Outlook: Cannot move the items. The operation cannot be performed because the message has been changed.

Hello , Lson5

Welcome to Microsoft Community and appreciate your time taken for sharing detailed information. I know it is annoying when you can't move a message to another folder, especially when this issue lasts for so long.

There are various reasons for such an error to occur. You can try the following methods (please click the link to view the specific steps)

1. Write an email, save it as a draft, and wait a few minutes before sending the email, or close Outlook and reopen it in a few minutes.

2. Use Word or NotePad to write email. Copy the email content and paste it to Outlook.

3. Restore all the emails in deleted items to the inbox.

4. Uncheck When a reply modifies a message, don’t move the original (This option is under File > Options > Mail > Conversational Clean Up) and click OK on the bottom to save the settings. Or simply uncheck all options under Conversational Clean Up and click OK.

5. Check Automatically save items that have not been sent after this many minutes (This option is under File > Options > Mail > Save messages), set a time on the right, and click OK.

6. Check your Outlook version. If it is not the latest version, update to the latest version first.

7. Run Outlook in Safe Mode.

8. Repair Outlook.

9. Disable email scanning in your antivirus software.

10. Download and run the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant and follow the prompts to resolve the issue.

11. Re-install your Outlook.

Feel free to post back if you have any additional questions.

Best Regard,

Yuhao Li| Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Thanks for your reply with so many actions - unfortunately none of them address the issue I have posted about. I think you have misunderstood my original post.

This error does not concern emails that I create. It is occurring when I try to move an email that I have received. I am trying to move it from the inbox to a folder.

I am using Outlook 365 which is automatically updated.

This is not a problem specific to me - many other people suffer from this bug. It is a bug in the software which needs to be fixed. In the long distant past I did your items 7-11, I am not going to do them again because they are irrelevant to this problem.

I hope this information helps you understand the problem better.

Before I reply to you, I tried to search for similar questions in Microsoft community and I came across this: "The operation cannot be performed because the message has been - Microsoft Community

Most of the methods I suggest you try are what I found from the responses below. I'm unable to reproduce your issue on my own computer, so I'm not sure what exactly is causing this problem. But I think they might be helpful, so I listed them here.

In theory, Microsoft 365 should be updated automatically indeed, but in fact I just manually updated my Microsoft 365 to the latest version last week because the automatic update didn't work. That's why I suggest you to check the Office version.

If you haven't tried 1-6 yet, try it. Due to limited conditions and that the post was published long ago, I can't guarantee that your problem will be solved immediately; but it is worth a try.

Also, there's another way: removing third-party add-ins (especially add-ins from Adobe) in File > Options > Add-ins > Manage COM Add-ins(Need to Click "Go"), as the post mentioned above says.

If this problem still can't be solved, please tell me if your e-mail is IMAP, POP3 or Microsoft Exchange account, with the steps how you try (You can record it with steps recorder).

If your problem still hasn't been solved, I suggest you submit a feedback (if you haven't done so yet). See how do I give feedback on Microsoft Office?

This is to let Microsoft developer team know your problems and improve the products and services.

I have the same exact problem. It started when I switched from POP3 to IMAP, same provider. The only difference between before the issue arose and now is that I access this mailbox via IMAP. Also, it is somewhat random: sometimes I look at a mail and it copies fine into a sub-folder, sometimes it doesn't. sometimes I use Reading pane to see the mail and it STILL doesn't allow me to copy (I have not opened the mail, just read it in reading pane).

I use IMAP. Outlook does the exact same thing described by Lson5. It is a royal pain.

This has been going on for three years now - none of the "solutions" work and the workarounds are time-consuming. I repeatedly get this message trying to send a new email from Outlook 365 and it is seriously annoying. It didn't happen before so why is it happening now and what has Microsoft doing about it for three years now?

I've also had this problem in recent years and haven't found a way to fix it. The workaround is to select another message in the inbox, pause, then select the message I want to move and then drag-n-drop it to the destination folder. This workaround usually works for me.

If this problem still can't be solved, please tell me if your e-mail is IMAP, POP3 or Microsoft Exchange account

Incidentally, I've only ever seen this issue with non-Exchange mail accounts. I have two IMAP accounts (one of them Gmail) with my Outlook (Version 2210 Build 16.0.15726.20188) 32-bit.

As a Snr IT Professional with Windows application development experience, it seems to me that whenever an open POP3/IMAP email undergoes a change e.g. when you click on 'Download pictures' or 'Add to Safe senders' then it's rendered as an unsaved message. Outlook then seems to get confused about saving the "changed" message back to the mail file, when it really ought to be a simple process!

@yuhao - you won't be able to reproduce the issue if it's an Exchange/Exchange Online account.
I recommend that you try setting up an IMAP account (Gmail, Hotmail etc) and you will be in a better position to see the problem :-)

I have the same issue. For those of you have said you have it too, I have a question for you. Are you using a Microsoft email address? This only happens with my gmail addresses I have configured in Outlook. Google and MS aren't the best of partners and often can create compatibility issues.