Outlook stops responding

[Richee]

Is anyone experiencing Outlook lockups using Act 21 update5?

Requesting Help

If you are running Act 21 and syncing to Outlook 2016 without issues can you please reply with the Office version number you are running?  I'm desperate to find a solution and I'm willing to create new machine builds to troubleshoot.

My issue

We upgraded a bunch of users to Act 21 due to the licensing issue and now Outlook 2016 (multiple build versions) randomly stop responding.  Sometimes it starts working again after 30 seconds to 10 minutes but more often than not we need to end the Outlook task.  Act doesn't even need to be open for the issue to appear. The only fix so far is to disable the Act outlook add-in.  It's happening on older PC's that used to have a different version of Act installed as well as brand new just out of the box PC's.

All computers are Running Windows 10 with Outlook 2016

Outlook version:

16.0.4738.1000

16.0.6769.2017

16.0.7030.1021

Windows 10 versions:

1703

1709

1803

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

[juancarlosoterogarc…]

This issue occurs due to Microsoft Office updates in Office 2016 Click-to-Run based installations in versions 16.0.6965.2058 or later versions. - You can verify your version in Outlook by Clicking File > Outlook Account (or Office Account), then by clicking About Outlook...  CLICK HERE

Additionally, just to be sure, did you permanently deactivated the User Account Control (UAC)? -  and what about the exclusion in the Firewall / Antivirus?

Act! and files that are required in order for Act! to function properly can be mistakenly identified as an intrusion threat by your antivirus and/or firewall software. This is due to the way that Act! and Microsoft SQL Server-installed files communicate with other workstations on a network and with the Internet. Additionally, your antivirus and/or firewall software can prevent the successful installation of Act!, integration with other applications, or sharing/synchronization of databases.

These potential issues can be avoided by adding exceptions to your antivirus and/or firewall rules to allow ports and processes used by Act! and SQL Server to not be blocked when trying to pass through the antivirus and/or firewall.

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A port is the path that data will traverse bi-directionally and will be assigned depending on the application and feature that is using it. It is recommended that inbound exceptions for the following ports be added to your antivirus and/or firewall:

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Good luck and do not forget to periodically back up your database on a USB drive or external disk for more security

[Richee]

Thanks for the reply.

We don't use Office click to run.  All installs are MSI and our Outlook versions range is from before 16.0.6965.2058 and after.  User access control is gone and we tested things out with firewall/antivirus disabled.

As a test, I restored a database backup, removed 21 from one of the troubled machines then installed 20.1 and everything worked.  No lockups at all.  Reinstalled 21 and the issues came right back.

[Richee]

Has anyone experienced this issue?  We have nearly 400 computers still running 20.1 because of this issue.  I've revisited it a few times but can't figure out what's causing it.  

I've tried calling support and they're telling me our databases are corrupt which isn't the case.  If we don't have a reason/solution by the end of the year we are ready to move to an alternative.

[Richee]

Issue still happening on Windows build 1909

[Richee]

Question.....  What Outlook folders does the Act add-in scan?  Does it try and scan Exchange public folders if they're visible? 

I have a suspicion that it's scanning the public folders which are many terabyte's in size hence the Outlook crash.

[Richee]

We're a pretty big organization and all troubleshooting paths have been exhausted.  We have decided to live without the add-on until our alternative CRM has been built.  Act don't seem to care about the problem so we won't be renewing our contract.  

Thanks