Outlook is a popular mail client from Microsoft which is being continuously developed in interface and functionality.

Furthermore in the latest versions of Outlook,  there are performance problems too.

As a result, one such problem you face in Outlook 2013 or 2010, is “Outlook taking too much time to load and hangs on loading profile“.

This issue can be seen in different versions of Windows. You may try to rename the .pst file, thinking its corrupted. But Outlook will not give permission to do so, even if you killed it using the Task Manager.

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Outlook 2013 Never Opens

This is the familiar picture you see for sometime, until your head goes dizzy and want to restart your computer or close Outlook.

The Solution

I too experienced the same problem while adding an email account created with HostGator. I had to research forums and many other blogs to find the solution. But the ultimate answer lies in deleting the default profile and re-creating one.

How to you do it in Windows 8.1 and 10?

The fix for this kind of problem is the same in 32 or 64 bit.  I was searching through microsoft community for deleting profiles in Outlook, when a solution appeared for “Outlook stuck during loading Profile” kind of problems.

Close Outlook.

Press Windows key and type mail. (This is for Windows 8 or 8.1. If its Windows 7 or Vista you can find it in the Control Panel.  Another way is to open the Charms bar and use search and type mail. )

Find Mail In Windows 8

Mail Setup Windows

Remove Loading Profile Problem In Outlook 2013

Remove the profile that is existing, typically “Outlook“. Start with a new profile. The downside is that if you have any email accounts added to this profile they will also be deleted. (I’m assuming).

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Let me know your experience in the comments section.

Just start Outlook again and your “Loading profile hanging problem” is gone.

The Other Solutions

There are typically other solutions which I found out while researching on this topic.

Fix It – #1

You can try to uninstall Office 2013 completely and re-install it. But this will take some time. You can also do a repair install from the Programs and Features section in the Control Panel.

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Fix It – #2

You can also repair the .pst or .ost file using the Outlook repair tool.  ScanPST is a tool to scan and repair corrupted pst file. This file is located in different locations for different versions of Microsoft Outlook.

SCANPST IN OUTLOOK 2010 32-Bit
Windows 32-Bit   C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice14
Windows 64-Bit   C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice14
SCANPST IN OUTLOOK 2010 64-Bit
Windows 64-Bit   C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice14
SCANPST IN OUTLOOK 2013 32-Bit
Windows 32-Bit   C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice15
Windows 64-Bit    C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice15
SCANPST IN OUTLOOK 2013 64-Bit
Windows 64-Bit  C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice15
Windows 32-Bit    C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice15
Windows 64-Bit  C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice15

Run that file with elevated privileges and find the location of the .pst or .ost file. These files are nothing but related to your email accounts, in Outlook 2013. The most noteworthy location will be like this –

C:\Users\palla\AppData\Local\MicrosoftOutlook

Click on the Start button. The tool will check for file consistency and check for any repairs in the .ost file in Outlook 2013. Once the repair complete dialog box is displayed, you can click on OK and try re-opening Outlook again. 

This sometimes mostly solves the problem.

Fix It – #3

Another solution is to disable hardware acceleration.

Fix : 

  1. Run regedit

  2. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice15.0Common

  3. Create a New Key and name it “Graphics”

  4. Select Graphics, right-click on the right panel and create a New DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it DisableHardwareAcceleration.

  5. Enter Value data as 1

Fix It – #4

Another simple solution is to check the system drive for errors using the following command.

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Method : – simple solution on Windows 8:  Win + X  -> Command Prompt (Admin) -> chkdsk c: /f -> Answer (Y) -> Restart Windows.

Fix It – #5

Another simple method is to open Outlook in safe mode and disable the add-ins.

Method :
Let us open Outlook in safe mode and check. Follow the steps:
1. Press the Windows + R key on the keyboard.
2. Type Outlook /safe (leave a space after Outlook) -> Click OK.

If you are able to open Outlook 2013 or 2016, then disable the add-ins and check if it helps. Follow the steps disable the add-ins:
1. Click on File -> Go to Options.
2. Click on Add-ins -> select COM Add-ins under Manage ->Click Go
3.Select the add-ins to disable -> Click OK.

Fix It – #6

Sometimes a third-party VPN like “Express VPN” can interfere with the normal startup of Outlook. So either uninstalling the VPN or disabling it from running at start-up can solve the issue.

Fix It – #7

In corporate environment, you will not be given the access to uninstall VPN software. In such cases, if you can open Outlook in safe and disable the add-ins of your VPN software, then this can solve the issue. You can run the following two commands in the Run box.

outlook.exe /resetnavpane  or  outlook.exe /resetfolders

If everything works fine after the first command, then you are good to go. Otherwise, try the second command. But Outlook may take a bit of time, after execution of the 2nd command.

Fix It – #8

In Windows 8 and 7, there are some services which can interfere with the proper functioning of Outlook 2013 and 2016. One such service is the “Desktop Window Manager Session Manager”. You can stop this service and set the status to “Disabled“. Now Re-start and Outlook should open fine.

Fix It – #9

Lync is one Office product which can have compatibility problems with Outlook. So if you have it running parallel, then it’s best to kill the task using the Task Manager.  Now Outlook 2013 should open without problems.

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Fix It – #10

The common cause for Outlook Profile not loading is because its data files are being accessed by other applications. If the data file are being locked or accessed by third-party applications like Google Calendar, Microsoft Communicator etc, this can happen. There are a few solutions in this case.

  1. You can stop the sync process of other applications which are trying to access these data files.
  2. You can disable your anti-virus temporarily and check if the problem is resolved.
  3. You can stop the Windows search indexing service and see if Outlook loads fine.
  4. You can kill the outlook.exe process and then restart Outlook.

Fix It – #11

Another common problem of Outlook taking forever to load in 2016 version could be due to compatibility problems. For example, if you are using Windows 7 SP1, then you can check the properties of Outlook 2016 shortcut. Now under “Compatibility” tab,  uncheck the box next to ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for: Windows 7 Service Pack 1‘.

If it is Windows 10, the short-cut would be available in the following path.

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

You can then run the “Troubleshoot Compatibility” tool which can fix this issue.

Fix It – #12

In Windows 10 and Outlook 2016, there can be problems related to Networking things. So while loading up Outlook if you can cut-off your Wi-Fi and other network interfaces, your Outlook should load fine. The general problem may be due to Telemetry and TCP related stuff.

These are some of the solutions I have tried to fix my Outlook 2013 loading profile problem.  You can disable the add-ins, which will reduce the delay in opening Outlook.

Were you able to solve your slow Outlook Loading Profile problems using these tips ? Which fix did you apply ? Did it work out for Outlook 2010 and 2007 in the same way I told you? Please comment and share about this post.

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26 Comments

  1. Remove the profile that is existing, typically “Outlook“. Start with a new profile. The downside is that if you have any email accounts added to this profile they will also be deleted. (I’m assuming).

    Let me know your experience in the comments section.

    Just start Outlook again and your “Loading profile hanging problem” is gone.

    Hi, my problem solved with this solution. thankyou very much

  2. This has been happening to me on-and-off for some time. Today’s fix was: use the RUN window to start “OUTLOOK.exe /safe” , choose FILE/ADVANCED, scroll to the bottom and uncheck “Allow analysis of sent emails….”, close the window and exit Outlook. After that Outlook starts rapidly. Beware that the slowdown may come back. Interestingly if you look at the “Allow analysis…” option in normal mode it is unchecked, while in safe mode it shows checked.

  3. Hi Palla,

    Great writeup! Thanks for sharing.

    Here’s how I solved this issue and it took 5 seconds and only a couple of clicks!

    My hdd was failing so I cloned it to a SSD and installed the SSD.
    All Office programs started real quick except Outlook. Outlook got stuck on “Loading Profiles…” . I waited for about 2 hours but no luck.
    I closed Outlook
    I then disconnected from the internet ie switched off wireless, disconnected wired connection and for safe measure switched to airplane mode (my Acer has this option).
    Restarted Outlook
    And voila! It started instantly – no issues.
    Hope others find it useful too.

    1. @Manoj. Thanks for the comment. Its nice to see you solved your Outlook Loading profile problem in a unique way. Sometimes the Office apps, keep trying to connect to the Internet and they can cause issues. Happy that its solved.

  4. have tried deleting profile, also uninstalled several times and still no go….only can open in safe mode. I am using outlook 2010 on windows 10. when I first installed 2010 on windows 10 it was fine for one day and then issue started. only email account configured is gmail as imap. I noticed there were lots of pst files so I deleted all and started fresh ,.,still no luck. have spent numerous hours and is driving me nuts….

    1. @Rosy: Disable all Outlook add-ins. Also uninstall any old programs interacting with Outlook like PGP etc. Did you try the POP3 option? Also check if there any other profiles. Delete them also and try. Try repairing Outlook 2010. Let me know.

  5. Thank you so much for posting this.

    I removed my .ost file, did various repair install, removed Office and installed it again with no luck. Outlook picked up my faulty profile and did nothing again.

    Your fix #0 did the trick. Perfect.

  6. I have the same issue, but the manual method doesn’t give any advantage to me. However, I have got the useful result with the free demo of Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST repair software, but it is a paid software.

    Can you suggest any freeware?

  7. you are awesome. It’s the profile that hangs during new account creation. Had to force shutdown it and then profile doesn’t finish loading anymore. Used your method to “repair” the account by re verifying all the settings of the account that failed. Then now, it loads 🙂

  8. Thank you!

    I removed the “Outlook profile” but kept my other profile with my name and Outlook did not freeze on startup!

  9. Beautiful! The first suggestion (deleting the default Outlook mail profile) fixed the issue in my particular case. It bears mention that the “broken” profile in question was tied to an Exchange Server, so it was trivial to reconfigure the profile (the server handles the process transparently) after removing the presumably-corrupted profile. I mention this mostly to underscore Tony’s comment that deleting the entire profile may not be desirable when the user has several accounts that would have to be reconfigured subsequently. Also, in Windows 7, one accesses that “Mail Setup” dialog by navigating to “Control Panel” -> “Mail”. On 64-bit systems, the control panel item is named “Mail (32-bit)”. Thanks for pointing me in the correct direction, Palla!

  10. I tried all and it did not work. Still stuck in “loading profile” everytime I tried to open it. I have outlook installed in a different computer using the same email, could this be part of the problem?

    Thanks

  11. I had one email account (of 5) that turned out to be the trouble. Using the same steps you used to get to the profile and selecting “email accounts”, I deleted that one. Outlook then started with no problems. Maybe a good idea not to remove the whole profile, but delete mail accounts that were recently modified.

    1. Nothing worked, I thought I would have to delete the profile. However, Tony’s solution from Nov 25 2014 worked as a charm! I was able to remove the e-mail account that I recently added and now it starts as always again.

      Thanks!