The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on May 6, 2021.
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Today's Highlights:
Autocomplete is messed up
Users are reporting a problem in Outlook 2019, 2016, and Outlook 365: the autocomplete list is messed up. It may open upward, not downward, the autocomplete entries are large, and you cannot delete entries from the list using your mouse, only the Delete key.
In Outlook 2016 and 2019 the autocomplete entries are each 2 lines high but only contain the email display name, and have initial circles, plus the X is missing to delete autocomplete entries.
This is a bug in the latest Office updates. Until Microsoft releases an update to fix it (possibly 2 weeks), the only workaround for Office 2016 and 2019 is to roll back to the previous build.
Outlook 365 users set the registry entry to use the old single line autocomplete list (which is still used in Outlook 2016 and 2019), may have the autocomplete opening upward. To fix this, delete the DisableAutoCompleteUpdate value from the registry to fix.
This key is not a default key and you will only have it if you added it.
Look for it at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options
DWORD: DisableAutoCompleteUpdateIf you want to rollback your office installation, set Outlook / Office to not install updates automatically then use the rollback script to go back to the April 23 build.
The script and a video showing how to use it to roll back Office is at Autocomplete is messed up in Outlook
Birthday Calendar
Outlook.com and Office365 users still seem to be confused about the Birthday calendar (and to a lesser degree, the holiday calendar).
The separate birthday calendar in your mailbox is automatically created by the server. It gets the birthdates from your contacts and adds it to your Birthday calendar. The calendar is not editable in Outlook desktop but you may be able to edit or delete events in Outlook on the web.
However, I don’t recommend editing the events directly as the server could re-sync and delete your edits. If a date is wrong, edit the date in the contact. If you don’t want the birthday on your calendar, remove the birthdate from the contact.
If you don’t want to see the calendar in your mailbox, you need to disable it in Outlook on the web’s Settings (gear icon) > View all Outlook settings > Calendar. The option to show the birthday calendar is at the bottom of the calendar settings. If you turn it back on, the calendar is supposed to repopulate within in a few days. If it does not, you’ll need to export your contacts, delete all then import.
If you use Outlook desktop, it will add birthdays to your default calendar. You can delete the birthdays from the calendar but they will be added back when you edit the contact.
Holidays are added to the default calendar in Outlook desktop from File > Options > Calendar > Add Holidays. If you want to delete holidays, use a list view and group by location. The holidays will have the country name in the location field, making it easy to select all and delete.
The separate holiday calendars enabled in Outlook on the web can be deleted from Outlook desktop, however this sets a hidden flag on the folder and if you change your mind, you need to use MFCMAPI to remove the hidden flag. It’s better to turn off the holiday calendar in Outlook on the web. Open the calendar, click on Add Calendar. Open the holidays calendar list and untick the calendar you no longer want to see.
See Remove the Holiday or Birthday Calendar for more details.
Mailbox is Full message
A user had a question:
How can I turn off “Mailbox is full” notification in Outlook? I don’t want to delete or archive my emails. I’d like to leave it as it is but without this notification popping out.
If you are receiving that message, your mailbox on the server is full. If you ignored the warning and go over your mailbox quota, you will not be able to send or receive email.
You need to archive or delete messages to make it go away. Log into web mail and empty the junk or spam folder and deleted/ trash folder. Then find large messages and delete. Deleting just a few messages with large photo or video attachments can free up a lot of space.
If you use Outlook desktop software with an IMAP or Exchange account, you can use Auto archive or Clean up old mail to move older messages to a pst file. This deletes the messages from the server but saves a copy in your computer.
New & Updated Exchange KB Articles
New & Updated Office 365 KB Articles
May 4, 2021, update for Office 2016 (KB4462117)
New & Updated Outlook KB Articles
May 4, 2021, update for Outlook 2016 (KB5001921)
Other Resources
Outlook is not saving preferences
Quite a few users are reporting that Outlook is not saving options such as Mark as Read options in the reading pane, Send Immediately, and Save sent items. When the user closes Outlook and reopens it, the settings are changed.