Microsoft investigates Outlook issues with security keys, search

Microsoft is investigating several issues impacting Outlook customers and leading to problems related to security keys, search results, and more.

As the company explains, some users cannot add Gmail accounts if they use security keys for multi-factor authentication.

“Adding a Gmail account to Outlook while using a security key for 2-step verification causes this error: This browser does not support security keys,” Microsoft revealed on its list of recent issues in Outlook for PC.

Redmond is also looking for a fix to address reports of search results for Outlook Suggested Searches being inaccurate, incomplete, or missing. This issue is triggered by suggested search encoding that doesn’t match what Outlook for Microsoft 365 expects.

Microsoft says that this bug mainly impacts Japanese, Russian, Hebrew, or Greek versions of Outlook but may also affect customers using other languages.

Some Outlook customers also see sent messages incorrectly displaying follow-up flag status, leading to the flag not being applied for the recipient or being cleared without user interaction.

The Outlook team is currently investigating the search and follow-up flag issues and will publish an update when more info is available. 

Workaround available for Gmail users

Outlook customers who are experiencing problems adding their Gmail accounts to the Outlook client can work around the issue by selecting a different MFA method.

“Work around this issue by choosing another method for 2-step verification by following the steps and information” on the Add a Gmail account to Outlook page, Microsoft said.

In July, Redmond also rolled out an Outlook for Microsoft 365 fix for issues causing the client to crash on systems where users tried using the Search bar or Search Suggestions features.

One month earlier, Microsoft fixed another bug causing Microsoft 365 users to experience authentication issues when logging into desktop client apps like Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Outlook, and OneDrive for Business.

Redmond is currently also investigating an Outlook crash when using the ‘Find Related’ search feature in the Tasks Module and another issue causing 401 authentication errors when opening Room Finder.