There have been instances where Outlook crashes or closes unexpectedly. When such an incident occurs, the service attempts to reopen items from a previous session and you may see a message box – Outlook closed while you had items open. Many do not like this default behavior setting. If you are one of them, here’s how you can easily stop Outlook from reopening emails after a crash.
In the event when there’s an unexpected failure or forced closure of the Outlook app by the user, the service will attempt to remind the user to reopen items from the last session via a prompt message –
Outlook closed while you had items open. Reopen those items from your last session.
Stop Outlook from reopening emails after a crash
In its release notes, Microsoft mentioned,
We added an option to quickly reopen items from a previous Outlook session. Whether Outlook crashes or you close it, you’ll now be able to quickly relaunch items when you reopen the app.
The setting is enabled by default, but there are some preference options listed for users that allow them to disable this feature.
Outlook closed while you had items open
- Launch the Outlook app.
- Go to File.
- Choose Options.
- Navigate to Startup options
- Select Never restore previous items.
Let’s see the above steps in a bit of detail!
Launch Microsoft Outlook app.
Next, choose the ‘File’ tab from the Ribbon menu.
Select ‘Options’ from the list.
Next, switch to the right pane and scroll down to the ‘Startup options’ section.
Under it, you should find an option that says, ‘When Outlook reopens’.
When seen, click the drop-down menu button to make all the options visible. There are the following options,
- Ask me If I want to restore previous items.
- Never restore previous items.
- Always restore previous items.
Now, since you want to disable Outlook from reopening the previous items, choose the option that reads ‘Never restore previous items’.
When done, hit the ‘OK’ button to apply the changes made.
Hereafter, your Outlook account will not reopen your previous session, if it failed or crashed unexpectedly and the prompt message will not be displayed.
Outlook Startup options missing
If you find that the Outlook Startup options are missing, here’s what you need to know. Outlook version 2306 build 16529.20154 released in June 2023 appears to have removed the three options under Start up options on the General tab of Outlook Options. You will see these options till only Outlook version 2305 build 16501.20210.
To get this Outlook Startup options functionality back, create a system restore point first and then edit the Windows Registry as follows:
Run regedit and navigate to the following key:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Preferences
If you do not see the ReopenWindowsOption DWORD key on the right side, create it,and give it a value as per your requirement:
- 0 – To get the Ask me prompt
- 1 – To never reopen
- 2 – To always reopen.
Restart your PC and see if this has helped.
All the best,
