The latest major Microsoft server outage has shown how vulnerable the new Outlook for Windows is to any breakdown at Microsoft.
Outlook (new) is the replacement for the Outlook (classic) for Windows that comes with Microsoft 365 and Office plans. Though the two look similar, Outlook (new) is very different ‘under the hood’ and relies on an Internet connection much more than the traditional Outlook.
Microsoft has taken the ‘preview’ or ‘beta’ label off Outlook (new). We still consider it a ‘work in progress’ and strongly recommend avoiding Outlook (new) for the moment.
A key problem with Outlook (new) is it’s a Progressive Web App (PWA). In other words, it’s essentially a web page that runs like it’s an app.
That means Outlook (new) relies a lot more on a connection to the online mailbox than classic Outlook. Microsoft has recently added what they call an ‘offline’ option but it’s not up to the standard that Outlook customers expect.
The over-reliance on an online connection is shown with errors like this during the Thanksgiving week outage. New Outlook gets the message header but not the message itself which is left online until requested.
Errors like this appeared in Outlook (new), setup with its lame version of ‘offline support’.
No such problem with Outlook (classic) which would work normally until it could automatically reconnect with the online mailbox. New incoming emails are downloaded in full not in pieces.
There’ll come a time when Outlook (new) is ready for the paying public but it’s not there yet. Ignore Microsoft’s delusional statements to the contrary.
New Outlook now available to all
Does Outlook (new) really have offline support?
