They’re gone! Clients make choking noises and reach for the phone to call me. There’s nothing to click on for Inbox or Sent Items or Favorites. Outlook has been randomly starting like this for some people. This is what Outlook looks like when the Folder Pane isn’t visible on the left. Notice the left column with Inbox and the subfolders. This is what Outlook looks like normally. It’s like all the folders have disappeared. Outlook starts up normally but something doesn’t seem right. Some Outlook 2016 users have been running into a bug that was apparently introduced by an update in April. (Except when Outlook throws a fit and requires a rebuild of the mail profile, which seems to happen about 10% of the time.) It’s a modest upgrade at best, as the programs are virtually identical to the 2013 versions, but it feels good to get the latest version for free, right? When you click “Update Office” in the banner that appears in the Office programs, you’ll start a process that takes 10-30 minutes and is usually painless.
Microsoft has been urging everyone with an Office 365 license for the Office programs to update to Office 2016. Here’s the story of an odd Outlook 2016 bug that you might run into.
