Microsoft: Outlook for iOS may crash or freeze on iPads due to a coding error

What's happening

Microsoft has confirmed a reliability issue affecting Outlook for iOS on iPad: after updating to a specific build, the app may crash on launch or open but become effectively unusable (freezing or not responding to taps). The company attributes the behavior to a coding error in the latest release, not to an iPadOS change.

The issue has been tracked in Microsoft 365 as incident EX1220516, indicating noticeable user impact and ongoing mitigation work.

Who is impacted

Based on Microsoft's incident communications, the impact primarily concerns:

If your organization manages iPads at scale, the symptom pattern is consistent with a problematic app rollout rather than account-specific corruption. In other words, reinstalling Outlook may not help if the device pulls the same affected version again.

Root cause (high level)

Microsoft says the bug was introduced by a change intended to improve how Outlook handles tab behavior when feature flags are updated. The code was meant to refresh tabs instead of restarting them, but the implementation error resulted in the crash and freeze behavior on iPad.

This is being treated as a stability incident. There is no indication in Microsoft's public messaging that the problem is security related.

Temporary workaround: launch Outlook in Airplane Mode

Microsoft's recommended workaround is simple and has proven effective in the field:

Steps

1. Enable Airplane Mode on the iPad
2. Launch Outlook
3. Once Outlook is open, re-enable Wi-Fi and/or cellular data

If Outlook opens normally after the workaround, users can continue working while Microsoft's fix propagates through the App Store.

Fix status: update rollout via the App Store

Microsoft has stated that a fix was developed and submitted to Apple, with availability dependent on Apple's review and staged release processes.

In practice, you should instruct users and support teams to check the App Store for the newest Outlook build. The App Store listing shows a follow-up version after 5.2602.0, which strongly suggests a hotfix release path.

For managed environments, the cleanest resolution is to ensure devices move off 5.2602.0 to the latest available build as soon as it is approved for your deployment ring.

Admin guidance: what to do in Microsoft 365 and MDM

If you support Outlook on iPad in an organization, treat this like a time-sensitive client incident:

Quick verification checklist for helpdesk

When troubleshooting a report, confirm these items first:

If all four match, you are almost certainly hitting this incident, not an account, MFA, or token issue.

Bottom line

This is a classic bad-build scenario: a single Outlook for iOS version can render the app unusable on iPad, and Microsoft's immediate mitigation is a practical launch workaround while a fixed build rolls out through Apple's distribution pipeline.

For organizations, the priority is to keep users productive (Airplane Mode workaround plus a clear update path), then ensure the affected version is removed from your deployment baseline once the fix is broadly available.