With this post, I am going to enlighten you about some common causes and how to Fix Outlook Not Responding and Outlook Crashing or freezing. Microsoft Outlook is Microsoft’s desktop email client app for desktop computers. It is the most ‘in-use’ email client incorporates. Please see How to Fix Microsoft Edge Not Responding, How to Fix Microsoft Edge Not Responding on Windows 11, and How to stop Outlook from opening links in Edge Browser.

Based on the popularity and positive feedback emails from consumers, this email client is now available in Outlook 2013 version. Users often face some random issues that lead to Outlook crashing sometimes when it is launched. Or sometimes while opening or forwarding an email message.

Exit hanging Outlook process through Task Manager

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Possible causes for this issue “Outlook Crashing or freezing”

To learn the Possible causes for this issue “Outlook Not Responding and Outlook Crashing or freezing. It has often been seen that closing Outlook sometimes creates annoying hanging issues and prompts random messages, like ‘Wait for the program to respond or Close the Program’.

Generally, we click ‘Close the Program’ and think that the issues will be resolved. However, when we open Outlook again, it will not launch. In technical terms, the issue is caused because some instance of Outlook is still running.

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I do not want you to identify the cause and then choose an appropriate solution out of the ones I am going to provide. I simply want you to follow the below-mentioned steps to resolve the issues you have been facing while using Outlook 2013, 2010, 2007, and earlier versions. They are as follows

The computer is virus or malware infected
A hardware issue might be responsible
Corrupt Outlook installation
Corrupt or damaged Outlook data file, and
Some Outlook add-ins might be causing issues

In order to fix the issue, launch Windows Task Manager (press ‘ALT + CTRL + Del’ keys or right-click the taskbar and choose Task Manager) and switch to the Processes tab. Select all Outlook.exe programs and click the ‘End Process’ button to kill them forcibly.

Run Outlook in Safe Mode

Running Outlook in Safe mode is quite a better idea, which even Microsoft recommends. In Safe mode, Outlook launches without customization files and add-ins, and you can easily figure out if some issue is there in add-ins and/or customization files.

Booting Outlook in Safe Mode

This requires you to click the Outlook icon while holding down the Ctrl key. Or else, type cmd.exe in the Run window and hit the Enter key to open a command prompt.

Type outlook.exe/safe and hit the Enter key. Click Yes on a confirmation message pop-up. If it starts normally, it confirms the issue with add-ins.

Disable Outlook Add-ins

In case you have not seen the ‘Outlook Not Responding’ issue before, the problem must be in a recently installed add-in. Therefore, you need to disable the faulty add-in.

To disable a faulty add-in in Outlook 2007, navigate to Tools > Trust Center > Add-ins > Go, whilst in Outlook 2010 and 2013, follow File tab > Options > Add-ins > Go. Simply uncheck the add-in you want to disable and exit the dialog box.

Repair Outlook Data File

MS Outlook has an inbuilt inbox repair tool (Scanpst.exe) to scan the Outlook inbox for errors and repair them instantly. If you run Outlook 2010, follow C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOFFICE14, or in Outlook 2013, follow C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOFFICE15 to launch Scanpst.exe.

To run inbox repair tool, double-click the Scanpst.exe file and click Browse to locate the Outlook.pst file and then continue with the repair process.

Repair Microsoft Office Suite

In case the problem persists even after the aforementioned fixes are done trying, you must try repairing the Office suite installed on your computer. For this, first close all Office programs, and then go to Control Panel.

Open ‘Add or Remove Programs’ in Windows XP or ‘Program and Features’ in Windows 7 or Vista or the latest version of Windows. Highlight Office and click Change, and then proceed with the repair process.

If nothing helps you out, back up the Outlook.pst file and reinstall Outlook on your computer. Later, import the Outlook.pst file into Outlook.

I hope you found this blog post helpful on how to Fix Outlook Not Responding and Outlook Crashing or freezing. Please let me know in the comment section if you have any questions.