Fix Outlook crashes when sending an email

Does your Outlook crash when sending an email? If yes, this post may help you fix it. Here, we will describe the ways to troubleshoot the problem. Some users are complaining that whenever they try to send a new or reply to an existing email in Outlook, it crashes. If the same problem happens to you, you can try the solutions described below.

How do I stop Outlook from crashing?

In most cases, there could be faulty Add-ins that cause Outlook to not respond, freeze, or even crash. If Outlook crashes on your system, you should try to troubleshoot it in the Safe Mode. This will help you identify the faulty Add-in (if any). Apart from that, you may also experience crashing or freezing problems with Outlook if your Outlook profile is corrupted. You can confirm this by creating a new profile. If this fixes the issue, you have to move all your emails from the old profile to the new one and delete the old (problematic) profile.

Fix Outlook crashes when sending an email

This problem generally occurs if you have a POP3 account and Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox in the same profile. However, the users with no Exchange Server account may also experience this problem. If Outlook crashes on your system while sending or replying to an email, the following tips may help you fix it:

Change the delivery location of your POP3 email account.
Troubleshoot Outlook in the Safe Mode.
Reset Outlook AutoComplete list.
Repair or reinstall Microsoft Office.

Let’s see these solutions in detail.

1] Change the delivery location of your POP3 email account

As we have explained earlier in this article, that usually the problem occurs if you have a Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox and POP3 account in the same profile. The problem also occurs if the folder selected as the default delivery location in your POP3 account does not exist. To fix this issue, you have to change the delivery location in your POP3 email account. The steps to do this are as follows:

Close Outlook if it is already running.
Launch Control Panel.
Select Category in the View by mode and click on the User accounts option.
Now, click Mail. Mail setup popup window will arrive.
Click on the E-mail accounts button. This will open your Account settings, which list all your Outlook accounts.
In the Account settings window, click on the E-mail tab and select your POP3 email account, you are experiencing the problem with.
Click on the Change folder button available on the bottom left side.
Select another folder or create a new one and click OK. Now, close all the opened windows and start Outlook.

This should fix the issue. If the problem still exists, there might be an Add-in causing Outlook to crash. To fix this issue, you have to troubleshoot Outlook in the Safe Mode. We have explained the process below.

2] Troubleshoot Outlook in Safe Mode

The Safe Mode launches Outlook with a minimal set of Add-ins. This will help you identify the faulty Add-in (if it exists). Follow the steps below:

First, close Outlook if it is already running.
Launch the Run command box by pressing Win + R keys.
Type outlook.exe /safe and click OK.
Select your Outlook profile that you want to launch in the Safe Mode from the drop-down menu and click OK. When Outlook is launched in the Safe Mode, there should be Microsoft Outlook (Safe Mode) written on its top.
Now, go to “File > Options.” In the Outlook Options window, select Add-ins from the left side.
On the right side, select COM Add-ins in the Manage drop-down menu and click on the Go button. Write down the names of the disabled Add-ins.

Now, close the COM Add-ins window and send a test email in the Outlook Safe Mode, and see what happens. If:

Case 1: Outlook crashes, this means that one of the Add-ins enabled in the Safe Mode is the culprit.
Case 2: Outlook does not crash, it means that one of the Add-ins disabled in the Safe Mode is the culprit.

Case 1

Launch Outlook in the Safe Mode again and disable the Add-ins one by one in the Safe Mode. Send a test mail after disabling each Add-in. When Outlook does not crash after disabling a particular Add-in, that Add-in is the culprit of the problem. Now, you can leave that Add-in disabled or remove it permanently from the Outlook app.

To disable the Add-in, simply deselect it and click OK.

Case 2

Write down the names of the disabled Add-ins and exit Outlook Safe Mode. After that, launch it in normal mode. You will see that in the normal mode, all Add-ins are enabled, Now, you have to disable only those Add-ins which were not enabled in the Safe Mode. After disabling each Add-in, send a test mail. This will help you find the culprit Add-in. Once you find it, you can leave it disabled or remove it.

3] Reset Outlook AutoComplete list

Outlook has an AutoComplete list feature. You might have noticed when you type the first letter of the sender’s email address, Outlook shows the matching results so that you can skip typing and select the sender’s email address directly from the suggestions. These email suggestions come from Outlook’s AutoComplete list.

Some users stated that they were facing the issue due to the Outlook AutoComplete list feature. The issue was fixed when they cleared or reset this list. You can also try this.

The steps to clear or reset the Outlook AutoComplete list are as follows:

Launch Microsoft Outlook.
Go to “File > Options.”
Select the Mail category from the left side.
Scroll down the right side until you find the Send Messages section. Click on the Empty Auto-Complete List button.
You will receive a confirmation message, click Yes.

You can also reset or clear the AutoComplete list in Outlook from the Run Command box. The steps for the same are written below:

First, close Outlook if it is already opened.
Launch the Run command box by pressing Win + R keys.
Type Outlook.exe /CleanAutoCompleteCache and click OK. This will launch Outlook after clearing the AutoComplete List data.

After resetting the AutoComplete list, check if the issue is fixed or not.

4] Repair or reinstall Microsoft Office

You might be experiencing this issue due to corruption in Microsoft Office. In such a case, repairing Microsoft Outlook can help. If this does not fix the issue, you can try reinstalling Microsoft office.

How do I fix Outlook not sending emails?

If Outlook is not sending emails, first, you should check a few things before troubleshooting it. You should check:

Your internet connection. If your internet is not working fine, you may experience such types of issues with Outlook.
Receiver’s address. Sometimes, the receiver’s address that we enter is incorrect. Due to this, we receive the Sending failed error message on Outlook.

If these things are ok, your Outlook profile may be corrupted or the problem may be associated with some Add-ins. In such a case, you should troubleshoot Outlook in the Safe Mode and repair Microsoft Office. Also, there might be some settings in Outlook that are preventing you from sending emails.

How do I fix Outlook not sending emails?

If Outlook is not sending emails, first, you should check a few things before troubleshooting it. You should check: Your internet connection. If your internet is not working fine, you may experience such types of issues with Outlook. Receiver’s address. Sometimes, the receiver’s address that we enter is incorrect. Due to this, we receive the Sending failed error message on Outlook.

Hope this article helped you solve your problem.