Introduction:

Microsoft Outlook performance can be impacted by many variables. This article provides a variety of settings to optimize your experience when using Outlook in APC.

Applies To:

APC Clients troubleshooting Outlook performance issues or seeking to optimize their experience.

Requirements:

A licensed version of Outlook

Procedure:

Note: This article is intended as a general guideline, there will be cases where the settings here may not be the best for your needs.

1.Enabling cached mode

Microsoft recommends enabling cached mode in Outlook clients connected to Exchange Online. This will improve performance and connectivity issues for the average user.  Click File > Account Settings > Account Settings. click Change.

Under Offline settings check 'Use Cached Exchange Mode'.  Then slide the bar so that it keeps 3 months of offline data. Click the 'More settings' button in the bottom right. You will receive a prompt: 'The operation you selected will not complete until you quit and restart Microsoft Outlook.' Press 'OK'

Click on the advanced tab.  Under 'Cached Exchange Mode Settings' section uncheck the 'download shared folders' checkbox. Press OK and then again press OK to acknowledge you must restart Outlook for the changes to take place

Click Next and Finish.  Restart your Outlook for the changes to take effect.

2.Remove unnecessary or lightly used Add-ins

Outlook add-ons can be the cause of significant performance degradation. Review this resource to manage your add-ons.

3.Disable Graphics Acceleration

Outlook 2016 uses graphics acceleration to improve visual performance. However, this feature is not compatible with all graphics cards and can actually degrade performance, cause blurry text, and cause Outlook to hang. Graphics acceleration can be disabled by going to File > Options > Advanced and checking the “Disable Graphics Acceleration” box.

4.Check Total Number of Folders 

Outlook has a hard cap on the total number of folders(500) per signed-in account, this includes online in-place archive and shared mailbox accounts. Remember Outlook is not a document management system and performance will be degraded as clients near the folder limit. 

5.Limiting the number of calendars

Limiting the number of calendars in the “My Calendars” folder will improve Outlook performance. These calendars are synchronized regularly while Outlook is running. If a shared calendar is not heavily used by a user, it should be moved (you can drag and drop it in Outlook) to the “Shared Calendars” folder.