4 Ways to Fix Outlook App Not Working on Mac

Quick Tips

• Your current Outlook profile may be corrupt. The Outlook Mail profile saves all the settings and configurations related to your account. You can create a new Outlook profile using Outlook Profile Manager.
• Open Disk Utility > First Aid > Run > follow the on-screen instructions.
• Open Outlook > click on Tools > select Get Add-ins > follow the on-screen instructions to remove your add-ins.

Basic Fixes

• Restart Outlook: Force quit and relaunch the Outlook app on your Mac to give it a fresh start.
• Update or reinstall Outlook: Installing the latest version of the app can surely fix this issue.

Fix 1: Create a New Outlook Profile

Your current Outlook profile may be corrupt. The Outlook Mail profile saves all the settings and configurations related to your account. You can create a new Outlook profile by using Outlook Profile Manager and check if your original Profile is corrupted or not.

Step 1: Open Finder and click on Applications from the left menu.

Step 2: Look for Microsoft Outlook, right-click on it to reveal options, and select Show Package Contents.

Step 3: Double-click on Contents > Shared Support.

Step 4: In the Shared Support window, double-click on Outlook Profile Manager.

Step 5: After the Outlook Profile Manager opens, click the Plus icon at the bottom to add a new profile.

Step 6: Assign a name to the profile and press Return.

Step 7: Select the newly created profile > click on the three dots at the bottom.

Step 8: Select Set As Default.

If the Outlook app starts working properly, it means that your original profile got corrupted.

However, you must repair the Outlook app so that it doesn’t disrupt your workflow. Follow these steps to repair the same.

Step 1: In the Outlook Profile Manager window, select the newly created profile.

Step 2: Click the minus icon at the bottom to delete it.

Step 3: Click on Delete to confirm your choice.

Step 4: Close the Outlook Profile Manager and open Finder. Select Go from the top Menu Bar and select Go to Folder.

Step 5: Type the following path in the search box and click the first result:

 ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data

Step 6: From the Data window, select and drag Outlook.sqlite file to the Desktop.

Step 7: Open the Outlook app and click on Repair when you see the notification.

Fix 2: Run First Aid in Disk Utility

The Disk Utility app on your Mac allows you to examine both the internal and external storage devices connected to your Mac. It also allows you to format the storage drive and create partitions. If the Outlook app does not work on Mac, we suggest using the First Aid feature to check and repair possible storage errors. Follow these steps.

Step 1: Open Disk Utility on your Mac and click on First Aid.

Step 2: Click on Run to start First Aid.

Step 3: Click on Continue to confirm your choice.

Step 4: Once Disk Utility repairs your disk, close the window and try launching the Outlook app.

Fix 3: Disable Preview for Encrypted Email

Outlook offers an Encryption feature to protect any confidential information you share in your email message. This feature is useful when you don’t trust the recipient’s email provider to be secure. If the Outlook app is still not working on your Mac, you should try disabling the Preview feature for Encrypted email, which might be freezing the app. Follow these steps.

Step 1: Force Quit the Outlook app by following the steps mentioned above.

Step 2: Open Terminal on your Mac.

Step 3: In the Terminal app, type the following command and press Return.

defaults write com.microsoft.Outlook DisablePreviewForSMIME 1

Step 4: After this, enter the following command and press Return.

killall cfprefsd

Step 5: Close the Terminal app and restart your Mac.

Tip: If you wish to improve your email productivity, check our list of best Outlook keyboard shortcuts.

Fix 4: Disable Add-ins

Outlook add-ins are integrations built by third parties into Outlook using our web-based platform. However, sometimes, these add-ins can prevent the app from working properly on your Mac. So, we suggest removing a few add-ins that you don’t require a lot.

Open Outlook > click on Tools > select Get Add-ins > follow the on-screen instructions to remove your add-ins.