Within the past week in the article – "Are You or Your Clients Having QB Email Problems Again?" – I wrote that there seemed to be a growing number of reported instances of QuickBooks 2016 and 2017 crashing when users tried to email documents from QuickBooks via Outlook.
To note: Other QuickBooks users also may be experiencing this issue and some users of other non-Intuit software are also reporting similar issues.
Based upon our analysis, along with several forums mentioning these issues, the problem seemed to have begun after Outlook users started updating to version 1609 (Build 7369.2038) or higher.
Because Outlook updates are cyclic, not all users are updated to every build and new builds roll out pretty much every week, it may take as long as a month before all users have the newer build and start experiencing the problem(s).
This appears to be more of an issue resulting from a bug in the Microsoft code associated with the updates than it is a QuickBooks issue. QuickBooks users just now are experiencing this interface with Outlook.
While this problem appears to be happening on Windows 7 and Windows 10 (64-bit) computers (with full updates) and Office (32-bit) Outlook versions, not all QuickBooks users, even with the newer Outlook builds, experience the problem.
That means there possibly could be a number of environmental issues that may impact, lessen or even prevent the problems from being experienced.
Once such variable may exist in the form of users with Administrative rights for Outlook. They don’t seem to experience the problems, at least not with the same regularity as users without Administrative rights for Outlook.
Neither repairs to Office, nor removal and reinstall of Office from the most recent software available fixes this problem. What seems to work is to rollback Office to an earlier version.
While the process to revert to an earlier Outlook update version is fairly technical, we wanted to share the steps that have worked for us. Whether you decide to perform these steps is completely up to you. If you’re not comfortable performing IT repairs of this nature, we suggest contacting a qualified IT professional who is skilled in Windows software to help make these changes for you.
Revert the Office 2016 Click-to-Run installation to an earlier version
To determine whether your Office installation is Click-to-Run or MSI-based, follow these steps:
- Start Outlook
- On the File menu, click Office Account
- For Office Click-to-Run installations, an Update Options item is displayed – For MSI-based installations, the Update Options item is not displayed
QBOL Fix Box A
To revert Office 2016 to an earlier version, follow these steps:
1. Exit all Office applications
2. Open an elevated command prompt – To do this, click Start, type cmd in the Start Search box, right-click Command Prompt or cmd.exe, and then click Run as administrator
3. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
QBOL-Fix Box 1
4. Type the following command, and then press Enter:
QBOL Fix Box 2
5. When the repair dialog box appears, click Online Repair
6. Click Repair, and then click Repair again
7. After the repair is complete, start Outlook
8. Click File, and then click Office Account
9. In the Product Information column, click Update Options, and then click Disable Updates
- Important note: This step is very important. The repair process re-enables automatic updates. To prevent the newest version of Office Click-to-Run from being automatically reinstalled, make sure you follow this step.
10. Set a reminder in your calendar for a future date to check for a resolution for this issue. Enable automatic updates in Office again after this issue is fixed. Enabling automatic updates again will ensure you don't miss future updates.
A big thanks goes to my brother, Malcom L. Murphy, III, for his help in the identification and research of this issue, as well as in correlating various clients experiencing the issues with regard to their common or uncommon computer characteristics.
In addition, Malcom identified and successfully used the temporary fix outlined above for a number of my clients, demonstrating its practicality before contributing details related to the accuracy of this article.
DISCLAIMER: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute software consulting or advice. If you need consulting and advice, please contact an Information Technology professional skilled in Microsoft software products. Insightful Accountant assumes no responsibility or liability for the use of, or attempted use of, any information contained herein.