Microsoft has confirmed that Outlook for desktop and Microsoft 365 is experiencing an issue where email text is disappearing from the display as it’s being typed. Also, there have been numerous reports of Outlook users receiving emails with no text in the message space.
The computer giant says it’s now working on a fix that should become available at around 9 p.m. PT on Tuesday, May 11.
“Users will need to restart the Outlook client to apply the fix after it’s received,” Microsoft said in a tweet. In a message on its service status page, it added, “In some circumstances, users may need to restart their client a second time for the changes to take effect.”
It also said that Outlook for web and mobile appears to be unaffected, suggesting both options as a workaround until the fix is rolled out. However, some users have disputed Microsoft’s claim that the system is working fine for web users, though it appears that Google’s Chrome browser may offer a better chance of success than Microsoft’s Edge alternative.
We’ve identified the root cause and are applying a fix, which will reach affected users over the next 3 to 4 hours. Users will need to restart the Outlook client to apply the fix after it's received. We expect to restore service to affected users by May 12, 2021, at 3:00 AM UTC.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) May 11, 2021
The issue, which is affecting users globally, started earlier today and appears to be linked to the rollout of a Microsoft 365 update that went out earlier on Wednesday.
One Massachusetts-based user posted a video on Twitter that shows exactly what’s happening:
If you are using Outlook for desktop, you're having this issue too, probably. I just spent an hour trying to figure out why the hell my text was disappearing when I hit enter, only to discover it is a widespread problem today. pic.twitter.com/OZyoz8ZmVJ
— Ben Jackson (@BJacksonWrites) May 11, 2021
Others hit the social media platform to voice their annoyance at the issue, with some concerned about how it could affect their work schedules:
Can't believe I've spent the last two hours trying to figure out this issue, reinstalling three times and even thinking of reinstalling the whole system. I have a team meeting tomorrow. Thanks a lot.
— Dani Martín (@danimartin_info) May 11, 2021
How about you move your users to some isolated servers first, then update and test and then move the users to known good production servers. Never test your poorly written software on production servers. If we had an alternative to 365 we would recommend it to our clients.
— Joe Rainero (@joerainero) May 11, 2021
UPDATE: Microsoft has just tweeted to say that it’s on track to fix the issue in the next few hours.
The deployment of our fix is progressing as expected and we continue to anticipate that it'll complete on Wednesday, May 12, 2021 by 3:00 AM UTC.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) May 12, 2021
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