We recently switched to Office 365 and up until this month's Tuesday Patch Day, everything was working great. As soon as I installed the patches from 3/12/2013. Ever since then I've had the following issue:

1. Launch Outlook 2013
2. Launch Lync 2013
3. Get the following dialog box: "Outlook Data File: The file <filename> is in use and cannot be accessed. Close any application that is using this file, and then try again. You might need to restart your computer."
4. Click Ok to dismiss the dialog box. Everything seems to function normally.
5. About three minutes later I get the following dialog box: "We're sorry, but Outlook has run into an error that is preventing it from working correctly. Outlook will need to be closed as a result. Would you like us to repair now?"
6. Click Close. Everything seems to function normally.

Steps taken to attempt to a fix:

1. I deleted the Outlook profile and recreated it from scratch. No improvement.
2. I rebooted the machine. No improvement.
3. I repaired the Outlook data file. No improvement.

Other notes:

1. If I start Outlook 2013 by itself, it works fine and no dialog boxes.
2. If I start Lync 2013 by itself, it works fine and no dialog boxes.

• Edited by korggy Friday, March 15, 2013 12:37 PM

sounds like you did almost everything except for running a REPAIR on Outlook and Lync in appwiz.cpl.  Try that ... maybe something got hosed in the app.  Sounds like the Lync hooks into Outlook are causing an issue.   Reinstalling Lync would reset those hooks.  Because that's so easy, I'd try that first. 

-G

Agree with Greg Seeber.

Try to disable the Lync add-ons for Outlook.

If that works, then you can reinstall the Lync add-ons.

sounds like you did almost everything except for running a REPAIR on Outlook and Lync in appwiz.cpl.  Try that ... maybe something got hosed in the app.  Sounds like the Lync hooks into Outlook are causing an issue.   Reinstalling Lync would reset those hooks.  Because that's so easy, I'd try that first. 

I wound up uninstalling and reinstalling Lync and everything seems to work again now. Thank you for the suggestion!

Hi all,

I had the same problem as the original poster, and I fixed it using the method I'm about to describe.  First, let me state that I am using a volume-license version of Office 2013 Standard, installed the conventional way ... we are not using the desktop apps available with Office 365 plans E3+E4 or "Midsize Business".

I had originally installed Lync 2013 using a 'streaming' installer that you find by logging into the Office 365 Portal site -> Office 365 Settings -> Software -> Lync -> Install.

That installer does not work with the version of Office 2013 I'm using.  I uninstalled Lync, and reinstalled using the links below:
(32-bit):
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35451
(64-bit):
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35450

The version of Lync that you choose (32-bit or 64-bit) has to match the version of Office 2013 you already have installed.  Upon installing the 64-bit version of Lync at the URL above, the error message "Outlook Data File: The file <filename> is in use and cannot be accessed." disappeared and Outlook and Lync now happily cooperate.

• Proposed as answer by Matthew_Cooper Tuesday, March 26, 2013 9:48 PM
• Edited by Matthew_Cooper Tuesday, March 26, 2013 9:50 PM

Thank you Matthew_Cooper! This is the only thing that worked for us!

• Edited by RoofLogic Wednesday, May 22, 2013 1:23 PM

Worked for me too. Thanks Matthew

Thank you so much! This was driving me insane. Your fix worked for me, Matthew!

I have Office Professional Plus 2013 64-bit installed and Lync 2013 64-bit installed (from the location Matthew suggested) but I still get the message "Outlook Data File: The file <filename> is in use and cannot be accessed. Close any application that is using this file, and then try again. You might need to restart your computer." and eventually the message "We're sorry, but Outlook has run into an error that is preventing it from working correctly. Outlook will need to be closed as a result. Would you like us to repair now?"

I have tried uninstalling Lync 2013 and re-installing but get the same issue, and have tried the Quick Repair and the Online Repair options for the second error message above, but still to no avail....any other suggestions anyone? :(

The only thing I'm wondering is if I should uninstall Lync Basic 2013 and uninstall Office 2013 and then reinstall Office 2013 because doesn't Lync 2013 come with it anyway?

Now I'm confusing myself...

I uninstalled the basic lync 2013 which i downloaded from office 365 website, and then just run with the default lync 2013 that came with the ms office professional 2013. that worked fine. 

i guess re-installing the web-download file of lync2013 is the culprit.

This worked for my office as well. I created a small KB for it, should anyone need visuals or direct links to where to download:

http://danblee.com/lync-were-sorry-but-outlook-has-run-into-an-error-that-is-preventing-it-from-working-correctly/

As for my direct issue, we were having trouble because our Outlook mailbox was our business mailbox and the Lync software was downloaded from our Office 365 accounts. After installing the streamed version, it tries to play nice with Outlook, but the different email addresses fight.

I hope this helps. Cheers!

Dan B. Lee

Thanks Matthew_Cooper, saved a lot of time!

Diegus

• Edited by mrdiegoa Wednesday, April 16, 2014 6:49 PM

Thanks Matthew, this worked for me too.

What worked for me was to go into the Action Center and choose restore.  I then chose to restore to a restore point just prior to the patch being installed.  After rebooting everything is working for me now without the need to restore/rebuild my profile.  I don't know yet what will happen when the patch tries to apply itself again but I will tackle that when and if anything needs to be done.

Microsoft products always like that, almost...

And when I search for a solution, it would probably like this: at the 2-nd night of full moon Kill a proccess, reinstall, delete folder, run as administrator, jump 3 times, say magic words, and then reinstall windows.

Why I just cannot install and use, like in Mac?..

BR.

Microsoft products always like that, almost...

And when I search for a solution, it would probably like this: at the 2-nd night of full moon Kill a proccess, reinstall, delete folder, run as administrator, jump 3 times, say magic words, and then reinstall windows.

Why I just cannot install and use, like in Mac?..

BR.

We voted... and it was agreed that no one understands a thing that you just said.

If you like your Mac - please happily use it.   I, however, like to be productive - so, I'll stick with my Windows OS.  Also note, I pledge that I will not  go to a MAC support site and troll/shill for Windows8 while bring zero value to the conversation.  The world would be a better place if everyone would follow a recommendation like that.

Dear Greg.

It is impossible to be productive with such quality of MS product. This bug is one year old and nothing has been done by MS to solve it. In common, it takes 20% of my time to solve and find workarounds.

I agree, that my message has almost zero value. But it reflects my attitude, as a senior C# developer who has to use windows OS. And this might help (I hope) MS team to be more responsible for their product. And if it helps, then yes, the world will be better place. 

Thanks Matthew! You saved me from going through IT. It worked flawlessly.