Last Updated: November 1, 2023
ISSUE
When opening an Actionable Message, you receive the error message: “We cannot render a new Actionable Message right now. Please close an existing one in Microsoft Outlook and retry.”
What are Actionable Messages?
Whether you are filling out a survey, approving an expense report, or updating a CRM sales opportunity, Actionable Messages allow you to take quick actions right from within Outlook. Actionable messages use the information from your connected services delivered on rich connector cards.
Some cards (Trello, Asana, GitHub, BitBucket, Twitter, and Wunderlist) include action buttons, such as Like, Comment, or Due Date, which allow you to take quick actions from Outlook rather than switching to other apps or logging in to other services.
These actionable messages are also available in connectors for Microsoft 365 Groups.
STATUS: FIXED
In Outlook, the error message “We cannot render a new Actionable Message right now. Please close an existing one in Microsoft Outlook and retry” is expected when the limit of concurrently open actionable messages is reached.
At this time, the limits in the most recent builds of Outlook are:
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Current Channel – 20 open Actionable Messages (starting with Version 2307 Build 16609.10000)
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Monthly Enterprise Channel – 20 open Actionable Messages (starting with Version 2309 Build 16732.10000)
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SACP – 10 open Actionable Messages (starting with Version 2302 Build 16130.20306)
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SAC – 10 open Actionable Messages (starting with Version 2302 Build 16130.20306)
Once the limit is reached, you must close at least one actionable message to open the next one.
Work is also being done to address issues that unexpectedly count against the Actionable Message limit. For example, some add-ins may leak messages into the running object table and trigger the Actionable Message error. There are certain Viva Insights, such as Use Insights Open Rates, and other types of email or calendar items that contain Actionable Messages. Meeting invitations contain Viva Insights that may be visible or hidden, however still count against the limit even if hidden. The next fix to address this class of issue is available in build 16524.10000. This change is deleting the WebView if auto invoke returns hideCard in Nudge, Inspector Pane scenario. See Update History for build release status, Update history for Microsoft 365 Apps.
If you need to determine if an item has an Actionable Message, consider installing the Actionable Message Debugger (File, Manage Add-ins from Outlook Desktop). It adds a button on the ribbon that you can click on when viewing an email, indicating if the item contains an Actionable Message component.
Other examples of email that may contain actionable messages are:
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Yammer email, such as a storylines updates
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MyAnalytics email, such as the "Your past week" summary email
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SharePoint and OneNote "User wants to access..." email requests
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Teams notification email about new activity, mentions, or messages
Note: The above list is only a partial list of items that may contain actionable message components.
RELATED TOPICS
Connect apps to your inbox in Outlook on the web
What are Actionable Messages in Outlook and Office 365 Groups
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