Why does outlook hang waiting for javascript to run in Edge?

Hi Tyler Waters,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

Due to restricted machine environment, we are not in a position to perform further tests on Linux systems.

I wish I could handle your problem, however, the analysis of software in the Linux environment is beyond our current technical reserves.

We are not familiar with command operations in a Linux environment and can provide very limited steps.

• For example, uninstall and reconfigure the PWA application. edge://apps/
• It may still be worth testing whether the situation remains the same with a new Profile. (Do not sign in to your Microsoft account in your browser's Profile to avoid the potential impact of extensions.) edge://settings/profiles
• Content in this link mentioned older version of Edge for Business. Download Edge for Business (microsoft.com)
• Check to see whether the phenomenon is limited to Outlook, or check to see if it's limited to browsers with the Chromium kernel (such as Chrome you mentioned).

If possible, the communities mentioned below are usually more recommended for consulting on such advanced questions.

• Microsoft Edge - Microsoft Q&A
• Microsoft Edge Insider - Microsoft Community Hub

If I misunderstand your situation, feel free to correct me and share the information.

Best Regards,

Kyo - MSFT | Microsoft Community Technical Support

Have you had any luck? I'm experiencing the same issue on Ubuntu 22.04. I have tried Outlook PWA's with both Chrome and Edge. For the first couple days they work well, then once the first crash happens it will continue to happen over and over again shortly after launch, just as you describe. I don't think it's an Edge-specific issue, but a Chromium one as I've experienced identical behavior in Chrome and Edge.

Really wishing Firefox supported PWA's right about now...

I have had OWA for office365 hanging a lot on MS Edge/linux past week or so(after over a year of no issues, I use Edge for OWA just thinking it may be better supported than firefox, also so that I am not logged into a MS account with my main firefox browser), I don't use the PWA, though I do use the PWA for Teams/Linux(no issues there). I have had OK luck so far deleting the office365 cookies and killing the tab and reloading and it seems to work for a while, until it hangs again (most recently seems to hang overnight, my computer is on 24/7).

Currently on Mint 20 (based on Ubuntu 20) with MS Edge Version 121.0.2277.83 (Official build) (64-bit)

(update)

Upgraded recently to MS Edge 121.0.2277.106 (Official build) (64-bit) and the problem persists there. At first I thought it appeared to be fixed but just now saw OWA was hung overnight. closing the tab, clearing the cookies for office.com and opening a new tab for OWA worked fine. Though I have seen this particular work around NOT work for me recently on a couple of occasions it could of been a timing issue, for example noticing that it is hung, then hitting refresh, then closing the tab and closing cookies and trying again, I think didn't work perhaps a thread or something was still hanging on to something. But if it's been dead for a while, and I don't try to force refresh, just close the tab, clear cookies and open a new tab I think that seems to be somewhat reliable . Just have to try to remind myself to do that method to recover.

(update 4/17/24)

Whatever is happening seemed to get significantly worse over the past 24 hours or so, OWA (in Edge browser not the PWA) goes unresponsive within seconds after even restarting Edge, totally unusable now. I tried upgrading to the latest edge stable as of a short time ago this morning running Version 123.0.2420.97 (Official build) (64-bit), however there is no change in behavior. I have switched back to Firefox for this use case (was only really using edge for Office 365 related things in part for workload isolation and also assumed it would be most compatible).

(update 5/15/24)

Stating the obvious of course but just to be clear, zero issues with OWA in Firefox ESR/Linux since I switched on 4/17/24 away from edge. I still use Edge PWA for Teams, and for some other things(like writing this comment since I am already logged into the MS account). No other web sites/pages hang on Edge on Linux in my experience like Outlook did. I haven't tried Outlook on Edge/Linux since seems like whatever issues are there remain unresolved based on other comments.

Good to know that it's not just a PWA problem. My current fix is just to kill the process, delete ~/.cache/microsoft-edge/, and re-launch. I don't use Edge for anything except for outlook so that has no adverse affects for me.

I have started having this problem with 121.0.2277.113 . The previous version worked fine for me so wondering if it is something in Outlook's web code that has changed rather than Edge itself given others here have reported problems with older versions of Edge and also in Chrome.

I'm on Kubuntu 23.10.