If you see “cannot open the Outlook window invalid XML” error pop-up on your computer screen, it might be a matter of concern. This article shows you the fixes related to the issue.
Invalid XML Error in Outlook 2010/ 2013/ 2016 – Cause And Symptoms
Before we move on to the steps, we would like you to go into a little detail about the issue. Let us make you know the cause behind the problem and how will you get to know it.
Causes of Invalid XML Error:
- The actual reason due to which the “cannot start Microsoft Outlook Invalid XML” error can appear is the Navigation pane settings. If the Outlook XML files in the settings got damaged or corrupted due to any reason, you may get this problem.
- When Outlook is set in compatibility mode, problems like these are likely to occur easily.
- Moreover, using the Outlook profile in previous versions can (rarely) also be responsible for the issue.
Symptoms of Invalid XML Error:
You can easily find the error on your system as there is only one symptom enough to make you realize that you are stuck with the problem. When you launch Outlook, you will find it getting frozen for a bit.
After this, a pop-up will come up where it will show the message “Cannot start Microsoft outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. Invalid XML, the view cannot be loaded”.
Note: To ensure that the XML file corruption is the only reason, ensure that the size of the file is 0.Fix Cannot Start Microsoft Outlook Invalid XML Error
Now that you know what can make this error happen, let us try to fix these on our own. Here are the method mentioned one by one. Check out which helps you.
Fix Outlook error invalid XML with command
To resolve this malfunction, you simply need to reset the settings for your profile navigation pane. You can do so by following the steps outlined below:
- Click the Start menu option
- Open Run window, then type this given command: ‘C:\Program Files\Office 14\Outlook.exe /resetnavpane’
Alternatively, Type the command ‘Outlook.exe /resetnavpane’ in the Search Programs and Files box respectively. Be sure that that there is a space after Outlook.exe in the last command above and at the end, click on Ok and restart Outlook to check if the issue has been fixed.
Outlook.exe /ResetNavPane clears and regenerates the navigation page for the current profile thereby erasing all shortcuts and favorite folders from the navigation page.
Be sure to always have a backup of your XML file before you reset the navigation pane settings file. Though this procedure will not help you restore your folders, it will take out some level of corruption that will prevent the situation from happening again.
Understand the fact that backup is the best fail-safe to rely on, in every case. As such, be sure that you either have a backup of the profilename.xml file, otherwise, make a backup before processing it with the steps mentioned above to avoid making the situation even worse or repeating the same ordeal of ‘cannot start Microsoft Outlook invalid XML’ error all over again.
