Last Updated: July, 27, 2026
ISSUE
Users report receiving an error when opening an encrypted email: "Sorry, we’re having trouble opening this item. This could be temporary, but if you see it again you might want to restart Outlook. Cannot read the item.”
This issue is currently impacting users on Outlook build 2606 (16.0.20131.20126) and above when accessing externally encrypted email messages.
STATUS: INVESTIGATING
The Outlook Team is investigating this issue. We will update this topic when we have more information.
WORKAROUND
To work around the issue, users can open the email using new Outlook or Outlook Web App (OWA).
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See Also
Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in classic Outlook for Windows