Microsoft: Workaround for Outlook crash; rollback of Microsoft 365 to version 2205

[German]Users of Microsoft Office products beware. Microsoft has commented on a crash bug in Outlook (I reported recently) and published a workaround. In addition, Microsoft 365 had to be rolled back from version 2206 to version 2205 due to app crashes in the Monthly Channel – I reported this bug just a few hours ago.

Microsoft 365: Rollback  to version 2205

I had reported (after a reader tip) about the crash problem in Office apps in the article Microsoft 365 Version 2206 version 2206: New bug in Monthly Channel (August 2022) crashes in apps. The issue occurred in Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise in Monthly Channel at version 2206 when certain operations were performed. The user had reported the issue to Microsoft via ticket:

After Updating Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise to Version 2206 (Build 15330.20298) Outlook.exe closes unexpected after hovering over Sender´s and Receipient´s Contact Card. This Problem causes on more and more Computers.

The problem also occurred in Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Skype for Business etc., e.g. when searching for people in the search bar at the top and opening the Contact Card. The user received from Microsoft on his ticket the confirmation of the bug in version 2206 (Build 15330.20298) – with the user about 1,3000 clients were affected.

Today I read at Bleeping Computer, that trying to open a user's contact card or hovering over their name/image in emails, comments or shared documents caused the Office application to crash with exception errors 0xc00005 and 0xc0000374. I spared myself the research yesterday – but on Reddit and the Microsoft Answers forum, a number of people seem to have reported the problem.

The new version 2206 does not appear to have been rolled out in the Monthly Enterprise Channel until patchday August 9, 2022. The tipster then downgraded to version 2205 in the Enterprise Channel (is described e.g. here and here). Meanwhile, users here on the blog have confirmed that Microsoft automatically rolls back Microsoft 365 to this version 2205 (which is also confirmed by Bleeping Computer with reference to Microsoft warning MO412229, displayed in the admin area). Here is the MO412229 message as a quote:

While we're continuing to investigate precisely why this occurred, we've reverted to the last known unaffected version to expedite remediation, subsequently confirming resolution with some formerly affected users.

I had pointed out in the article Microsoft 365 Version 2206 version 2206: New bug in Monthly Channel (August 2022) crashes in apps hat version 2206 was not rolled out until July 2022 for some channels to fix a crash bug in version 2205 (see Microsoft Office 365 version 2206 fixes cloud access crash bug).

Workaround for Outlook crashes (Uber crash)

In addition, there are instructions from Microsoft on how troubled users should be able to prevent the so-called Uber crash in Outlook. My readers were informed about this bug, I had discussed it in the blog post Outlook/Word hang on Uber invoices and other mails with tables. In a nutshell: Microsoft Outlook (but also Word) hang on certain documents containing tables. Explicitly listed are emails with invoices from Uber.

A patch is supposed to come in August 2022, and there is a workaround that Microsoft described as of July 29, 2022 in the support post Outlook stops responding when viewing Uber receipt emails and some other emails with tables. As of August 9, 2022 (patchday), no fix came, but Microsoft did get around to publishing the support document Outlook closes shortly after it is opened for Outlook for Microsoft 365 as of August 11, 2022. There it tells that Outlook does start on the desktop when called. But it opens only briefly after loading the profile and processing, and then stops responding.

Affected people can check if this is the problem with a hanging Outlook by looking in the application log of the Windows Event Viewer for event 1000 or event 1001 for specific entries mentioned in the support document Outlook closes shortly after it is opened. For those who are affected, a workaround is to check an entry in the registry in the following key.

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Identity\Identities

So long as the Reg_SZ value EmailAddress is empty there in the relevant subkey for the profile (see the following screenshot), the crash probably occurs. The reason why the value is not set is unknown to Microsoft so far.

If the key is missing, Microsoft suggests the following procedure::

• Log out of Office and then log back in (see) to repopulate the identity registration settings. 
• If this does not help, because the identity is still not set correctly, you can disable support diagnostics.

Disabling support diagnostics is possible with the following instructions (copied to a .reg file ).

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Optionen\Allgemein] 
"DisableSupportDiagnostics"=dword:00000001

It should be possible to import the .reg file via double click. If this doesn't work either, you can still try to manually set the missing reg_SZ value EmailAddress in the profile to the user's mail address. In case of doubt, details can be found at Microsoft.