Outlook Addin or toolbar disappears when you close or restart – how to fix

Some of you may experience a situation where an add-in goes missing or a toolbar disappears when you close and reopen Outlook. This is usually caused by one of several reasons.

1. Outlook does not fully exit when you close it

In this case, Outlook does not exit completely when you close its main window. This is usually caused by a third party add-in which prevents Outlook from exiting. You can usually recover the missing toolbar by following these steps:

• Close Outlook
• Open the Task Manager
• Switch to the Processes tab
• Find OUTLOOK.EXE in the “Image Name” column
• Select it and click “End Task”
• Wait 5 seconds, then start Outlook again.

That should bring your missing toolbar back.

If this keeps happening to you, you might want to disable some of the add-ins you have installed, to find which one is causing this issue.

How to disable add-ins in Outlook 2010
How to disable add-ins in Outlook 2007
How to disable add-ins in Outlook 2003

2. Outlook disabled the add-in

If the above steps did not help, please try rebooting. If you still do not see the toolbar, it is possible that Outlook disabled the add-in. In that case, you can re-enable it using the following steps:

Outlook 2010:

• Select the “File” ribbon tab
• Click “Options”
• Click “Add-Ins” in the left column of the Options window
• Select “Disabled Items” in the “Manage” drop-down and click “Go”
• Select the add-in from the list and click “Enable”
• Restart Outlook

Outlook 2007:

• Click on “Help->Disabled Items” menu command
• Select the add-in from the list and click “Enable”
• Restart Outlook

Outlook 2003:

• Click on “Help->About Microsoft Outlook” menu command
• Click the “Disabled Items” button in the lower right-hand corner
• Select the add-in from the list and click “Enable”
• Restart Outlook