Corrupt Email Crashes Outlook

Causes of Outlook crash

Among various issues one major and common cause is that Outlook crashes when opening certain emails.

There are many possible ways to detect corrupt emails or to stop Outlook opening the corrupt mail, but before this I would discuss general query of users related to corrupt email crashes Outlook. The query mentioned below is asked by several users and I captured this from a Forum website

"I have a junk mail in my Outlook which cause my Outlook crashes every time when it gets selected. Moreover, it is junk but still delete option won't be working and again it crashing my Outlook. does I have to uninstall my Outlook?"

• This is the common issue which has been reported by users and it causes that the corrupt emails can't be deleted. Every time outlook crashes when opening certain emails which was deleted by users.
• Uninstalling the Outlook won't solve this issue as the mail is in Outlook database file or moreover it is saved in server which means uninstalling won't make the corrupt email disappear from mailbox.

Possible ways to stop crash

• Outlook getting crashed because it displays the error mail in reading pane & not when user select it.
• Well it seems a bit easier after knowing the exact situation. It means if you can disable the reading pane then you can delete a corrupt email in Outlook without crash.
• Different outlook user has different default settings for disabling Reading pane. Well undermentioned are DIY steps to disable Reading pane.

How to delete a corrupt email which crashes Outlook?

Well these are some steps enabling user to cope from Outlook crashing. You can temporarily disable the reading pane via Safe Mode and then deletes the corrupt email. Let’s have a look on the undermentioned steps: -

• If that error mail is in inbox top list, then it will auto crash the outlook every time it got triggered. It will not allow you to disable reading pane then.
• To cope this situation starts Outlook in Safe Mode.
• Well question arise now – Why to start Outlook Safe Mode?
• Outlook safe mode simply starts Outlook with reading pane disabled hence aids to delete the corrupt mail in outlook without crashing.

Outlook Safe Mode

To start Outlook safe Mode, check the following procedure: -

• For Windows vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8
• Start
• Search panel > Type: outlook.exe /safe
• For windows XP
• Start
• Open Run or use keyboard shortcut Windows + R
• Open Command Prompt
• Type outlook.exe/safe

Point to be noted that in command prompt there is no space given to the syntax, while in the previous one space is necessary.

Now after starting Outlook Safe Mode follow the steps: -

• As your reading pane is disabled now click on the corrupt mail
• Or right click on the corrupt mail directly from the side panel without opening it.
• Now perform delete action & your corrupt mail is deleted from inbox.
• Now check in trash and deleted folder and make it deleted from trash folder also.
• Now restart outlook in normal mode as you do always.

Other Quick solutions

If the Outlook safe mode doesn?t work and your Outlook is still crashing, then there is the possibility that your Outlook database (.pst) file is damaged. You can simply diagnose your pst file. Check the following steps mentioned below to diagnose.

• The PST can be repaired by executing the Inbox repair tool – scanpst.exe located at your system locally
• The location of scanpst.exe is different for vary Outlook version.
• This first-aid kit scans pst file and make it usable again.

Location of scanpst.exe

For Outlook 2016

• 32-bit windows C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
• 64-bit Windows C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16

Note:- Other Locations are mentioned below for scanpst.exe