Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac Preview – Outlook Crashes after Fresh Install? Fix Included

Last updated on November 1st, 2016 by App Shah 72 Comments

Microsoft has just released brand new Microsoft Office 2016 preview for Mac. Have you downloaded and installed Mac Preview Edition? I just did and it worked perfectly fine except Outlook crash each time when I start the Microsoft Outlook.app.

Here are the symptoms:

Microsoft Error Reporting log version: 2.0

Error Signature:

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS

Date/Time: 2015-03-05 21:15:11 +0000

Application Name: Microsoft Outlook

Application Bundle ID: com.microsoft.Outlook

Application Signature: OPIM

Application Version: 15.8.150303

Crashed Module Name: OutlookCore

Crashed Module Version: 15.8.150303

Crashed Module Offset: 0x0003d1c4

Blame Module Name: OutlookCore

Blame Module Version: 15.8.150303

Blame Module Offset: 0x0003d1c4

Application LCID: 1033

Extra app info: Reg=en Loc=0x0409

Crashed thread: 32

How to fix this error?

Well there is a simple solution to fix it. Just execute below two commands on Terminal.app and you should be all set.

1	defaults delete com.microsoft.Outlook - to delete old preferences

1	killall cfprefsd - to kill cached preferences

After above steps, just launch the Outlook application and you should be all set. Just don’t import anything from Mac 2011 installs.

This issue doesn’t impact old Outlook 2011 application – it works without issue.

Where is my Database File for Outlook 2011 and 2016? The Outlook database is completely separate from the one used in Outlook 2011.

Outlook 2011 uses

~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities

Outlook 2016 uses

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

Enjoy New Office. So far it’s all good.

Would love to know what you think. Chime in and share it as a comment. Don’t forget to share this guide!

About App Shah

Hello & Good Day. I'm an Engineer by profession, Blogger by passion & Founder of Crunchify, LLC, the largest free blogging & technical resource site for beginners. Love SEO, SaaS, #webperf, WordPress, Java. With more than 14 millions pageviews/month, Crunchify has changed the life of over thousands of individual around the globe teaching Java & Web Tech for FREE. Get latest update on and .

Andreas Niemann

It fix my problem “at that moment” and i can work with outlook, but every time i restart my computer, it crashes again and i have to do steps above again 🙁

Any one with the same problem?
- App Shah
  
  Hi Andreas – i never faced this issue on my mac. Let’s wait for others to chime in.
  - Abhishek Dhiman
    
    Didnt work for me either. I am on 10.11.03 Mac OS
    - App Shah
      
      Hi Abhishek – which Outlook version are you on? I’m on 15.19.1. No issue so far.
Joshua Cagle

Honestly, Outlook 2016 is the biggest piece of shit I have ever used. Crashing, horrible bugs, with each version I cringe. I have to support over 100 of the horrible clients and I can’t stand it anymore. I am struggling so hard that I can’t even get my own Outlook client to work correctly on my workstation. Microsoft needs to ditch all this shitty code and start from scratch or emulate the Windows version.
- App Shah
  
  Hi Joshua – interesting. I’ve been using it on my Mac since day one without any issue. Any special action which leads to Outlook crash? From my point – i’m 100% happy with it.
ABR

No data get in my outlook 2016, just empty. I there anyway get all account setting and date same to same 2011 to 2016?
lloyd

I see now. Name appears in red. Checked history. Yes, posts were removed from Karma. (My order just shipped – as opposed to the original date of last October. Sorry.)
lloyd

To the editors:
Have no idea what is going on here. One post read minutes ago. No one now seems to have posted within months. And I guess my suggestions, though they work and have been tried by others in the past day, seem useless. Sorting by “latest” shows no one here for at least three months.
lloyd

Started but this window recycled.
Be very careful. Tried the examples above and the center pane disappeared. Only could bring it back by having the reading pane appear below, then switch back, but this held for only the current session.

I am running El Capitan Developer Beta v. 5. (10.11 Beta (15A235d))

I just installed MS update 15.12.3 and that fixed the pane disappearance and seems to have stopped the freezing. Been about 15 minutes and all is well. Fingers crossed.
Kylie Pax

this didn’t work 🙁 Any other suggestions?
Simon Arnold

I’ve upgraded to the full version form the preview and now it freezes receiving mail, and then force quits, strange how the release version does this and yet the preview did not, this is causing me lots of issues as I have to force quit at least 6 times in a day
CmonMann

very helpful with the “production” release of Office this month (July 2015)
thank you!
Jakeyk

As an added note if this fix does not work, as it did not for me. If you have Outlook 2011 installed run updater after installing 2016. Error reporter may need to be updated. If Microsoft Error reporter is not updated to 2.2.9 it will also cause these crashing issues.
- App Shah
  
  Thanks much for tips @jakeyk:disqus
sac

Recent update to Mac2011 caused outlook to open with menu only. Terminal steps above only works for one session. After outlook is closed, whether by accident or for reboot, you have to go to terminal again. Any other tips to make it permanent? ETA on the real fix? Would this be interfering with email provider delivering to inbox?
Mike Patnode

Had to do the following
cd ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data/Directory Accounts

rm -rf 53
Seems happy now. At least I’ll know what to do next time the new release comes out and I test directory services. Note, the pointer above helped tremendously.
Mike Patnode

Spoke too soon. Mine is still hosed (even though it goes through the initial welcome screen). I think the directory service info is still there…
Meir Drong

is it possible to connect outlook 2016 to the online exchange
archive?
- App Shah
  
  Hi Meir Drong – I doubt it. I only see 3 options under File -> Import.
  
  1. Outlook for Windows Archive file
  2. Outlook for Mac Archive file
  
  3. Outlook 2011 data on this computer
  - Meir Drong
    
    thanks, removing outlook data lost the problem.
    - App Shah
      
      Awesome. Thanks for an update.
A.B.

Hi. How do I uninstall just the Preview? I want to leave only Word 2011, but for some reason I can’t seem to uninstall only the preview version without uninstalling the original.
Thanks!
- App Shah
  Hi AB – preview version installs on your mac at this location:
  
  ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile
  
  Also, you could also go to Application folder to simply remove required apps. Find attached diagram.
- Martina Luthis
  
  User should Try safe, free and user-friendly software to smoothly fix all emails from PST file and save them into Outlook PST file format.
Alex

Unfortunately it doesn’t work for me – any other solutions known? I use Outlook 15.8.1 with Mac OS 10.10.2 on a new MacBook Pro -> Error: Crashed Module Name: merp
- App Shah
  
  Hi Alex – you could try below steps:
  
  1. Go to /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MERP2.0
  2. open Microsoft Error Reporting.app
  3. go to Preferences and uncheck “Enable Microsoft Error Reporting”
  4. open Terminal
  5. execute “defaults write com.Apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE;killall Finder”
  6. in Terminal go to /Library/Contextual Menu Items
  7. delete all files and directories in this folder “rm filename” or “rm -r directoryname”
  8. execute “defaults write com.Apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE;killall Finder”
  
  Try reopening Outlook again. Hope this helps.
Will Rencenberger

Fixed mine perfectly, thank you very much!
- App Shah
  
  Will – I’m glad it worked perfectly 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and sharing.
Dave Kurlan

I’m not having any issues with new Outlook, but new Excel and PowerPoint are awful. Excel hangs every few minutes and PowerPoint changed my fonts and crashes mid-presentation! Any helpful hints for that?
- App Shah
  
  I agree with you Dave. Excel build is not at all production ready. Excel hangs every time during copy, paste, right click, etc. Microsoft released an update y’day for the same but still have the same issue.
  - Dave Kurlan
    
    It was supposed to fix that problem but I haven’t tried it yet…
Yannick Guerdat

Didn’t fix my issue. I have already try it. I have try to reinstall it again but the crash appears not at the launch but after a few clicks in my folders and/or e-mails.

The Microsoft’s yesterday update didn’t fix my issue.
- Andrew Smith
  
  I still had issues too, even after having run those lines in terminal, for each app. I found this other thread from back in Nov, 2014 (http:// bit.ly/ 1wXwOgH). Using this, I went to ~/Library/Group Containers and found these three folders:
  
  UBF8T346G9.ms
  UBF8T346G9.Office
  UBF8T346G9.OfficeOsfWebHost
  
  I moved them all out of this folder (basically deleted them, but kept them, just in case this didn’t work). Tried Outlook and it worked (these three folders were recreated also). Hope that helps.
  - Joe Chong
    
    This does help, as it re-initiated the Activation again. However, need to move back the data I’ve from the above 3 folders. It contains close to 3GB of data, hence re-downloading all of them from the server is time-consuming. Anyone has any alternative that worked?
    - App Shah
      
      Hi Joe –
      
      Only solution I can think of is to move live emails to local folder in .pst file and then just import it back to your Outlook using File -> Import.
  - App Shah
    
    Thanks Andrew for tips. Indeed that helped. Will update above tutorial with this steps.
  - Niller2000
    
    Your solution also solved my problem, not the default delete… Thanks a million.
GratefulUser

Thanks. Worked like a dream.
Paul Harper

Perfect. Thank you, sir
Pierre

Thanks a lot. very useful for me.
mabez

this didn’t fix my problem, it’s still crashing a few seconds after it starts. i’m wondering if it has something to do with the fact that i’m using Yosemite 10.10.3 beta.
- xgman
  
  10.10.3 and latest Outlook are working pretty well here..
- App Shah
  
  Hi Mabez – I’m on 10.10.3 beta and it worked fine for me.
- Danny
  
  Keep on crashing….what should I do?
- lloyd
  
  Try moving to 10.10.4 and running the MS update. Should install Office v. 15.12.3. Running both developer 10.10.5 and 10.11.5. Froze in both before the MS update. I cannot login to my MS account on my Mac but can on a Win machine. Strange. After update, no freeze in Yosemite or Capitan. Also running 10.10.4 release. No issue either after update. May return. May not. Worth a chance. Update to latest Yosemite public release and try. Can’t hurt.
KRouth Clinipace

I just installed the new Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac – looks good – wondering however – i cannot find how to view my “Favorite Folders” which i have defined in Outlook 2013 in Windows which also show up in OWA (on the Exchange server). Any ideas?
- App Shah
  
  Hi KRouth – could you help me understand what do you mean by favorite folder? Is that on your local system? Do you see it under “Smart Folders” section?
  - KRouth Clinipace
    
    Favorites is a list of Folder shortcuts. They show up in both Outlook 2013 on Win and in Outlook Web Access (OWA) on the Exchange server. Because they are present in OWA, i infer that they are stored (they are just shortcuts of sorts) on the server, not on the local instance of Office. Does that help? I could send screenshot examples.
    - Christian Lochner
      
      Thanks for asking that question. With 5 email accounts and many folders in them its a major annoyance for me too to scroll meter long up and down to move a new email into some of these folders. I really need the option to nominate favorites that stay on top.
    - JS Go
      
      It is my understanding that the Favorites feature does not exist on the Mac version of Outlook; it is Windows-only.
    - JohnGaltUSA
      
      Imagine what a hassle it is if you have a dozen IMAP accounts. I guess this is the type of hack programming you are left with at Microsoft when all the top notch programmers go to work for Google.
FlyingCricket

I was going bats trying to launch Outlook – your solution is spot-on, thanks! Crazy that MS doesn’t put this out there – or code it into the install program.
- App Shah
  
  Hope Microsoft fix this in next patch release. They should have tested this before releasing preview as this happened to almost all users 🙂
Calvin Keen

This fixed the problem. Thanks!
flopdog

So no chance of importing Outlook 2011 mail? That;s a huge pain in the butt. Anyone figure out how to do it? Thanks!
- Bob Robinson
  
  It imported my Outlook 2011 mail. It was there once I did the fix. Sadly, we run an older version of Exchange that Outlook 2016 doesn’t support, so I won’t be able to make much use of it – just Word and Excel.
- App Shah
  
  Hi there – you could do it. There are two ways:
  1. Once you have outlook 2016 up and running fine after performing above steps then just add your account again.
  2. If you have local .pst backup file then go to File -> Import and provide location of .pst file to import all your local mails.
  - flopdog
    
    Nice, thanks I’ll try it.
Tonka seven

Worked! Thank you!!!!
T Rowe

This worked like a charm and restore (a little) hope in this new release. Well done to figure this out!!
Paul

Bang on, thanks for the help!
Bob Robinson

Not sure where my post went… does the “defaults delete…” command only affect Outlook 2016 or will it wipe out my Outlook 2011 preferences, too?
- App Shah
  
  HI Bob – it will just delete old preferences. It wont affect Outlook 2011. I tried it and I was able to use both Outlook after performing above steps. Now everything looks good with Outlook 2016, i’ve deleted 2011 Outlook for mac.
  - Bob Robinson
    
    Thanks! Bold move deleting 2011 for a preview version of 2016…I’ll probably wait on that!
Dr Paul

I tried all these steps and it still does not work for me. When I initially set it up I used my exchange account instead of logging in with my hotmail account to activate it. It now comes up and immediately crashes. Uninstalled all apps and reinstalled no luck. Ran the code listed above no luck. Other office apps work fine…..ugh
- Bruce Rahmani
  
  same issue here.
  I get the following error when I run the command:
  2015-03-06 14:39:57.059 defaults[1064:231665]
  Domain (com.microsoft.outlook) not found.
  Defaults have not been changed.
  - Walter T
    
    I have the same problem … DEFAULTS does not see com.microsoft.Outlook (did not use hotmail)
- Agent M
  
  Did not fix my issue either. Same crash message.
TechProd1gy

Nice fix worked like a charm
Stephen Chiang

you’re the man!
hawksberry

Worked perfectly. Thanks!!

Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac Preview – Outlook Crashes after Fresh Install? Fix Included

Here are the symptoms:

How to fix this error?

Outlook 2011 uses

Outlook 2016 uses

About App Shah

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Here are the symptoms:

How to fix this error?

Outlook 2011 uses

Outlook 2016 uses

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