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I have multiple clients using POP email accounts who are experiencing an issue where Outlook freezes and becomes unresponsive. When this happens, Outlook must be forcefully closed via Task Manager. After reopening Outlook, none of the changes made to the mailbox are saved.
Troubleshooting steps already attempted (unsuccessful):
Local Office repair
Online Office repair
Started Outlook in Safe Mode
Created a new Outlook profile and re-added the email account
Additionally, Outlook frequently gets stuck on “Outlook is Closing” when being closed, both in normal mode and Safe Mode.
This issue is affecting multiple users across different machines. All of these clients are completely seperste entities. Please can you provide a solution.
Using Classic Outlook on Windows for personal email, calendar, and contact management
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This appears to be an error across many users. This needs to be resolved quickly.
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I had the same issue this morning - driving me crazy - I went in and un-installed the windows update from yesterday - problem solved. Outlook is working fine again.
I tried that but it did not fix the error. I will try again.
I have tried to start the application in safe mode but it still resorts back to not responding. I close it via the task manager, the app then disappears but when I restart the pc it states that the application is still open.
Not sure what is going on here, it looks like Microsoft did not do a full compliance check before releasing the update. Have we then got to wait for second Tuesday before anything happens?
Is thee another Email client that can be used? But the problem I have is that Outlook collects several inboxes and I am not sure of the sign ins for them are.
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I have the same issue. Mails that were received and responded to are not sent even though they show in the Sent folder and when I am forced to restart Outlook, all the changed included deleted mails are shown back where they were.
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Same thing happened to me. All of a sudden it just started locking up. Can someone please fix this!!!!!!!!!!
@Dan S @Garrick Deutschmann @Anthony Ogilvie
If you have any POP email accounts, this is a know bug.
Temp fix is to uninstall the Jan 2026 Update KB5074109. If you can not uninstall this update thru normal means, see this thread for alternatives.
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I am having the same problem. I have uninstalled/reinstalled Outlook, created a new profile, created a new .PST issue. It still hangs even in safe mode. I thought I didn't have the 'Jan 2026 Update KB5074109' but I found that I did in a different place. There is no 'Uninstall' next to it so I had to remove it differently. From the Command Line (running as Admin), run the following:
wusa /uninstall /kb:5074109
And what do you know, my Outlook is working again.
@Peter Konstant said
I don't even have the 'Jan 2026 Update KB5074109' update either
1 -- Do you have any POP email accounts? The issue caused by KB5074109 only affects POP accounts.
2 -- To be sure you don't have KB5074109:
Open a Command Prompt.
Run the command line: wmic qfe list brief
Do you see KB5074109?
If you don't meet both conditions, then all I can suggest is contacting Microsoft Support.
MS 365 - User Support
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/support
Free Chat Support
https://support.microsoft.com/home/contact
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I have had the exact same issue and no updates to offlime profiles are being saved. It seems to relate to an update on 14th January. Full details in this page, suggest uninstall the update which this article suggests and says all should be ok. Just doing this now. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-windows-11-update-causes-outlook-freezes-for-pop-users/
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From Brian heins •
""I had the same issue this morning - driving me crazy - I went in and un-installed the windows update from yesterday - problem solved. Outlook is working fine again.""
This has worked for me and now works fine. Thank you
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Thank you Hornblower409. Uninstalling update KB5074109 fixed my issues. And also, thanks for the tip on suspending future updates! You are a lifesaver :-)
If you have any POP email accounts, this is a know bug.
Temp fix is to uninstall the Jan 2026 Update KB5074109. If you can not uninstall this update thru normal means, see this thread for alternatives.
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This worked like a bomb, thank you very much
Microsoft support assisted me by uninstalling Jan 2026 Update KB5074109. For now it is working again. Grateful!
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I reinstalled Microsoft 365 a couple times; didn't fix problem. Finally saw some of
the posts and 1) ran scanpst.exe - found / fixed some things, apparently; 2) uninstalled
the kb5074109 update successfully, and things came back enough to 3) empty deleted items and archive stuff > 1 year old. (POP client, btw). Things seem ok for now ...
Thanks so much for this advice! Uninstalling update KB5074109 from Jan 13th worked like a charm. Everything is back to normal. Also, thanks for the tip on suspending updates so it doesn't re-install!
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I just want to dd my voice to say removing the KB5074109 update has worked for me (FOR NOW! KNOCK WOOD!), Windows 11 Office 2024 using Outlook Classic. Thanks to the user here who posted the way to uninstall via the command line. So happy to have found this thread.
@Allen Mendelsohn said
removing the KB5074109 update has worked for me
Don't forget to also Pause Windows Updates, or it will reinstall KB5074109.
You can monitor the Microsoft Support article on this issue to know when it's safe to allow updates again.
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The question now is whether or not it is safe to accept updates from Microsoft. Is it possible that if you now accept requests to install updates having previously un-installed KB5074109, MS will simply re-install it and we will be back to the initial problems? I for one for not accept any updates until MS either sorts out the KB5074109 update and advises accordingly or they offer a new update which installs the 'good part' of KB5074109 only. Can the techies advise what to do - the lack of response from MS on this issue is disgraceful.
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Nigel Sunley said
if you now accept requests to install updates having previously un-installed KB5074109, MS will simply re-install it and we will be back to the initial problems?
Yes
Can the techies advise what to do
Monitor the official status of this issue and wait for Microsoft to say it is safe to go back into the water.
Or, use the other workaround - Move any PST files out of your OneDrive folder and use ScanPST to check for errors. For details see my other post in this thread or advise and I will post again. Once you have moved all of your PSTs you can resume Windows Updates. KB5074109 won't break your Outlook.
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I suspended updates pending resolution of this issue.
I deleted some updates but not the 13 Jan one. I in desperation rolled back to when the PC was in my mind stable, to December. This seems to fix my issue.
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removing update from jan 13 solve freeze issue. I have not got lost sent items back for three days yet
Mine is freezing up and deleting sent items for last three days.