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Office 365 Outlook 2013 - Outlook will not show replied or forward icon

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Tuesday, January 13, 2015 5:46 PM

I just installed Office 365 and Outlook 2013. When I reply to emails or forward emails, the reply/forward icons only show up every 10th time or so. It is driving me crazy! I rely so much on the reply icon throughout the day. Anyway to fix this?

Thanks! Kristin 

All replies (10)

Sunday, January 18, 2015 10:20 AM ✅Answered

Hi,

Thanks for your feedback. Sorry to hear the steps above didn't fix the issue.

Let's try to launch Outlook in safe mode and see if issue persists. This will help to determine whether any third-party add-ins are causing the issue:

Press Win + R and type "outlook.exe /safe" in the blank box, then press Enter.

If the problem does not occur after you start Outlook in safe mode, then we can troubleshoot third-party add-ins by disabling them one at a time:

  1. With the Office application still in Safe Mode, click FILE>Options>Add-Ins.
  2. Next to the "Manage list", click "Go".
  3. Uncheck one of the add-ins in the list and click "OK".
  4. Restart the application (not in Safe Mode this time).

If issue doesn't persists, then the problem with the add-in that you just unchecked.

Regards,

Ethan Hua
TechNet Community Support

It's recommended to download and install Configuration Analyzer Tool (OffCAT), which is developed by Microsoft Support teams. Once the tool is installed, you can run it at any time to scan for hundreds of known issues in Office programs.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015 6:32 PM

I also just noticed that when I send an email with an attachment, the attachment icon is missing too. 

Wednesday, January 14, 2015 6:56 AM | 4 votes

Hi Kristin,

As per your description, I understand that the reply, forward and attachment icons are missing from your Outlook 2013 client.

This could be a view setting issue, let's first check whether these columns are enabled in your View Settings:

  1. Go to VIEW tab on the ribbon, then select “View Settings" button.
  2. Click "Columns..." button on "Advanced View Settings" dialog
  3. Check whether "Icon" and "Attachment" are in the list of "Show these columns in this order:". If not, please select it from "Available columns:" list, then click "Add->" to add it.

If these columns are enabled already, the view settings are probably corrupted, I would suggest we try to reset the views and see if it helps:

Press Win + R and type "outlook.exe /cleanviews" in the blank box, then press Enter.

(Please note that by running this command, all views in all folders will be reset.)

Hope this helps. Please feel free to post back with any findings.

Regards,

Ethan Hua
TechNet Community Support

It's recommended to download and install Configuration Analyzer Tool (OffCAT), which is developed by Microsoft Support teams. Once the tool is installed, you can run it at any time to scan for hundreds of known issues in Office programs.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015 8:33 PM

Thanks for the reply. The columns were already enabled. I did the Windows+R too and it reset it but still doesn't work. What else can I try? 

Thursday, April 7, 2016 2:06 PM | 1 vote

I am using Outlook 2016 through office 365 and same issue. I have tried al the suggested options to no avail.

I have seen so many threads on this that it is almost certainly a problem with the MS software and not the users. I look forward to the update/patch that sorts it out. 

So far I am very disappointed with Outlook 2016 compared to the Outlook 2007 I was using, which was perfect. I wish I had not upgraded.

Friday, August 5, 2016 12:02 PM

Microsoft advertises itself as Cloud First but the reality is not quite that.

I see the icons for reply, forward etc. but on a device basis. Thus is I reply on one Cloud based PC I see that I have replied on that PC but not on another PC using OL or indeed on OWA or on my Windows or Android phones. Conversely, flags seem to work.

Now, there is a twist to this. One which would indicate that the failure is on the server side at Microsoft. The behaviour I describe is using an MSN account which is a personal account. If I use my work account, also Exchange, anything that I do is fully replicated across devices.

Again, this is something that people have been writing and complaining about to Microsoft for year. Nothing has been done about it.

There is obviously a solution. When is it going to be implemented? When are real user functional needs going to be addressed instead of resources being allocated to irrelevancies such as how to make an email prettier?

Tuesday, August 23, 2016 9:07 AM

Thank you Ethan for the above post.

It solved my problem

Wednesday, February 8, 2017 10:07 PM

Hi Ethan

I am experiencing the same issue with a customer machine. We have started Outlook 2016 in safe mode and the replied to icons still do not show. Do yo have any troubleshooting recommendations for what to try if the problem persists in safe mode?

Here is some background information:

  • Running Windows 7 Pro
  • Office 2016 Perpetual License (Not Office 365 or connecting Exchange)
  • Has several accounts..most are POP, however the main account is IMAP (which is the only account where we see this)
  • Icons is a column showing in the inbox view
  • This Office package was an upgrade from 2007 several months ago, but this behavior only started 2 weeks ago (so it did work for a while). Office 2007 was complete uninstalled.
  • I have noticed that when I open a message and reply to it, the icon does not show, however, the message itself displays "This message has been replied to" in the header. The funny thing is that it doesn't stay this way.. If I choose another view (like sent), then come back to the Inbox, the message doesn't show that text in the header anymore (neither in reading pane nor if I fully open the message I replied to)
  • Another odd thing is that if we reply to the message from his cell phone (iPhone), the icon DOES appear in the Outlook client. Which seems counter-intuative

We have spoken to MS support by phone and chat. Each time it was suggested to run the repair tool, which for some ungodly reason decides to completely uninstall the office package (another story)... So we are desperate to find any alternative areas to troubleshoot/try. Any advice you can provide will be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance Ethan

Tuesday, April 11, 2017 8:29 AM

Any update on this? I am having the same issues as explained by Rob.

- Office 365 2016 Outlook

- IMAP setup (Google mail server)

Thanks

Monday, September 18, 2017 3:22 PM

Hi guys

I totally sympathise with your issues having worked with Outlook for many years, experiencing a number of issues outlined above. However I have seen the light when I was introduced to Microfocus Groupwise a number of months ago. Not only is it cheaper to maintain, it offers the same if not more functionality that Outlook without the bugs and issues.