Is your Outlook running slow or constantly freezing/locking up? Outlook for Windows is a versatile and efficient email client for managing your emailing needs, but it is not immune to the common problems often faced with software and hardware its running on.
Most of the issues can be narrowed down to the system configurations. If your hardware is not up for it, you will constantly find the program to be hanging or crashing constantly. Another very common cause of seeing performance issues is corrupt database or PST files.
Below are some of the recommended steps you can take to solve your issues of Outlook running too slow or locking up.
#1 Check the minimum and recommended system requirements.
So, we recommend checking the system requirements for running Microsoft Windows Outlook. You can check the official Microsoft’s site to check if your computer has the minimum RAM, processor, and hard disk to be running Outlook without any performance issues: https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/microsoft-365/microsoft-365-and-office-resources?rtc=1
#2 Update Outlook to the latest version
Before moving forward, we also recommend you to update Outlook to the latest version, if you haven’t already. In many cases, automatic updates are enabled by default, but you may have turned it off, making the version you might be using out-of-date.
#3 Set Interface for compatibility:
Outlook has an option to optimize the interface for either the best appearance or the best compatibility with your hardware. Go to Outlook options and select “Optimize for Compatibility” and select “OK” to close the ‘Options’ window. This option is more relevant for users with multiple monitors.
#4 Turn off “Display Online Status Next to Name”
If you are using Skype for Business in integration with Outlook, the chances are that some of the issues might be due to that. By disabling the integration, you can set some of the extra resources free to get the performance back to smooth. Go to Outlook options à Contacts tab (‘People’ in newer versions) à and then clear the “Display Online Status Next to Name.”
#4 Check If Indexing is going on
When Outlook is indexing items for searching purposes, the performance may be much slower. The solution for this is to let the indexing complete before doing any work. If you have a large database, you can leave your computer for an hour or more until the indexing is finished. Go to Outlook options à Search à Indexing Options, and you can see if indexing is finished or nor, and how many items have been indexed.
#6 Here are few extra tips for making Outlook perform better and not slow down or freeze:
- Can PST file for errors and fix them. Look inside the installation folder of Outlook to find ScanPST.exe program that can scan PST for errors and fix them.
- If you use Outlook as your RSS reader, the chances are that RSS feed syncing is also slowing down Outlook. Either turn off syncing for the RSS feeds that you no longer read or turn off the syncing by going to Outlook options à Advanced
- Make sure your OST and PST files do not get too large. Generally, under 5 GB is considered fine, but over 5 GB, it may start causing issues.
- Repair the Outlook Profile going to Email Accounts Settings, selecting your account, and then click ‘Repair.’
We hope these above tips work for you and Outlook starts running without any performance issues.
If none of this helps, reinstalling Outlook from scratch can be helpful and often clears out all of such issues with the performance.