Outlook takes a minute to open, goes grey and says Not Responding when you click a message, or hangs on the Loading Profile screen and never gets past it. This is usually the local copy of your mailbox struggling rather than a problem with your email itself. Your mail is safe on the server the whole time.

Try this first

1. Close Outlook and reopen it. Wait until it has fully disappeared, count to thirty, then open it again. Reopening too quickly while the old copy is still shutting down is a common cause of the hang on the next launch.
2. Restart the computer. A proper restart, not sleep and not log off. On Windows, click Start, then the power icon, then Restart. Many laptops have not had a real restart in weeks.
3. Check for updates. In Outlook, click File, then Office Account, then Update Options, then Update Now. Then check Windows: click Start, type Windows Update, open it and install what is waiting. A large share of freezing problems are already fixed in an update the computer has not installed.
4. Toggle offline and back on. On the Send / Receive tab, click Work Offline, wait ten seconds, then click it again. This forces Outlook to rebuild its connection and often unsticks a frozen sync.
5. Reduce how much mail is kept on the computer. Click File, then Account Settings, then Account Settings. Double-click your account. Drag the slider labelled Mail to keep offline down to 3 or 6 months, click Next, then Done, then restart Outlook. Older mail stays in your mailbox and is still searchable, it just is not stored on the laptop. This is the single most effective fix for a slow Outlook, especially on a machine with a large mailbox.
6. Close what you are not using. Twenty browser tabs, Teams, and a couple of spreadsheets all compete for the same memory. If everything on the computer is slow, not just Outlook, that is your answer.
7. Test the same mailbox in a browser. Go to outlook.office.com. If it is quick there, the mailbox is healthy and the problem is the app on that computer.

If that didn't fix it

If Outlook still hangs after all of that, the local profile is probably damaged. A profile is the settings file that tells Outlook which account to open and where its offline copy lives. When it goes bad, no amount of restarting helps and it needs rebuilding.

Rebuilding a profile means creating a fresh one and letting it download the mailbox again. It is routine, but it needs care. Signatures, saved addresses, and any mail that only exists on the computer can be lost if it is done in the wrong order, and on a slow connection the redownload can take hours. Ask us to do it rather than deleting the profile yourself. We will back up the signatures and check nothing is sitting locally first.

When you log the ticket, tell us:

• Whether it is slow all the time or only when doing something specific, such as searching or opening attachments.
• Whether it hangs at Loading Profile, or opens and then freezes.
• How big the mailbox is, if you know. File, then Tools, then Mailbox Cleanup, then View Mailbox Size.
• Whether webmail is fast.
• Whether the whole computer is slow or only Outlook.

Why this happens

Outlook keeps a full offline copy of your mailbox so you can work without a connection. On a mailbox that has grown over years, that file gets very large, and every search and every new message has to work through it. Add an older hard drive and it crawls. Trimming the amount kept offline shrinks the file, which is why that step helps so much more than it sounds like it should.

Still stuck?

Log a ticket at portal.yougrowit.com.au or email support@yougrowit.com.au. If it is stopping you working right now, call 03 9028 4358.

Support hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm Melbourne time, excluding Victorian public holidays.