Word not opening from outlook

Microsoft Outlook is a great application for sending/receiving emails, managing tasks, contacts, and calendars, and organizing your files in folders for better access.

Since it comes as part of the Office suite, it is natural to expect other formats such as Word, and Excel files to be easily accessible via Outlook. However, Outlook shows an error:

“Word experienced an error trying to open the file”

«Microsoft Outlook (Protected View) has stopped working»

“The file is corrupt and cannot be opened”

The prompt also asks you to try some suggestions:

• Check the file permissions for the document or drive.
• Make sure there are sufficient free memory and disk space.
• Open the file with the Text Recovery converter.
• Install Outlook or ensure any dialogue box on Outlook is closed.

These errors show up as Office trust settings prevent you from opening untrusted files.

Here are 3 methods that can solve the unable to open Outlook attachments issue.

1. Enable Protected View while trying to open Outlook attachments
2. Change the Registry settings
3. Repair Corrupt Outlook PST File

Method 1: Enable the protected view for Outlook attachments.

Follow these steps to get rid of cannot to create a file or unable to open any attachments in Outlook error:

Step 1: Open Microsoft Word

Step 2: Go to File -> Options

Step 3: Click on Trust Center in the options panel, then click on Trust Center Settings.

Step 4: Click Protected View in the left pane. Now uncheck the box: Enable Protected View for Outlook attachments.

Step 5: Click OK to save changes in the Trust Center window.

Step 6: Click OK in Word Options.

Now close your Microsoft Word document and attempt to open an email with a Word document attachment.

You can repeat all the above steps in Microsoft Excel as well

If the problem still persists, it could be due to an incorrect registry entry for the preview handler.

Method 2: Change the Registry Settings:

Follow the below steps to change the registry settings.

Step 1: Press Windows +R to open the Run window.

Step 2: Type regedit and hit Enter.

Go to the following folder:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Office ClickToRun REGISTRY MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Preview Handlers

Step 3: On the right pane, right-click on an empty space. Select New and click on String Value.

Step 4: Double click on a newly created string and enter these details:

Value Name: {84F66100-FF7C-4fb4-B0C0-02CD7FB668FE}

Value Date: Microsoft Word previewer

Repeat the procedure for Excel:

String: {00020827-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

Value: Microsoft Excel Previewer

Verify the result again after adding the correct registry entry.

Note: It is important to back up the entire registry before any deletion or modification. Click to know more about different types of Outlook problems and solutions.

Also, know how to recover Word documents on Mac if you have lost the file due for any reason.

If the above-mentioned methods failed to resolve the issue, then the problem is corrupt PST files. Follow the next method to find out how to resolve this issue.

Method 3: Repair Corrupt PST Files

If the PST file is corrupt you won’t be able to access any information, you can repair the corrupt files using manual methods like SCANPST.exe, but the drawback of using that is, that it can only fix minor issues. In order to repair severely corrupt or damaged files, one should make use of a powerful tool like Remo Repair Outlook software which is specifically built to repair Outlook.

One of the best things about the software is its non-destructive mechanism. The software reads the file, extracts contents from it, and then creates a new healthy file by fixing all the issues. The tool is compatible with all versions of Windows and Mac Operating systems.

Free Download For Windows

Microsoft Outlook is one of the useful applications for managing tasks, sending or receiving email contacts, calendar & organizing your documents in the folder for better access. But, sometimes, it may happen that, while trying to open the Word document on your system, you may get an error message ‘Word experienced an error trying to open the file’. Well, nothing to worry about, because you are in a very correct place. In this post, I am going to share with you some of the best solutions to fix “Word experienced an error trying to open the file when opening from Outlook” easily.

Do you know the exact reason behind the occurrence of this error? So, let’s find out its answer…

Major Reason

The “word experienced an error trying to open the file word 2019” or “cannot open Word attachments in outlook 2016” error messages usually take place when your document was altered by any third-party program while transmission process. Hence, your file becomes corrupted and can’t be opened.

Now, it’s time to proceed towards the possible ways to resolve the word experienced an error trying to open the file 2020.

When you get stuck in such a situation with your Word file & unable to access it from outlook then don’t search any Outlook settings because it’s not outlook issue. It is the respective MS word program issue that refused to open the document from unsafe origins. Therefore, you can easily fix this issue by trying the below effective approaches.

Fix #1: Unblock The Word File

Well, if you’re facing “cannot open word attachments in outlook 2010/2016/2019/2020”you’re your Outlook then the chances are there, the file may have blocked. So, you can solve it by simply unblocking the file using the below instructions:

• First of all, right-click on your Word document and choose the Properties.

• Under the General tab, you need to click on Unblock button placed under the Security.

• Then, apply the alterations and then hit the OK.

After the Word file is unlocked, then try to open it again in your MS Word application to check if the “cannot open attachments in outlook 2013 is fixed. If you’re still encountering the issue, try the next way.

Fix #2: Add The Trusted Location

Many times, it happens that the location of a document is actually not included in MS Word Trust Center. So, to add the file location in a Trust Center, you have to follow the below steps:

• First of all, open your Wordon the PC.
• Make a tap on “File” option in a menu-bar. Click the “Options“.

• Click the option “Trust Center” on a left-hand side
• After that, tap on “Trust Center Settings”.
• Then, go to “Trusted Locations” of the Trust Center window, and make a tap on “Add new location”.

The MS Office Trusted Location Window gets open.

• Under a Microsoft Office Trusted Location, in the “Path:” option, you have to enter the drive location of a document (in the example ‘C:’ drive is chosen).
• At this time check the “Subfolders of this location are also trusted” option.

• Now, hit on “OK” to simply save the modifications.
• Lastly, close your MS Word.

After completing these steps, reboot your PC and then try to open the document again. Now, you will be able to open your document without any error.

Fix #3: Disable The Protected View 

This word file error may also take place due to the Trust Center setting. Here are the steps to know how to resolve “cannot open MS word attachment from Outlook: word experienced an error trying to open the file:

1. Open the Microsoft Word application, then go to the File menu & select the Options.
2. Under WordOptions, you need to choose the Trust Center, & click on the Trust Center Settings.

3. Now, select the Protected View, then disable the below features:

• “Enable Protected View for files originating from the Internet”
• “Enable Protected View for files located in potentially unsafe locations”
• “Enable Protected View for Outlook attachments”

1. After that, save the alterations & close the Word program. then try to open the Word document.

Fix #4: Enable the Windows Firewall.

An error message “Word experienced an error trying to open the file 2020” may also display when the Windows Firewall has been disabled. Thus, to enable the Windows Firewall, try these steps:

• Together press the keys Windows + R to simply open the run command
• Then, in the run box, you have to type: Service. MSC & hit the Enter.

• After that, right-click on the Windows Firewall service option and choose the Properties.

• Next, set a Startup type to the Automatic, then click on OK.
• At last, restart your PC.

Now, try to open your Word attachment in the Outlook.

Fix #5: Viewing Its Version History

Another method that you can try to repair & recover a corrupted Word document is via viewing its version history. For that, you need to follow the instructions guided below:

Step 1: Open your folder which containing the documents and then simply right-clicks on them.

Step 2: After that, click the option “View Version History” & choose the last available one

Step 3: Now, check if the document is recovered.

Fix 6: Fix an Error Using The Word File repair tool

After completing up all these manual steps, if you’re still encountering the same error while opening the Word file from outlook then it means that your Word file is somehow gets corrupted. In order to fix a corrupted Word file, you need to use a third party Word repair application.

The Word File Repair Tool is the best-suited tool for fixing this type of issue to fix word file issues in minimum consumption of time and effort. It is specially designed to repair and recover corrupt or inaccessible .doc files. It recovers document text along with its important stuff like indentation, formatting, charts, hyperlinks, images, tables, etc.

Apart from that it can repair “cannot open MS word attachment from Outlook: word experienced an error trying to open the file” error including other issues.

It supports different MS Word versions like MS Word 2000, MS Word 2002, MS Word 2003, MS Word 2007, MS Word 2010, and MS Word 2013.

Steps to Word Experienced An Error Trying To Open The File When Opening From Outlook:

Step 1: Choose the file by clicking on a ‘Select File’ or either a folder that contains word files. Or even find the file clicking on the ‘Find File’ option.

Step 2: List of the selected files is displayed, the user requires selecting Word file using a checkbox that to be repaired. Select all files by marking the ‘Select All’ checkbox. Then click on the ‘Scan’ button.

Step 3: Preview of the scanned file could be seen by clicking on the file in both ‘Full document, and ‘Filtered text’ formats by clicking the tab given on the middle pane of the window.

Step 4: If the scanned file is *.doc file, then the preview will be available in the “Raw text” format all along with ‘Filtered Text’ formats and ‘Full Document’ and ‘Filtered Text’ formats.

Step 5: To repair, users, just click on ‘Start Repair’. Then select options for saving a file using ‘Save Document’ and hit the ‘Ok’ button.

Final Verdict

So, these are the six methods that will definitely help you to fix cannot open word attachments in outlook 2007. However, if the manual ways fail to resolve this issue, then my recommendation is to try Word File Repair Tool as it is an easy, simple & safe way to solve any kind of errors and issues in the word file.