Microsoft Office July updates fix Outlook crashes, performance issues

Microsoft released the July 2021 non-security Microsoft Office updates with improvements and fixes for crashes and issues affecting Windows Installer (MSI) editions of Office 2016 products.

KB5001980 addresses intermittent crashes when Outlook 2016 reconnects to an Exchange server, as well as some graphics and performance issues in long-running sessions of Outlook.

This month’s KB5001971 update also enables dBASE files with longer file names to work with the Microsoft Access database management system in Standard, Professional, Professional Plus, Office Home and Student, and Home and Business editions of Office 2016.

One week ago, Microsoft resolved issues and updated features for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, Microsoft 365 Apps for business, and the subscription versions of the desktop apps for Project and Visio.

The issues addressed in Current Channel updates for Microsoft 365 Apps include Outlook bugs causing performance issues on ARM64 devices and translation options to be disabled for some users.

Last month, in the June 2021 Patch Tuesday, Microsoft also patched multiple remote code execution security vulnerabilities impacting the entire Microsoft Office suite, Excel, Outlook, and SharePoint.

Some Office non-security updates may need a reboot

The Office July 2021 non-security updates can be manually installed from the Download Center or automatically using the Microsoft Update service.

These updates apply to Microsoft Installer (.msi)-based Office products only and do not apply to Office subscription or Office 2016 Click-to-Run editions like Microsoft Office 365 Home.

After installing some of this month’s Microsoft Office updates, you may also need to reboot your computer for the installation process to complete.

If your Office installation starts misbehaving after installing the July Office updates, you can uninstall them using the following steps:

1. Go to Start, enter View Installed Updates in the Search Windows box, and then press Enter.
2. In the list of updates, locate and select the offending update, and then select Uninstall.