Microsoft fixes Office 365 apps crashing on Windows Server systems

​Microsoft has fixed a known issue that caused Microsoft 365 applications and Classic Outlook to crash on Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019 systems.

The root cause is a recent Office update, which integrated the React Native framework to support certain Microsoft 365 apps’ features, while the impact was limited to Microsoft 365 users who updated their classic Outlook and Microsoft 365 apps to Version 2412 (Build 18324.20168).

The company first confirmed the issue on Tuesday after many customers reported that their Outlook email client and Office 365 apps, such as Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint, crashed within 15 seconds of launch.

On Thursday, Redmond released an Office Suite update that fixes the bug triggering app crashes on Windows Server systems.

“If your Microsoft 365 Apps clients are configured to automatically update from the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN), then no action is required. If you manage updates directly you can now download this latest update and begin deployment,” says a new message added to the Microsoft 365 admin center today.

“We’ll be gradually rolling out this update of Microsoft 365 Apps to users on that update channel starting January 16th, 2025 (PST).”

Workaround also available

​Customers who haven’t had the update automatically applied and can’t immediately install it on their systems can also manually revert to Version 2411 (Build 18227.20162) as a temporary fix by following these steps:

1. Open a Command Prompt in Administrator context.
2. Type or paste the two commands into the Command Prompt window and press Enter after each:
   • cd %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun
   • officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.18227.20152

3. To prevent Office from updating back to the latest build, you can turn off updates by clicking File, Office Account, Update Options, and Disable Updates.
4. Put a reminder on your calendar for February 11th to re-enable updates.

Earlier this week, Microsoft mitigated a Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) outage that blocked users from accessing Microsoft 365 Office apps. 

An outage in early December, caused by a token generation issue that caused authentication requests to fail, also brought down Office web apps and the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Last month, the company announced that it was investigating another known issue that triggers “Product Deactivated” errors for Microsoft 365 Office app users.