets the Outlook program launch with a limited set of features and no extensions to help you troubleshoot issues. And compared with normal mode, there are multiple settings which are disabled in safe mode:

1. COM add-in is not loaded
2. Reading pane is disabled
3. Customized view settings(including Toolbars, Ribbons, Navigation Pane and so on)
4. Part of Outlook related registry settings

In order to troubleshoot these factors, you could try the steps mentioned in this article: Outlook security mode related issues.(Sorry that have not found English version of this document.)

Hope this can be helpful.

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Answer 5

Hi did you manage to find a solution to this issue? I'm having the same issue currently @Werner Vermelis