Microsoft Provides Temporary Solution for Outlook Encrypted Email Reply Issue

Microsoft has announced a temporary workaround for an ongoing problem that has been preventing users of Microsoft 365 from replying to encrypted emails through the Outlook Desktop application. This issue has been a topic of discussion on Microsoft’s community forums for several months, with users detailing their challenges when using the classic Outlook clients.

Despite attempts like reinstalling Outlook or setting up new profiles for affected email accounts, users found that these methods did not resolve the problem. Microsoft has pinpointed that the glitch specifically impacts users of the Microsoft 365 on the Current Channel Version 2402 (Build 17328.20142) and later versions, released on February 28.

The issue also affects those who want to reply to emails encrypted with Office 365 Message Encryption (OMEv2), now called Microsoft Purview Message Encryption. Users affected by this bug receive an error message stating, “Microsoft Outlook was not able to create a message with restricted permission” when attempting to respond to emails encrypted by Microsoft.

OMEv2 encrypted email reply error (Source: Microsoft)

Microsoft Suggests Workarounds

To fix this issue, Microsoft recommends using either the new Outlook client or Outlook Web Access (OWA) to reply to encrypted emails. For users who rely solely on the Outlook Desktop app for their encrypted email communication, there is a method to revert to the last functioning build.

This process involves using administrative privileges to execute commands in Windows. Simply type ‘Command Prompt’ in the Windows search box, then right-click it and select the ‘Run as administrator’ option.

In the Command Prompt window, input the following commands, pressing Enter after each line:

cd %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun

officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.17231.20236

Other Recent Outlook Fixes

This is not the first recent fix Microsoft has had to implement for Outlook issues. Last month, Microsoft rolled back an update meant to address a problem caused by the December Outlook Desktop security updates, which caused incorrect security alerts when opening ICS calendar files.

Additionally, Microsoft has recently resolved another issue that was causing Outlook desktop clients to lose synchronization with email servers through Exchange ActiveSync, as well as a separate bug that interfered with connectivity for Outlook.com users across both desktop and mobile email clients.

Related Reads:

• Outlook Encryption: How Secure Is It?
• How to Encrypt Email Messages