Bad Office Click-to-Run update blamed for Outlook freeze

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Lots of reports this morning about Outlook freezing on start. Quintalis on Reddit: Outlook immediately crashing on open after patching last night Even
[See the full post at: Bad Office Click-to-Run update blamed for Outlook freeze]

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Lori, jsank, lmacri, abbodi86, Elly, Mr. Natural, flyingdutchgirl, Microfix

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They fixed it with new update.
In any Office product – File – Account – Office update.
They just released this a few min ago.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Lori, WildBill, flyingdutchgirl, Microfix

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[dmt_3904]

I just ran update, still crashing!! : (

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by dmt_3904.

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Glad this was here, was able to use info to fix. See notification that MS has a new fix now.

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flyingdutchgirl

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What notification from MS? Do you have the link for it?

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For me, the new MS fix sort of works.  I can’t open Outlook in regular mode.  I can open it in safe mode now (which did not work before the MS fix).

 

 

 

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I have the same issue as @flyingdutchgirl but atleast safe mode is working now, also Clicktorun still running and unable to terminate in taskmgr.exe

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flyingdutchgirl

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Just removing the patch did not work, but rolling back to before the most recent Windows Update (yesterday) did the trick.

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officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.6366.2062

That would be rolling back to a version which is 4.5 years old, which seems drastic when many others solved it by reverting to version 12827.20470 which is three weeks old.

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abbodi86

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It would be helpful if the version and build numbers were identified in these kinds of posts.  I have not seen this problem at all and I am on Version 2006 Build 13001.20260 (Office 365)

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LH

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I’m painfully aware of that.

I still don’t know exactly which versions are affected – or which versions work on rollback.

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See Brandon reply here for a possible fix:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/cumulative-updates-july-14th-2020/efd89faa-cb15-4a15-9692-960866afeb94?page=1

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
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woody

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https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-outlook-is-crashing-worldwide-with-0xc0000005-errors-how-to-fix/

 

Not seeing it here and I’m semi-annual NOT monthly.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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abbodi86, Mr. Natural, woody, flyingdutchgirl

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Same here, that’s what I was thinking. Folks set on monthly channel are getting bit.

Red Ruffnsore

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woody

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Nearly everyone has been questioning Microsoft on their “quality control” with the monthly updates for a long time. And I do believe a press statement was released a few months ago from Microsoft stating that they would be improving the testing process.

I’d like to know how something like this new Outlook issue manages to get released if they have improved quality control with updates as they claim. It sounds like anyone on the monthly channel or who installed the new office updates have been affected. I don’t see how this could occur if there was testing involved before release.

Someone from Microsoft needs to step up and explain how this Outlook issue got past their “improved quality control”.

Red Ruffnsore

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woody, flyingdutchgirl

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[Alex5723]

The same AI that does the news (replacing the sacked journalists) is in charge of testing monthly updates.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Alex5723.

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[woody]

Absolutely unforgivable.

I don’t know what planets need to align in order to clobber Outlook, but it appears right now as if the bug affects EVERYONE on the monthly channel.

Unbelievable.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by woody.

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Not me. I use Thunderbird on a Mac! 🙂

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woody

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Not me. I don’t and never (50 years in IT) used Microsoft’s Office.
I use LibreOffice portable (used Lotus Notes in the past).
For mail I use web Gmail.

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[MWmC]

Hello, everyone. I too had a gut-wrenching half-hour of panic (i live on Outlook) until i found a Reddit thread that had this roll-back info. By the way, the problem seems to have affected more than Outlook. In my case, i have long been able to type in part of a file name … “budget” in my case … and Windows 10 Pro finds my latest budget spreadsheet. Hitting enter brings up the sheet in Excel. Before rolling back, hitting enter brought up Excel, but without the sheet opened.

Perhaps the underlying problem is that something has messed with the ability of the apps to parse input files on open? In my case, Outlook is governed by a .pst file (not .ost).

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by MWmC.

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Microsoft claims it’s rolling out a fix.

Anybody see it?

I’m particularly curious to see how it’s distributed. The original bug doesn’t appear to be associated with a particular patch – although rolling back the latest version seems to cure it. Very strange.

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[MWmC]

Hello. Nothing seems to have been pushed to me, so i decided to live dangerously and try to update it manually. I turned back on updates and went from Click-to-Fail 2006 (13001.20384) to Click-to-Run 2007 (13029.20200). Both Outlook and my ability to search for file names and bring them up in various Office apps has been restored. I guess they squashed whatever bug they introduced, but i’m darned if i know how they introduced it. I turn off auto updates, so it wasn’t on my side.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by MWmC.

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Perhaps this update is through the Microsoft Store? Precedent has been established.

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[Elly]

You know, that might be it. I noticed that the Office app from the store had been updated this morning. I don’t even remember installing that app, and i’ve made sure to delete it.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Elly.

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Just an FYI that I currently have Win 10 Pro v1909 Build 18363.900 (June 2020 KB4560960, installed 09-Jul-2020) and my MS Outlook Home and Business 2019 C2R was still on the previous v2006 Build 13001.20266 (rel. 30-Jun-2020) when I was hit by this problem yesterday, so I don’t think it was the latest v2006 Build 13001.20384 (rel. 14-Jul-2020) that introduced the problem.

As flyingdutchgirl observed <above>, I discovered I was able to use Outlook 2019 in Safe Mode (Ctrl key + Outlook shortcut). A manual update to the latest Build 13001.20384 from Excel didn’t fix the problem, and the issue eventually resolved itself after a few frantic hours of troubleshooting.

I’m looking forward to reading the “post-incident report” mentioned in NetDef’s post <here> when it’s eventually published to see what actually caused this Outlook failure.
————-
64-bit Win 10 Pro v1909 build 18363.900 * MS Office Home and Business 2019 C2R v2006 Build 13001.20384

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Woody – can’t tell you my source but basically rumor is something was pushed server-side on Microsoft’s end in regards to a security or authentication change (who knows what specifically) and in that change it cut off communication with Outlook clients past a certain patch. I confirmed this was not last night’s patch that contained these changes, but one previously issued. I do not know anything more specific about this patch in question. This is why rolling back worked – it went to a client version that was before that change in how it talked to their servers. Why this was done in the middle of the day, I don’t know. Very unusual. All I’m willing to go into right now.

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woody

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That sounds exactly right.

Thank you!

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This fix was rolled out late afternoon today, and all Outlook clients should be able to start normally.

Admins:  do not need to check for updates or re-apply updates.  Just start Outlook.  If you rolled back earlier today it’s safe to roll forward again to bring you back to current patched status.

The bug was a combination of a new security check on the client, and a back-end server patch/change.  For now the back-end server change has been reverted for Office 365 Exchange tenants.

~ Group "Weekend" ~

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woody, Mr. Natural

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[NetDef]

Ticket closed status message from Microsoft: (Listed times appear to be PDT)

Final status:

We’ve confirmed that the issue has been successfully resolved after extended monitoring of our telemetry. If users are continuing to see impact, please restart your Outlook client for the changes to take effect.

 

Scope of impact:

This issue may have potentially affected any of your users attempting to use Outlook.

Start time: Wednesday, July 15, 2020, 9:12 AM (3:12 PM UTC)

End time: Wednesday, July 15, 2020, 4:35 PM (10:35 PM UTC)

 

Root cause:

A recent change to the Outlook client inadvertently resulted in this issue.

 

Next steps:

– We’re reviewing our update procedures to isolate these issues prior to our deployment cycle.

– We’re analyzing our telemetry data to better identify these issues before they impact our customers. We’ll publish a post-incident report within five business days.

 

~ Group "Weekend" ~

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by NetDef.

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lmacri, woody

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It is disgusting that they do not test better than this.

This kind of stuff should never happen !!!

Glad I do not run my business like Microsoft although I would take all the money they rake in.

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Cybertooth

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Before the rollback info was posted, I fixed a couple of my customer’s Outlook 2019 installs by deleting and recreating their Mail Profiles.

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woody

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woody wrote:

Lots of reports this morning about Outlook freezing on start. Quintalis on Reddit: Outlook immediately crashing on open after patching last night Even
[See the full post at: Bad Office Click-to-Run update blamed for Outlook freeze]

Woody,

Just my 2 cents worth. I have had no problems with this, yesterday or today. Maybe just a Win 10 problem?? Running Win 7 HP x64 SP1.

Dave

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Thank you Woody for the heads up. We had one employee out of 50 experience this issue. I spent all evening yesterday trying to fix it. When I saw this article this morning I had it fixed within minutes by rolling it back.

FYI – Outlook 2016 on win 10 1809.

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We had three employees out of about 20 that had the Outlook problem yesterday.

One resolved by roll-back, the other two resolved on their own late in the day.

All is well today so far.

 

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Just thought I’d add that we didn’t see any problems with Outlook 2016 MSI on our isolated systems (v1809), nor did I see it on my home laptop (v1909) which is running Office 2016 C2R.  Obviously our isolated systems never get to “phone home” to MS, so probably why it wasn’t bothered.

Ditto for my home laptop.  I have it locked down so no updates get applied unless I want to have updates run. I use the metered connection and also double-down by locking out updates through the registry.

Windows 10 Pro x64 v1909, Windows 7 Home Premium x64, Windows Vista Home Premium x64

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