The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on May 29, 2025.
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Today's Highlights »
- Signatures are Missing in New Outlook
- M365 Companion Apps
- Gmail Birthdays in New Outlook
- Copilot in Word
Signatures are Missing in New Outlook
Note: This issue is now fixed. Restart new Outlook if your signatures are still missing.
Users are reporting their signatures are missing in new Outlook. When they go into View tab > View settings > Account > Signatures, the signature may be blank and they cannot choose a different signature for replies. The option to create additional signatures is also missing. Users with multiple accounts in new Outlook cannot create or assign signatures to their other accounts.
Microsoft is aware of the issue but I do not have information on when it will be fixed.
In testing this, the Insert signature menu may list the user’s signatures stored in Outlook on the web, but inserting them doesn't work. Or the list will be empty. In my tests the behavior varied depending which account was set as primary.
When the Outlook.com account was primary, I could see an old version of the account’s signature in the dialog but the newer version was inserted into a new message. The Insert Signature menu in the other Microsoft accounts had the signature names but selecting a name did not insert the signature.
With my Microsoft 365 business account set as primary, the signature dialog in Settings was blank as were the Insert Signature menus. No signature was added to new messages from that account.
Some Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com signatures may be missing in classic Outlook too.
M365 Companion Apps
Microsoft 365 subscribers with business or enterprise software whose accounts are enabled for Targeted Releases (aka beta versions) may have noticed some new apps popping up in Windows 11.
The first, File Search, came up a few weeks ago. Then People and finally Calendar.
My personal opinion is each is just another annoying app, although due to a bug, I was not able to use File Search until today, or Calendar (that fix is coming soon). Classic or new Outlook will show me contacts and calendar and both are open all day long.
I can search for files using File Explorer. File Search only shows Office documents, PDF, and ZIPs. I can click Open file location beside any of the files but it opens OneDrive in a browser, not the OneDrive files synced to my computer.
In their current state, they are annoying. There is no x to close the windows and you can’t move them. The window pops up above the taskbar button and to minimize the window, you need to click the button again. Right click on the icon to close the app. Even though I routinely click icons on the task bar to hide and show, I still want to see an x or – to close or minimize (old habits die hard).
These apps will eventually make it down to all business software subscribers. I don't know if they will ever be available for consumer accounts, but honestly, in their current state, they are just "eye candy".
The M365 Companion apps are not available on Windows 10 and the Microsoft 365 tenant needs to have targeted release enabled on your account (or for everyone).
Tenant admins can enable Targeted Release at https://admin.microsoft.com/#/Settings/OrganizationProfile/:/Settings/L1/ReleasePreferences
The Office installation needs to be using the Beta build. This can be installed using ODT or by changing a registry key. I have ready-to-use keys at Get Office Insider Builds
Microsoft articles on these apps:
Get started with Microsoft 365 companions
Overview of Microsoft 365 companion apps (preview)
Gmail Birthdays in New Outlook
From the “I never noticed this before” department (because I don’t have many contacts in Gmail and did not add birthdays to those contacts):
New Outlook syncs the Gmail Birthday calendar and merges it with the Gmail calendar, which prevents the user from hiding the birthdays. Because the calendar in new Outlook lacks good filtering capabilities, you cannot set a filter to hide Birthdays or even All Day events.
Copilot in Word
A user wanted to know how to remove the annoying Copilot prompts at the top of a new Word document. They didn't want to disable Copilot because they use it occasionally, but they didn't want to see the prompt at the top of every new document.
While you can’t disable the Copilot prompts as soon as you start typing, it goes away. You can also scroll the page up to hide it.
When the start up prompt is gone, you might see a "Select the icon or press…" text on the page. The text goes way when you start typing. The icon will always be visible beside the paragraph you are typing in, but it’s much less annoying.
If you want "really annoying", the Start with Copilot dialog in new Excel workbooks is annoying as it’s right in the middle of the workbook. You either need to x it to close or start typing. As soon as you enter something and move into another cell it goes away.
New & Updated Microsoft 365 & Exchange Server Support Articles
Hotfix update for Exchange Server 2019 CU14 HU5: May 29, 2025 (KB5057652)
Hotfix update for Exchange Server 2019 CU15 HU2: May 29, 2025 (KB5057651)
Changes in OWA interface because of cloud archive mailbox retirement
Hotfix update for Exchange Server 2016 CU23 HU16: May 29, 2025 (KB5057653)
StoreWorker fails because of BaseViewOperatorDefinition
Edge Transport service stops responding after installing November 2024 SU or Exchange 2019 CU15
Calendar print doesn't work in OWA from Exchange 2019 CU14 onwards
Journal message returns "ConversionFailedException"
New & Updated Outlook Support Articles
Classic Outlook mail merge hangs trying to initialize Word
CPU spikes when typing in classic Outlook for Windows
Errors CAA2000B, 4usqa, and 49dvs when trying to sign in to classic Outlook and Outlook for Mac
Error when trying to print a Word document attached to an email in new Outlook for Windows
Text predictions unexpectedly become unavailable and are missing in Outlook options
Other Resources
Fixes or workarounds for recent issues on Outlook.com
Open Outlook Templates using PowerShell
I have VBA code samples to load templates and change the Sender address without going into Outlook's convoluted Template dialog but wanted a PowerShell version.