Microsoft Fixed This Issue That Caused Outlook to Crash

If you’ve been struggling to keep Outlook open recently, you’re not alone. The app has been crashing for many Windows 11 users, preventing them from checking their email within the app. At the same time, users are having issues with cloud-based files. In short, Windows is having issues.

While glitches and crashes could have many causes, these problems appear to stem from Microsoft’s January 2026 Windows security update. That’s likely not speculation, either. Microsoft officially patched the issues with a new emergency update this week. According to the company, the update patches a glitch where some apps become unresponsive or display error messages when those apps open or save files from cloud-based locations.

That will obviously fix the issues users are having with cloud-based files. But it also explains the problems with Outlook: The main issues with Outlook crashing are actually when users try to open PST files stored in the cloud, such as OneDrive.

As noted by Engadget, this is the second time this month that Microsoft has had to run an emergency update to fix issues from this January security update. The last issue was arguably worse, as users could not actually shut down their computer. In addition, other users couldn’t log into their PCs through remote connections.

If you didn’t install that previous update, don’t worry: This latest one includes all the patches so far, so it will fix issues with Outlook and shutting down.