Outlook for Mac does not display my inbox and folders page correctly.

Question

Outlook for Mac does not display my inbox and folders page correctly.

Donald Koliha 30

I was using Outlook (Legacy version) for my MacBook today without any issues whatsoever. However, when I opened Outlook this evening, the placement of items on the screen showed large gaps between the top menu line (Home-Organize-Tools) and the toolbar below it. Additionally, there is a similar large gap between the toolbar with all the icons (New Email - New Items - Delete - Reply - Forward, etc) and the "On My Computer" section that has all my mail folders and email messages.

I have compared every option for adjusting the screen size, display formatting, etc. to the Outlook (Legacy Version though earlier version) on my iMac Pro, and the settings between the two (MacBook Pro and iMac Pro) are identical. The unexpected and unwanted gaps on the MacBook's Outlook screen is making working on emails in Outlook tedious and frustrating. I cannot specifically blame this on having a newer version of Outlook on the MacBook, but this peculiar behavior just started late today, and I cannot determine the cause, or the solution. The version of Outlook on the MacBook is Version 16.111.5 (26071215). Here is a screen shot of Outlook on the MacBook Pro's screen that illustrates the problem:

Odd gaps in Outlook

Any help or insight on how to resolve this issue would be greatly appreciated!

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Victor1-V 13,025 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Donald Koliha,

I understand that the large blank spaces appeared suddenly in Legacy Outlook for Mac, while the same Outlook version displays normally on another Mac. Since you have already compared the available display and formatting settings, this does not appear to be caused by a standard Outlook view option.

Please note that this is a user-to-user forum, so contributors cannot examine Outlook diagnostic data.

First, select Help > Check for Updates and install any available Office update. If Outlook is already current or the layout remains unchanged, select Help > Contact Support in Outlook and include the screenshot, Outlook version 16.111.5, and the detail that the behavior occurs only on the MacBook Pro. This will allow the Outlook support team to review the application logs and the unexpected interface rendering. For reference, see Update Office for Mac automatically | Microsoft Support and Contact support within Outlook for Mac | Microsoft Support

Because your screenshot shows On My Computer folders, I would not recommend removing the Outlook profile or reinstalling Office before backing up any locally stored messages.

I hope the Outlook support team can help identify what is causing this layout on the affected Mac.

Donald Koliha 30 Reputation points

2026-07-17T00:02:52.29+00:00

I do understand that I will need to escalate this issue to the Outlook Support team, and will take that step next.

In the meantime, after more testing that I've done today, I have noticed that the main problem appears to occur when I select the option for the Reading Pane to the "Off" position. Selection of the "Off" position triggers the introduction of the gaps above and below the Outlook Icon Toolbar, as depicted in the yellow highlighted areas in the following screenshot:

Selecting the Reading Pane option of "Right" appears to eliminate the gaps above and below the icon toolbar, however, I have no desire for seeing the previews of mail messages that turning on the Reading Pane enables, as shown in the screenshots of the Reading Pane when set to either "Right" or "Bottom" options.

In summary, my testing efforts appear to show that when a Mac user selects the Outlook Reading Pane option of "Off", the resulting Outlook window is not properly displaying/positioning the contents of the "On My Computer" section of the screen. I'll follow your advice to pursue the Help > Contact Support in Outlook including the screenshot, Outlook version 16.111.5, and the detail that the behavior occurs only on my MacBook Pro. Thanks again for your assistance Victor1-V!
Victor1-V 13,025 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-17T14:20:43.63+00:00

Hello Donald,

Thank you for the detailed follow-up and screenshots. Your testing clearly narrows the behavior to selecting Reading Pane > Off, while Right or Bottom restores the normal spacing. This distinction should be helpful to the Outlook Support team.

Please include these screenshots and the exact reproduction steps when using Help > Contact Support.

I appreciate the time you took to test and document this so carefully.
Donald Koliha 30 Reputation points

2026-07-17T22:17:37.33+00:00

Thanks for your thoughtful feedback Victor1-V. I have yet to take this matter up-chain using the "Help > Contact Support" procedure. I decided it would be prudent to ensure that I was indeed using the latest updates to all 5 of my Microsoft Office applications. After opening the Microsoft AutoUpdater application, I discovered that all of the Office applications had available updates. After clicking on the "Update" button, and downloading each of the updates, I saw the Downloading and Installing status bars, followed by "Update error..." for each of the applications. Here's a screenshot illustrating the failed results:

Each of these 5 applications displayed the Update error as "The update could not be installed at this time. Please try again later." I did reattempt installing the available updates several times, resulting in the same Update error/installation failures.

I considered that there might be some sort of technical issue with my MacBook that might be preventing these applications from successfully installing, However, after scrolling down the MS Office Updates window, I could see that 3 other Office apps have been successfully updated in the recent past, as shown in this screen shot:

It's not clear to me what issue(s) could be causing the failure to update the 5 applications above (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and OneNote). Repeated retry's to update the applications continually fail so there's obviously some sort of problem with the software. I'll pursue with the Support people. Thanks again for your reply above.
Victor1-V 13,025 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-18T11:17:21.95+00:00

Thank you for the additional screenshots and detailed testing, Donald. Since the same update message appears for all five Office applications, please try reinstalling the latest Microsoft AutoUpdate using Troubleshoot Microsoft AutoUpdate in Microsoft 365 and Office for Mac, then run the Office updates again.

If the updates still cannot be installed, include these screenshots, your macOS version, Microsoft AutoUpdate version 4.84, and the available Office build 16.111.26071325 when contacting Support. Also mention the original Outlook layout behavior that occurs when Reading Pane > Off is selected.

Thank you again for documenting both behaviors so carefully.
Donald Koliha 30 Reputation points

2026-07-18T18:35:30.2566667+00:00

Hello again! Here's the latest status on this issue. I used the "Help > Contact Support" procedure and got a reply from "Joy" last evening. Here are the sequential screen shots of the "OneCustomer | Chat Support" conversation that took place:

<The images have been moved to Private Message>

Since I sent those screen shots and comments last evening (07.17, 8:11 PM), I have not received any additional notifications from Joy at OneCustomer | Chat Support. I'm not aware whether that team works on weekends so I will wait to see what happens next.

Lastly, per your recommendation, I did download and reinstall the Microsoft AutoUpdate V4.84 and encountered the same Update errors as before on 5 of the Office apps. So I decided to go into each of the apps individually and click on the Help menu drop-down, and then select "Check for Updates" option. I did that multiple times on each of the 5 apps. That opens the Microsoft AutoUpdate applications of course, and then runs the update procedure on any app that is not up-to-date (and apparently also checks those apps that were already updated, in case any have had subsequent updates.

Here's the surprising part: several of the Office apps that were failing the update process earlier are now updated, including Outlook! I just sent this info (see screen shot) to the OneCustomer | Chat Support team ...

<The images have been moved to Private Message>

I'm going to continue with attempting to get all of the Office apps up-to-date, and to stay that way consistently. The best news is that my Outlook screen's appearance is back to what I want. I'm hoping that any remaining issues will soon be history!

Lastly, after doing multiple runs of AutoUpdate, I've occasionally seen small pop-up windows like this one:

I restart the apps but somehow they still show up on the AutoUpdate screen as having "available updates" -- Oh well!
Donald Koliha 30 Reputation points

2026-07-18T19:20:04.7766667+00:00

One more comment. I just left this on the OneCustomer | Chat Support session log:

<The images have been moved to Private Message>
Victor1-V 13,025 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-21T10:26:15.19+00:00

Hello Donald,

Thank you for the update. Since you are now working directly with an Outlook for Mac support agent, it is best to continue troubleshooting with that agent, who can review the information and diagnostic details you have provided.

As the screenshots contain a private support conversation and case-related information, I will repost them in a Private Message to help keep the information secure. If you have any further screenshots from the support conversation, please share them through the Private Message rather than posting them publicly.

I am glad to hear that the Outlook layout is currently displaying correctly.