Outlook is one of the most popular email clients on the planet, being part of Microsoft’s popular Office suite of programs. However, popularity doesn’t guarantee seamless performance and the same goes for Outlook, which has its own fair share of bugs and glitches that keep popping up from time to time.
In this article, we’re taking a look at Outlook’s error 500, its causes and what you can do to fix the problem.
What causes Outlook error 500?
Outlook’s 500 error is rather general and can be caused by a number of different issues. Some of the most common causes include the following.
- Spotty internet connection
- Corrupt or incomplete installation
- Incorrect configuration settings.
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How to fix this error?
Here are 12 fixes you can try out.
Check Office 365’s server status
The first thing you should do when you encounter a 500 error just about anywhere is checking to see if the service is actually online. You can check Office 365’s server status on Microsoft’s server status page or check out Microsoft’s social media handles to see if there’s an outage at the moment.
Use an incognito tab to log in
Another potential fix you can try out is to use your browser’s incognito mode to try and log into Outlook. If that works, chances are there’s something wrong with your browser and you need to either clear your browser cache, reset it or switch to a different browser all together.
Clear your browser data
Corrupt files in your cache or otherwise can cause this error as well. Clear them out to see if you can get your browser to work.
Step 1: Type in chrome://settings/clearBrowserData in your browser’s address bar and hit Enter.
Step 2: Select the cache and cookies options and make sure the Time range is set to All time. Click on the Clear now button to clear out all the data.
Restart the browser and try again.
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Disable extensions
Corrupt or malfunctioning extensions often cause many problems, including this one.
Head over to chrome://extensions and try disabling all your extensions to check if the browser starts functioning as normal again; if it does, enable them one by one until you have all the essential extensions working again.
Check for updates
If the issue is in the browser itself, chances are developers might release an update to fix the problem. Regardless, you should always make sure you’ve got the latest version of the browser installed to avoid running into problems that could otherwise be avoided.
If you’re on Chrome, or any other Chromium-based browser, head over to chrome://settings/help and make sure you’re on the latest update. If you’re not, update immediately and try again.
Restart the browser and you should be able to log in without issues.
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Check your date and time settings
Another potential reason you might run into 500 server errors is if your PC’s local date and time aren’t in sync with your time zone. This flags your system as suspicious online and can prevent you from accessing websites and other services online.
Check out this guide to know how you can fix the date and time settings on your Windows PC.
Change admin roles
If you’re the global administrator of your Office service, try changing and reassigning the proper roles to see if that helps resolve the issue for you.
Step 1: Open the Office website and log in with your credentials.
Step 2: Head over to the Admin section.
Step 3: Select Users followed by Active users.
Step 4: Select a user and click Manage roles.
Step 5: Remove all roles except Global administrator and save changes.
Restart your browser and try logging in again. Outlook should start working fine.
Check user settings
Incorrect user settings will also often cause problems with logins. Here’s how you can fix them.
Step 1: Open the Office website and log in with your credentials.
Step 2: Select the user and head over to Mail.
Step 3: Click Manage email apps.
Step 4: Check to make sure Outlook on the web is enabled.
Assign proper licenses
Another potential issue can be incorrect licenses for Outlook. Here’s how to check if a particular user has the proper licenses.
Step 1: Open the Office website and log in with your credentials.
Step 2: Head over to the Admin section.
Step 3: Select Users followed by Active users.
Step 4: Select the user that’s affected by login issues.
Step 5: Under Licenses and apps, make sure that the user has an active license assigned to them.
For regular Office users, you can login and check whether or not you still have an active subscription.
Reprocess your licenses
Sometimes your license may need reprocessing before it becomes active again. Here’s how to do so.
Step 1: Open the Office website and log in with your credentials.
Step 2: Head over to the Admin section.
Step 3: Select Users followed by Active users.
Step 4: Remove the license from the affected user and assign it again after a couple of minutes.
Step 5: Now head over to the Azure Active Directory Admin Center.
Step 6: Head over to the Users section and select the affected user.
Step 7: Click the Reprocess button and refresh the license.
Try logging in again with the affected account and it should work just fine.
Change Outlook properties
Setting the right web document URL in Outlook properties can also help fix the issue.
Step 1: Right-click the Outlook shortcut and select Properties.
Step 2: Head over to Web Document and sure the URL is set to what’s given below.
https://outlook.office.com/mail/Save the changes and restart Outlook.
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Repair your Outlook installation
Sometimes, you might have a broken Outlook install. Follow these steps to repair your installation.
Step 1: Press the Windows key and search for Outlook. Click on Uninstall from the right side pane.
Step 2; Find your version of Outlook in the list of programs. If you’ve installed the entire Microsoft Suite at once, search for that instead, click it and click the Change button.
Step 3: You’ll see two options as explained below.
- Quick Repair: This will work offline and resolve the most common issues with your Outlook Installation.
- Online Repair: As the name suggests, this option uses the internet and performs a more thorough installation repair.
We recommend trying quick repair first and then moving on to online repair if the former doesn’t solve the error.
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