Hi there, 

I am experiencing an issue with Outlook 2013 that is having a massive detrimental effect on my productivity. I have tried a number of different fixes but the issue keeps returning.

Symptoms are that I get a micro freeze and a blue spinning wheel on almost every action I take including opening emails, replying to emails, clicking on a flag, pretty much anything. The freeze lasts for about 5-10 seconds. 

- I have used 1GB of my 2GB capacity so mailbox is not overloaded. 

- I am running Parallels Version 10.1.3 on a Macbook Air (mid-2011) with 4GB Ram, 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 and Yosemite 10.10

- I don't have excessive programs running which would be chewing RAM. 

- Other programs including other Office programs (OneNote, Word, Excel) are responding just fine, it's just Outlook. 

This has been a recurring problem. I have tried fixing by:

- Deleting and archiving folders to minimise size of mail boxes

- Removing all subfolders from the inbox to separately contained folders in the general mailbox instead

- Resetting the .OST file

- Restarting both Windows (Parallels) and Mac. (This actually does work for a while, about a day, then problem returns)

- Disabling all outlook extensions 

- Disabling graphics acceleration in Outlook advanced options

There have been a number of threads on this topic, which I have read, but the answers tend to include suggestions for all sorts of remedies making it difficult to get a definitive fix. Surely others must have experienced a similar problem, and have tried all the usual suggested fixes, yet still have the problem? I suspect the problem may be related to something specific to running Office on Parallels?

I am hoping that someone will be able to please give an enlightened answer, or a suggestion that will provide a fix or workaround, because my productivity is declining rapidly having to wait 6-10 seconds for each email, when typically I send scores of emails every day and speed is of the essence. I would even appreciate an honest response along the lines of "This is a common problem with Outlook on Parallels computers and there is no definitive answer" as this will allow me to move on and start using a different program.

Thanks in advance!

• Edited by Officeusernz 13 hours 3 minutes ago