Basic MS Outlook Troubleshooting

When experiencing issues with MS Outlook, here are a few basic troubleshooting steps you can do:

  1. Check the user’s internet connectivity – is he/she connected to the internet?
  2. Check if MS Outlook is in ‘Work Offline’ mode under the ‘File’ menu.
  3. Check if the user is able to send/receive emails in ‘webmail‘ mode.*
  4. If using MS Outlook 2007, use the ‘repair‘ option under ‘Email Account Settings’.
  5. If possible, configure a test/dummy email account and check if it is a problem with MS Outlook.*
  6. Run ‘Outlook Diagnostics‘ under the ‘Help‘ menu (in MS Outlook 2007).
  7. If the user is using MS Outlook 2003, try ‘Detect & Repair‘ under the ‘Help’ menu.
  8. If there is a specific error number, Google it for any specific solution.
  9. Create a new user profile and check if it is a problem with the user’s current MS Outlook profile.
  10. Check with any of the MS Outlook ‘Run‘ commands (as appropriate and necessary.)
  11. If nothing works, reinstall MS Outlook.

Given below are some of the commonly used MS Outlook ‘Run’ Commands:

Click Start then choose Run then type each of the following commands followed by <<Enter>>

1: Outlook /Safe (Opens the outlook in Safe mode)
2: Outlook /Cleanprofile (cleans the profile)
3: Outlook /cleanfreebusy (while using meeting planner to check the free-busy information)
4: Outlook /cleanreminders (Clean the reminders)
5: outlook /cleanviews

* – In this situation you can refer the user to the service provider.