Microsoft Outlook won't start on Windows 11 24H2 with Google Workspace Sync

Microsoft has confirmed that users might face issues starting Outlook after updating to Windows 11 24H2 when using Google Workspace Sync.

The issue is severe, as Outlook won’t start after installing Windows 11 24H2. The problem appears when you have Google Workspace Sync installed. Microsoft’s support document notes:

After installing Windows 11, version 24H2, you might experience issues while starting Microsoft Outlook if you use Google Workspace Sync. You might observe that Microsoft Outlook fails to start, and you cannot uninstall or reinstall Google Workspace Sync. Resulting from this issue you will observe an error which begins with ‘Cannot Start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot Open the Outlook Window. The set of folders cannot be opened. An unexpected error has occurred. MAPI was unable to load the information service’.

That’s not all. Windows 11 24H2 will also prevent you from uninstalling or reinstalling the Google Workspace Sync client.

Therefore, Microsoft has placed a compatibility hold on affected devices, preventing them from updating to 24H2. While that’s not great, it’s at least better than the alternative, which is to try to install the update, fail, and then have to fix your system.

The good news is that the fix is relatively simple. You’ll need to update to the latest version of Google Workspace Sync, version 4.3.68.0 (or newer).

You can do that by downloading the latest version of the client from Google’s website. If you’re updating to 24H2 using the Media Creation Tool, you’ll be prompted to download the new client during the update process, but it will take about 48 hours for the block to be lifted.

If you can’t update even after updating Google Workspace Sync, Microsoft says you should contact Google support. And if you’re worried that other versions of Windows 11 might be affected, don’t be—Microsoft says that only client versions of 24H2 (and not the Windows Server-based ones) are affected.

Are you using Microsoft Outlook on Windows 11 24H2 and experiencing this issue with Google Workspace Sync? Let us know in the comments.

In other news, the Redmond-based tech giant finally lifted the restriction on installing Windows 11 24H2 on PCs with Star Wars Outlaw installed.