Microsoft Outlook bug after update: Outlook Contacts "People" view hides window

[German]Microsoft has once again created a nice bug in the Click-2-Run version of Office 2016 – 2021. After updating to version 2209 (build 15629.20156) the contact window in the person view covers half of the Outlook window. The window cannot be closed. Microsoft has confirmed the bug – there is also a trick to mitigate the problem.

A reader's report

German blog reader cram had responded to my article Microsoft Office Updates (4. Oktober 2022) with this German comment (I've translated it):

After updating Office 2019 to 2209 (15629.20156), the contact window in people view covers half of Outlook and it cannot be closed.

The reader already pointed to an entry in the German-language Microsoft Answers forum where the problem is described. Here is the translated text.

Office 2021 Outlook contacts view "People" covers window

Hello, on multiple PCs running Office 2021, there is a problem when the "People" view is selected for Contacts. When you then click on the Contacts tab, the first contact is directly selected and covers the rest of the Outlook window.

A screenshot showing the plight was shown on the Microsoft Answers forum. The blog reader's solution is to set the list view on Contacts.

Microsoft confirms the bug

The blog reader pointed out in a follow-up comment that the contacts bug has been confirmed by Microsoft for Outlook 2016, Outlook 2019 and Outlook 2021 (thanks for pointing it out). The October 4, 2022 support post Outlook cannot display contacts in People View states:

After upgrading to Outlook Desktop version 2209 build 15629.20156, you notice that People View is overlaid by a contact card and you cannot access your contacts when you select people to view your contacts.

Above screenshot from the support article also shows the Outlook window overlaid by the contacts. According to Microsoft, the Outlook team is investigating this issue. Microsoft suggests two workarounds:

1. In the People pane, select View, then Reading Pane, and set the option to Off.
2. If the View menu is hidden, click Alt + Spacebar, then select Restore.

The last step returns you to the minimized state and you can now make the reading pane change in step 1. An alternative solution is to return to the previous Office build. To do this, in the administrative command prompt, use the command sequence:

cd %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun
officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.15601.20148

Hope that helps.