Outlook Not Responding – Fix Outlook Error with Easy Solutions

Summary: Have you ever faced a situation where Outlook hangs on loading profile or Outlook not responding? Unfortunately, almost every computer program has issues, and Microsoft Outlook is no exception. In this article, we will discuss some easy solutions that help fix the Outlook error, “Outlook not responding.”

Microsoft Outlook is a great email client, and there is no doubt about it. But, don’t forget that Microsoft Outlook is a computer program. And just like any other program, problems are bound to happen with the MS Outlook application. I have often seen Outlook users complaining about the abnormal behavior of Outlook. Some say that Outlook hangs on loading profiles, or Outlook keeps freezing. There are several possible reasons why Outlook behaves this way.

Reason for “Outlook Not Responding” Issue

“Outlook Not Responding” is a typical issue seen by Outlook users. There are various possible causes for this error, some of which are listed below.

• If your mailbox is huge and includes a significant number of emails, attachments, or other data, Outlook’s performance may suffer and it may become unresponsive.
• Third-party Outlook add-ins can occasionally conflict with one another or with the application itself, resulting in performance difficulties and the “Outlook Not Responding” message.
• Problems with the network connection or the Exchange server might cause Outlook to freeze or display the “Not Responding” warning.
• Running an old version of Outlook or an unsupported operating system might cause compatibility and stability difficulties.

Best Solutions to Fix “Outlook Not Responding” Error

When encountering the “Outlook Not Responding” error, here are some of the best solutions to try:

1. Close Other Programs/applications
2. Turn Off Antivirus
3. Run Outlook in Safe Mode
4. Cancel Hanging Processes within Outlook
5. Disable Outlook Add-ins
6. Reduce Outlook Data File Size
7. Repair Office Installation
8. Repair Outlook Data File

Solution #1 – Close Other Programs/applications

Do you know that Microsoft Outlook is the most complex program in the Office suite? Sometimes Outlook keeps freezing just because there are so many other applications opened on your computer. Generally, Outlook hangs on loading profiles or performing any other operation because it is not getting enough memory. It often happens when you are using outdated PCs having low internal memory. However, you may experience this situation even if you use a modern computer with enough memory. So it is better to close all other programs while using Microsoft Outlook.

Solution #2 – Turn Off Antivirus

Do not forget to add the Outlook application and its add-ins to the trusted list of your Antivirus program. If still, you are facing the same issue, maybe you should try to turn off the Antivirus program and check if Outlook is working fine. If it is, this means your Antivirus program is causing this problem. To resolve this issue, make sure the Antivirus program you are using is updated. If you are using an outdated or over-protective Antivirus software, it may conflict with Microsoft Outlook or any of the Outlook add-ins you have installed. Consequently, the Antivirus program will block the add-ins and stop Outlook from functioning properly. Also, ensure that a reliable and trusted vendor provides the Antivirus program you are using. A good Antivirus program has no compatibility issues with Microsoft Office applications.

Solution #3 – Run Outlook in Safe Mode

Whenever something goes wrong with Microsoft Outlook, it is strongly recommended to run Outlook in safe mode. If you run Outlook in safe mode, this will allow Outlook to be loaded without the add-ins and other customization files. To run Outlook in safe mode, click on the Outlook icon by pressing the Ctrl key or enter “outlook.exe/safe” in the command line. After that, a confirmation message appears on the screen asking if you want to start Outlook in safe mode. You need to click Yes to run Outlook in safe mode.

Solution #4 – Cancel Hanging Processes within Outlook

It becomes very annoying to work with Microsoft Outlook if it starts hanging continuously. Have you ever faced a situation where you keep trying to close Outlook, but it keeps hanging? Or maybe a situation where you try to delete or move a large number of emails from one folder to another? In any of these situations, the Outlook application starts hanging. But you never know that it is working fine behind the scenes. It would help if you waited for a few minutes so that Outlook could finish the process and start working normally again. Sometimes it may also happen that one or more Outlook processes are running in the background. It may prevent Outlook from working normally. To resolve this issue, go to the Windows Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del keys or simply right-clicking the taskbar and choosing “Start Task Manager.” You can then switch to the Processes tab to find all the outlook.exe items on the list. You can select and cancel them by clicking the “End Process” button one by one.

Solution #5 – Disable Outlook Add-ins

If the above solutions do not work for you, maybe you should fix the Outlook error by disabling Outlook add-ins. Sometimes the unexpected issue “Outlook not responding” may occur due to a faulty Outlook add-in. If you have recently installed some add-ins, it is recommended to disable them one by one and perform the action whatever you were doing before. If Outlook is working fine, this means the real culprit was one of the add-ins you installed earlier. Make sure that you always download the Outlook add-ins from a reliable source.

Solution #6 – Reduce Outlook Data File Size

Sometimes a large Outlook data file can also be the main reason Outlook is unresponsive. An Outlook data file has a specific size limit of 20 GB. In older versions of Outlook, it is just 2 GB. Whenever the file size reaches its maximum limit, Outlook keeps freezing while using it. There are many ways by which you can resolve this issue, such as:

• Instead of storing all your email messages in a single mailbox folder, you should create multiple subfolders to keep those emails. Let us suppose that Outlook has stored thousands of emails in the Inbox folder. You open the folder to read an old email. Since thousands of email messages are stored in that very folder, Outlook will take more than enough time to open. And if you click any of the emails while Outlook is loading the mailbox folder, this may freeze the Outlook program, or it may start hanging. You can overcome this situation by simply creating a few subfolders to put your email messages.
• It is also recommended to compact the PST file when it reaches its maximum size limit. Remember, if you delete some of the unwanted email messages from the Outlook data file, it does not reduce the file size. The file can only be reduced by compacting the Outlook data file using the built-in Compact feature of Outlook. Before compacting the PST file, do not forget to empty the Deleted Items folder.
• If the PST file size is really large, you can split a large PST file into two or multiple parts. By doing this, you will have multiple PST files of small size that can easily be opened in Outlook.

Solution #7 – Repair Office Installation

You are likely to face unwanted issues like Outlook not responding, hanging, crashing, or freezing if there is some problem with the Microsoft Office suite. So it is better to repair Office installation and check if the issue gets resolved. To repair Office installation, follow the easy steps given below:

• First of all, close all the Office applications running on your system.
• Then open Control Panel, and find Microsoft Office in the list of installed applications. Note: If you use Windows 8, 7, or Vista, you can find it under Programs and Features. Or, if you are using Windows XP or any earlier version, you can find it under Add or Remove Programs.
• Right-click Microsoft Office, and click Change.
• The Microsoft Office Professional dialog box will appear on the screen. Select Repair and click Continue to repair Office installation.

Solution #8 – Repair Outlook Data File

If none of the above solutions work for you, maybe there is some issue with the Outlook data file. As a last resort, you should repair the Outlook data file. You can use the Inbox Repair tool, aka scanpst utility, to scan the Outlook data files (both OST and PST) and resolve the corruption errors if found. Once the Outlook data file is successfully repaired, you can open it in Outlook, and you will notice that Outlook starts working normally with no crashing or hanging issues. To repair Outlook data file, follow the easy steps given below:

• First, you need to locate the scanpst utility. Open Task Manager on your computer, and go to the Processes tab.
• Then right-click Outlook and select “Open File Location.” In this file location, you can find the Inbox Repair tool by the name scanpst.exe.
• Before running the scanpst utility, make sure that Outlook is closed. Double-click the scanpst utility to launch the Inbox Repair tool.
• On the Inbox Repair tool, click the Browse button and go to the folder where the PST files are saved. Select the PST file that you want to repair.
• Click the Start button to initiate the scanning process. It may take some time to scan the corrupt PST file, so do not cancel the process.
• Once the scanning process is completed, you will see an error report.
• To repair the errors found during the scanning process, click the Repair button.

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed a very common problem many Outlook users face, i.e., Outlook hangs on loading profile or Outlook keeps freezing. I have shared 8 different solutions that can help you fix Outlook errors like Outlook not responding. I hope the information shared above will be helpful for Outlook users.

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