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How to Fix the “The operation cannot be performed because the message has been changed” Error!

: how to fix the common error “The operation cannot be performed because the message has been changed” that happens every time you try to move a message from inbox to another folder after having read it but not making any other changes.

Did you often get the same error? You try to move an email from inbox to some other folder after having read it, but Outlook gives this error: “The operation cannot be performed because the message has been changed.”

This usually happens to the IMAP accounts. After you have read the email, the ‘read’ status then is synced with the servers, but for some reason, Outlook doesn’t sync the ‘read’ status until you switch to another message.

Also note that this doesn’t happen with the later versions of Outlook, like 2019 and Office 365. But if you have older versions of Outlook, simply switch the message to another one and then back to the one you were trying to move to another folder. This may seem a bit more work than it should be, but if the error is due to above said reason, that’s the only solution you can apply, other than getting a newer version of Outlook.

There are also other reasons for the error, some of which remain ambiguous and it’s hard to get to the source of the problem. But the below listed solutions can be the answer to this.

  1. Go to File à Options à Mail. And under the ‘Conversation clean up,’ uncheck the box that says ‘When a reply modifies a message, don’t move the original.’
    Outlook Options
  2. After trying this, if it doesn’t work, you may try unchecking all the options under “Conversation Clean Up.” This clears up any conflict that there might be when you try to move a “changed” message to another folder.
  3. Disable the “Adobe Send & Track for Microsoft Outlook – Acrobat” add-in in Outlook. For some users, disabling this add-in works in fixing the error.

    Go to ‘Developers’ tab from the top ribbon and then open “COM Add-ins.” Or go to File à Options à Add-ins à And then click on “Go” where it says Manage COM Add-ins.
    COM Add-ins
    You will get all the add-ins. From here, disable/uncheck the “Adobe Send & Track for Microsoft Outlook – Acrobat” add-in. And restart Outlook.
  4. If you find none of the above fixes work, try using the Microsoft’s Support and Recovery assistant tool. You can download it here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/about-the-microsoft-support-and-recovery-assistant-e90bb691-c2a7-4697-a94f-88836856c72f?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us#/

For most of the users on latest versions of Outlook, this may not occur at all, unless for some reason Outlook stops syncing as soon as you read the message but Outlook couldn’t sync the “read” status back to the server. So, if you give it some time, it should work then.

Also, for older Outlook versions, by switching to another message works in resolving the issue.

By Sheryl Snowdy Filed Under: Tips and Tricks

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