A friend of mine recently had this encounter wherein he could not open the emails sent to him by his coworkers. Whenever he would try to open there emails he would receive this error message from Microsoft Outlook:
Sorry, we're having trouble opening this item. This could be temporary, but if you see it again you might want to restart outlook. The text formatting command is not available. It may not be installed correctly.
My friend was having problems with opening documents and emails sent to him by his colleagues.
After receiving his messages showing me the error message and telling me about the situation he was facing I quickly opened up my desktop computer and did some research.
Here is the main source of the problem:
🛠️ What’s Causing the Error
- Recent Office Update Issue: The error appears after updating to Office Current Channel Version 2510 Build 19328.20158. It affects both Outlook and Word, preventing emails or documents from opening properly.
- Formatting Command Glitch: The message “The text formatting command is not available” suggests a problem with how Outlook is accessing or rendering formatted content.
✅ How to Fix It
Microsoft recommends reverting to the previous Office version as a workaround:
- Open Command Prompt as Administrator:
- Press , type , right-click on Command Prompt, and choose Run as administrator.
- Run the Revert Command: Paste this command into the prompt:
- This will roll back Office to Version 2509 (Build 19231.20216), which doesn’t have the issue.
- Restart Outlook: After the rollback completes, restart Outlook and try opening the emails again.
🧩 Additional Tips
Select Microsoft Office, click Change, then choose Quick Repair🛠️ What’s Causing the Error
- Recent Office Update Issue: The error appears after updating to Office Current Channel Version 2510 Build 19328.20158. It affects both Outlook and Word, preventing emails or documents from opening properly.
- Formatting Command Glitch: The message “The text formatting command is not available” suggests a problem with how Outlook is accessing or rendering formatted content.
✅ How to Fix It
Microsoft recommends reverting to the previous Office version as a workaround:
- Open Command Prompt as Administrator:
- Press , type , right-click on Command Prompt, and choose Run as administrator.
- Run the Revert Command: Paste this command into the prompt:
cd %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun
officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.19231.20216
- This will roll back Office to Version 2509 (Build 19231.20216), which doesn’t have the issue.
- Restart Outlook: After the rollback completes, restart Outlook and try opening the emails again.
🧩 Additional Tips
Select Microsoft Office, click Change, then choose Quick Repair
If you’re using Outlook Classic, this issue is more likely to occur. Consider switching to the New Outlook interface temporarily.
If rollback isn’t an option, you can try repairing Office via Control Panel:
Go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features
Select Microsoft Office, click Change, then choose Quick Repair
My friend tried this steps and after doing all the steps in order this solved his problem which made him very happy. Hope this can also others who are facing the same issues with outlook.
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