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Windows 10 creator breaks WAV preview in Outlook 2016

Anyone have a fix for preview of WAV files in Outlook 2016?

Worked fine on my 13" Spectre X360 right up until I installed the creator update - then it broke.

Nuked it down to nothing, rebuilt with the creator update, no other installs done but Office 2016 Professional Plus.

Verified as I always that WAV files were set to open with Windows Media Player, not Groove, and that's all it ever took.  And I never got it to work again.

Today I got a new, larger 15" Spectre X360.  Installed Office, set WMP to be the WAV player, and WAV file attachments from my voicemail system at work previewed beautifully inside of Outlook. 

Ran the Windows 10 creator update - and of course, preview for WAV files is broken.

All settings are fine - even set them to something else, then RESET them in case it just had to have those settings force changed.  Still will not preview.

Very frustrating that a MS update breaks the functionality that two MS programs had with each other for so many years...

I can't find anything with google so far about it, so I'm hoping someone here may have already worked around it somehow, or have suggestions to try.

OS is 64 bit, Office version is 32 bit.  And now consistently showed that it worked fine before the creator update, and cannot be made to work again after.

I can still open a WAV separately by hitting the radio button in the options dropdown where the attachment shows up, but if I preview it opens a windows media player rich preview handler box BEHIND outlook, with a generic icon on the taskbar, no name, and it can't do anything.  No controls, no X on the top right.  Can only alt+F4 it or end task with task manager. 

Also should add ran offcat.msi to install the office tool, showed me the few updates not installed by windows update, and i get no errors from it.  And no, uninstalling, reinstalling, or repairing doesn't do anything, so no need to bother suggesting those either. ;)

Thanks

John

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Hi John,

Creators Update sometimes requires other applications to be updated also. To isolate your concern regarding Outlook 2016 audio file attachments, we’d like to know the following:

  • The version of your Windows. To know which version of Windows you are using, press Windows + R to open run window, type winver and press Enter.
  • If you already installed the Office updates.
  • If you receive any error messages when opening an audio file attachments.

In addition, can you test if you can preview the other audio formats such as .mp3, .mpeg4, etc.?

We’re looking forward to your response.

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I have this same exact issue.  The preview handler floats outside of the message area and in the background behind outlook when you select the wav attachment.  You can switch to it, but it is not as well integrated as it was prior to the 1703 update.  I haven't tested with mp3 or mpeg but wav files definitely are broken.  My windows version is 1703 (OS Build 15063.296) and Office 365 Pro Plus Outlook 2016 is up to date with the latest updates Version 1703 (Build 7967.2161 Click-to-Run).

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I tried disabling hardware acceleration in Options > Advanced, and the old way worked for the first wav file I clicked on but went back to the same broken behavior on subsequent attempts. Seems to be video related, potentially with desktop text scaling or something similar since my Surface wants to scale things up to make it easier to read.

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For me had nothing to do with scaling since the first time I hit this was on a 13" HP Spectre X360 and at 1920x1080 I run no scaling, everything is original scale, no adjustments.  I like things tiny on my screens. :)

Also had no luck with the hardware accelleration, I had tried that on my previous one, didn't help, and just tried it here now but still no luck.

Definitely something within the creator's update that is breaking it, just a matter of WHAT has changed...  I don't even get that usable preview behind Outlook - for me it's a black window that doesn't play anything and has to be ended via task bar or task manager since it doesn't even have an X in the corner - so I can't preview at all, I have NO option but to open the attachment...

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Creators Update requires other applications to be updated also. To resolve your concern with Outlook, we recommend that you visit this link to update your Office 2016.

Let us know if this works for you.

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Had stated in the original post I already used offcat.msi and confirmed all updates are in place and nothing flagging as a problem.

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I too have confirmed that Office is up to date as well and provided specific version information.

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May we know if there are any error messages when you tried to preview .wav file attachments in Outlook 2016? If yes, provide us a screenshot.

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From the original post - "I can still open a WAV separately by hitting the radio button in the options dropdown where the attachment shows up, but if I preview it opens a windows media player rich preview handler box BEHIND outlook, with a generic icon on the taskbar, no name, and it can't do anything.  No controls, no X on the top right.  Can only alt+F4 it or end task with task manager. "

Nobody ever mentioned any error messages, we described exactly what happens already.  Nothing in event logs either.

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To resolve your concern with your Outlook 2016, we recommend to remove all traces of Office 2016 installation and re-install it later on.Visit the following articles below:

Step 1 - Uninstall Office from a PC:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Uninstall-Office-from-a-PC-9dd49b83-264a-477a-8fcc-2fdf5dbf61d8?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

Step 2 - Reinstall Office:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Download-and-install-or-reinstall-Office-365-or-Office-2016-on-your-PC-or-Mac-4414eaaf-0478-48be-9c42-23adc4716658?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

This can reset Outlook as well as its cache and cookies.

Let us know if reinstalling office repairs Outlook 2016.

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Last updated September 30, 2021 Views 8,450 Applies to: