Outlook Stopped Working or Not Responding – How to Fix?

You must be opening an email on Outlook or trying hard to send one, but what you see is Outlook stopped working or not responding. That’s what happens with most Outlook users, hence it intrigued us to write on this problem.

Whenever we have to tackle the Outlook not responding issue, then we always go through our 7-step way to strategically bring the Outlook back to life. For more insights on our strategy, just go through this article once.

Why is Outlook Not Responding?

Several reasons become the possible culprits for the freezing Outlook. Let’s have a look at all of them.

1. You haven’t updated Outlook to the latest version.
2. Some programs on your system are conflicting with the Outlook.
3. Your system might be infected.
4. Windows is not up-to-date.
5. The Outlook data files are damaged.
6. You might have installed some add-ins that are interfering with Outlook’s process.
7. There might be some problem with the Outlook user profile.
8. The system is not having enough memory to run Outlook and associated operations.

To Fix Outlook Stopped Working or not Responding

Whenever users encounter an Outlook not responding issue, we tell them to stay calm and do nothing. Just give some time to Outlook to automatically getting back to the live state. Shocking though, but it really works like pure magic. In case your Outlook still continues to freeze then it’s time to take some advanced measures. Following are the troubleshooting steps that should work upon to turn “oh! Outlook stopped working” to “yeah! Outlook started working”. Let’s get started.

Step 1. Stop the hanging Outlook from Task Manager

When troubled Outlook.exe continues to work in the background it won’t allow a fresh Outlook program to run hassle-free. To fix it you must first close all the Outlook-related programs from the Task Manager.

1. Press the CTRL+ALT+Delete button on your keyboard to open the Task Manager.
2. The Task Manager window appears in front of you.
3. Click the Process tab, locate the Outlook files with the name Outlook.exe.
4. Click over each process one by one and click the End Process button thereafter.
5. Restart Outlook, if it starts responding now, quite the steps here, and if it doesn’t then try to run Outlook in Safe mode.

Step 2. Start Outlook in safe mode and remove add-ins

Running Outlook in safe mode resolves the Processing screen error. The below instructions will help you start Outlook in safe mode.

1. Close the Outlook.
2. Now choose any of the below options depending on your Windows OS.

For Windows 10

• Click the Start icon, type Outlook.exe /safe on the Search bar, and hit Enter.

For Windows 8

• Go to the Apps menu, select Run, enter Outlook /safe, and click Ok.

For Windows 7

• Click the Start icon, go to the Search programs and files, type Outlook /safe, and hit Enter.

3. Go to the File tab, click Add-ins, and click Go.
4. Remove the third-party add-ins and leave Microsoft add-ins.
5. Now you may close the Outlook and start it normally. These instructions should resolve the Processing screen problem.

Step 3. Check Event Viewer for any error

Event Viewer is an in-built tool in Windows that provides information about why is Outlook not responding or has stopped working. Checking Event Viewer is easy and you can do it by following the below instructions.

1. Click the Search bar, type event viewer.
2. Click the Event Viewer or View Event Logs.
3. Now the Event Viewer screen will open, click the Windows Logs to expand the list.
4. Select Application on the list.
5. On the new window, locate Outlook, Windows error, and Reporting written under the Source column.
6. Click over these rows one by one and eliminate the reasons causing these issues.

Step 4. Generate a new Outlook profile

A damaged Outlook profile is sometimes responsible for Outlook stopped working problems. In that case, creating a new Outlook profile remains the only option. Here is what you need to do.

1. Open the Control Panel on your system.
2. Click the Mail menu and click Show Profile in the dialogue box.
3. Click Add and name the profile under the Profile Name
4. Hit OK to confirm.
5. Now enter the primary email address and password.
6. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish creating a new Outlook profile.
7. After doing it, you should select the profile to be used under the Show Profiles section.
8. Finally, you can start Outlook and choose your new profile. If you are facing any trouble opening Outlook, then delete the old profile from the Show Profile

Step 5. Fix the Microsoft Office Installation

Here’s what you need to do to fix the damaged MS Office installation.

1. Open the Control Panel on your system.
2. Click the Uninstall program
3. On the next window, click the Microsoft office and then click Change.
4. A new window appears, click Quick repair and then click the Repair
5. In the end, restart Outlook to verify if the problem has been resolved or not.

Step 6. Repair the Outlook data (.PST) files

An Inbox Repair Tool (SCANSPST.EXE) comes preloaded on your system when you install Outlook on your system. This diagnostic tool can help you repair the PST files. Follow the below steps to run the tool.

1. Navigate to Windows Explorer on your system and search for SCANPST. It is generally found in the installation directory of MS Office and Outlook.
2. Open the SCANPST.EXE tool by double-clicking over it.
3. Now you should click the Browse button and choose the corrupted data file.
4. Click the Start button to scan the data file (.pst).
5. Click the Repair
6. Once the repair finishes, you should restart Outlook before starting to work on it.

See Also: How to Fix Outlook cannot Connect to Server Problem?

Still Outlook not responding! Talk to email experts

If none of these six steps work, then taking help from email experts remains the only noteworthy solution to get your Outlook back to life. If you have any queries in your mind or if your Outlook stopped working abruptly, just state it into the comment section, we will provide you the best solution.