Outlook App Won 039;t Start Up On My Mac
Lora Ceasor
Are you having trouble starting Outlook 2016, Outlook 2013, or Outlook 2010, or receiving "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window" error messages? We can fix the problem for you, or you can use the troubleshooting steps we're providing below to help resolve these startup issues.
If Outlook is able to start in safe mode, then the problem is likely with one of your add-ins. You'll need to disable all of your add-ins before restarting Outlook, as described in the following procedures:
Your profile contains your Outlook settings. Occasionally, that profile can become corrupted. You can determine if it's corrupted by creating a new profile and changing which profile is used when Outlook starts.
Note, the Outlook command line switch /pim creates a new profile each time you start a program. So, when you run the command line you need to pass a unique profile name to be created.
A few weeks ago I had to add another network for a sister company that moved in, they now also use the same UTM. This also worked fine ...but... since then, starting Outlook takes ages. On some PCs, it also takes 5 minutes to start Outlook. After that, everything is fine, and web surfing generally is not affected.
The error message "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. The information store could not be opened" typically indicates an issue with the Outlook profile or the Outlook data file (PST/OST). Here are a few troubleshooting steps you can try to resolve the problem:
1. Start Outlook in Safe Mode: Try opening Outlook in Safe Mode, which disables any add-ins or extensions that might be causing conflicts. To start Outlook in Safe Mode, press the Windows key + R, then enter "outlook.exe /safe" in the Run dialog box.
If you're encountering the error message "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. The information store could not be opened," it suggests that there may be a problem with your Outlook profile or the Outlook data files. Here are some steps you can follow to troubleshoot the issue:
Start Outlook in Safe Mode: Launch Outlook in Safe Mode to see if any add-ins or extensions are causing the problem. To do this, press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box, then type outlook.exe /safe and press Enter. If Outlook opens in Safe Mode, disable any recently installed add-ins or extensions and restart Outlook normally.
As easy as this is supposed to be, I tried various other methods (Windows 7); stupid MS removed the ability to set this from within Outlook (2010); and the shortcuts in Start menu did not have the 'open file location' option, even the one under 'All Programs/MS Office' - it was only after I did a "search" for outlook by clicking Start and typing in search window, that it showed this option ! What a harrowing hour for a measly shortcut !!
This will open the Startup location in the File Explorer. Next from the Start Menu right click the program you want to have startup (Outlook in this case) and select More->Open File Location this will open the location of the program Shortcut. Finally copy and paste the shortcut into the Startup Folder.
Open the Region Settings dialog box again, uncheck the check box for Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support and restart your computer.
This step is recommended to avoid potential compatibility issues between the beta option and the applications installed on your computer.
Getting Outlook to work again properly when experiencing startup errors, crashes or hangs (Not Responding in the Title Bar) often is not that hard but it does require some specific knowledge about the inner workings of Outlook.
Did Outlook still work correctly the last time you used it? If so, you probably can skip this solution. If it never worked before or if you are starting Outlook for the very first time, it could very well be that you have not configured your mail account correctly. A common mistake is choosing for an Exchange account while in fact you are using a POP3 or IMAP account.
If you are still using Outlook 2007 or previous, Outlook stores several settings in dat-files which get loaded upon startup. These files sometimes get corrupted and renaming them to .old could get you back into Outlook then. Outlook 2010 and later do no longer use these files so if you are using Outlook 2010 or later, you can skip this step.
Solution:
Start Outlook in Safe Mode again and disable all your add-ins. After this, you can start Outlook normally again and see if it works now. If so, you can enable them one by one until Outlook fails to load again. The add-in you last enabled is most likely the cause of your issue. Uninstall or reinstall this add-in or check with the vendor for updates or contact them for further troubleshooting their add-in.
You're now ready to use your new Google Account and all the Google Workspace tools from Outlook or the Google Workspace web interface. For tips on what to do next, go to steps 5 and 6 of Get started with GWSMO.
Cannot open your Outlook 2013, Outlook 2016 or Outlook 2019? In this article you will find really working solutions for "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook" problem that will help you have your Outlook up and running again with no errors. The fixes work in all versions of Outlook and on all systems.
The main symptom of this problem is very obvious and easily recognizable: you click Outlook's icon, an hourglass appears and is hanging for a while, and then you get the "Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook" error.
Anyway, whatever the reason is, the outcome is the same - you cannot open the Outlook window because of this error: "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened."There may be a few variations of this message depending on which Outlook version you use.
Outlook 2003: "Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook window. Invalid XML, the view cannot be loaded."
How to fix "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook" issue - universal solutionsNow that you know what causes problems on Outlook start up, let's see how we can get them fixed. Below you will find the troubleshooting steps for 4 most common problems that prevent Outlook from starting correctly, listed in order of frequency and efficiency:
In most cases it is the corrupted Navigation Pane settings file that prevents Outlook from starting successfully, so the first thing you need to do is to mend it. Here's how you can do this on different operating systems:
Note: An automatic fix for "Outlook unable to start" problem is available of Microsoft's site for Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP. Simply click "Fix this problem" link on this page.
If you have reinstalled Outlook recently and something went wrong during uninstallation of the previous version, the default Outlook data file (.pst / .ost) might have been deleted or damaged, which is why Outlook won't open. In this case you are likely to get this error: "Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. The file Outlook.pst is not a personal folders file."
Alternatively, you can click Start and type scanpst.exe in the Search box.
- Click the Browse button to select your default Outlook.pst file.In Outlook 2010 - 2019, the PST file resides in the Documents\Outlook Files folder. If you upgraded to Outlook 2010 on a computer that already had data files created in previous versions, you will find the outlook.pst file in a hidden folder in these locations:
Try to open Outlook and if it starts without errors, congratulations! You do not need the remainder of this article : ) Or maybe, it's worth to bookmark it for the future.
Turn off Compatibility mode in OutlookWhen it comes to using compatibility mode in Outlook, let me quote a wisdom that Outlook's guru Diane Poremsky shared on her blog: "If you enabled compatibility mode, disable it. If you haven't, don't even consider it."
Alternatively, you can find outlook.exe in the default installation folder: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office version. Where Office version is Office15 if you are using Office 2013, Office14 for Office 2010 and so on.
- Right-click on OUTLOOK.EXE, and then click Properties.
- Switch to the Compatibility tab and be sure to clear the "Run this program in compatibility mode for" check box.
- Click OK and try to start Outlook.
For full details, see Microsoft's step-by-step guidance on creating a new Outlook profile.
- Set the new profile as the default one. On the "Account Setting" dialog > Data files tab, select the new profile and click the Set as Default button on the toolbar.After you do this, a tick will appear to the left of the newly created profile, as you see in the screenshot below.
- Try to open Outlook and if it starts normally with the newly created profile, copy the data from your old .pst file as explained in the next step, and continue working with it.
- Import data from the old Outlook PST file. Hopefully, now you can finally open Outlook but your PST file is new and therefore empty. Don't panic, this is not a problem at all compared to the one you've just solved : ) Perform the following steps to copy emails, calendar appointments and other items from your old .pst file.
- Go to File > Open > Import.
- Select "Import from another program of file" and click Next.
- Choose "Outlook DataFile (.pst)" and click Next.
- Click the Browse button and select your old .pst file. If you've had just one Outlook profile and never renamed the PST file, then most likely it will be Outlook.pst.
- Click Next and then Finish to complete the migration process.Warning! If your old Outlook PST file was severely damaged and the repair procedure was not successful, you may get "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. The set of folders cannot be opened" error again. If this case, the only way is to create a new profile and use it without importing data from the old .pst file.