My Outlook for Mac's spelling does not work

Hilda, Copenhagen 5 Reputation points
2026-07-09T12:24:12.36+00:00

The Detect Language function does not work. The suggested work-around is to select e-mail text, go to preferred language and choose this as default.

This function also does not work!

My text is Danish, and I spell well, yet all text is more or elss marked with red underline as error.

What is worse is, that when I write in either Danish or English, Outlok "corrects" words into the wrong language, creating errors, that I can not get rid off.

Even when I aactively correct-back in a word, as soon as I click somewhere else in the e-mail, the wrong spelling is back.

It is sooo frustrating and has been for months. My colleagues have the same problem and we are considering changing mail program:-(

H E L P

Outlook | MacOS | Legacy Outlook for Mac | For education
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  1. Tamara-Hu 17,955 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-07-09T13:41:17.5433333+00:00

    Hello @Hilda, Copenhagen,

    I can understand why this has been so frustrating, especially when it has been affecting you and your colleagues for months. Having correctly spelled Danish text constantly marked as incorrect and automatically changed to the wrong language can make even simple email writing extremely difficult.

    At this point, it may be worth considering a complete reinstall of Outlook for Mac. Before doing so, I strongly recommend backing up any important data to ensure nothing is lost during the process.

    For your reference:

    To use Legacy Outlook for Mac, you can toggle the Legacy Outlook button within the Outlook app:

    Try the new experience

    If a clean reinstall does not resolve the issue, I would suggest contacting Microsoft Technical Support directly for further investigation. Since the problem appears to be persistent and may be related to Outlook's language detection or proofing components, the support team may be able to collect diagnostic information and determine whether this is a client-specific issue or a broader product-related problem.

    How you get support with Outlook for Mac depends on if you're using Outlook with a Microsoft account, or with a work or school account through your organization.

    • If you're using a personal account, to get support within the app, go to Help > Contact Support.
    • If you're using a work or school account, contact your organization's help desk who can initiate a support ticket with Unified Support (formerly Premier) on your behalf.

    For your reference:

    If you discover any solutions or have additional insights, please consider replying to this thread to help others in the community.   

    I sincerely apologize for redirecting you to the Microsoft Technical Support Team. While I strive to assist as much as possible here in the forum, my resources are limited when it comes to backend-level diagnostics and advanced troubleshooting. Some issues require deeper technical analysis and access to internal tools that only the official support team can provide.    

    If you need further assistance, feel free to reply. I'm here and happy to help!


    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

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