Outlook error “not responding” won’t open or launch

Took a call today from a client who said their Outlook would not open or launch, gave a “not responding” error.

This is an easy fix for me and I’ll share with you as an Outlook Expert a few things you can try on your own, and if you need help, call me.

First off, reinstalling Outlook will not fix this issue. Might but I have never done that, so I don’t recommend you do that.

I do recommend you check out how much email you have on your server. You can start by checking your inbox mail count. Look at the bottom left area of your Outlook window and you can see how many emails are in your Inbox. If you see over 10,000….this is a cause for concern. If you have that many in your inbox, then you probably have many more in the sent and deleted folders. I recommend creating a new PST file and moving those emails to the PST file. Don’t fret, Outlook can still search those emails even if they are not on your server.

Next…try checking your add-ins.

Go to File in the upper right corner, go to Options, then on the side bar you will find “Add-ins”

In this window at the bottom, you will see a “go” button, click on that and another window will open. See everything that is checked and determine what you don’t need opening with Outlook. If you are on an Exchange server, be sure to leave that box checked as well as any other 3rd party apps you must use (iCloud, PDF maker, etc).

Now after you have moved emails and unchecked unnecessary Outlook add-ins, close outlook (File/Exit) and re-launch. You might need to do this two times to get it working right.

If you need my help, please fill out my appt scheduler below and I’ll help you with this issue! Thanks for reading and please share if this was helpful for you with my social media share buttons above!

Lisa Hendrickson
Outlook Expert
612-865-4475