Outlook Error the Item Cannot Be Displayed in the Reading Pane

Outlook won’t display your email messages and  “The item cannot be displayed in the reading pane” error is also showing.

To fix this issue,

SOLUTION 1: Clear/Delete the Forms Cache 
  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. Click the Other tab, and then click Advanced Options.
  3. Click Custom Forms.
  4. Click Manage Forms.
  5. Click Clear Cache.
  6. Close all open windows, and then restart Outlook.
If the above does not work, try the following.

Deleting the Forms Cache File:

The Frmcache.dat file is the primary file to delete. The Frmcache.dat file serves as an index of the individual forms that have been cached on the computer. Use the following steps to manually delete the Frmcache.dat file. In addition, these steps delete all of the cached forms on your computer, which are stored in subfolders of the Forms folder.
  1. Quit Outlook.
  2. Search the Hard drive to locate the Frmcache.dat file.  (Be sure to check to display HIDDEN files)
  3. Delete all that are found from the FIND window.
  4. Open Outlook.
When you restart Outlook, and use a form, the forms cache is re-created.

SOLUTION 2: Check Add-Ins

Start Outlook in safe mode to disable add-ins to see if they are causing the issues.
  • In Windows XP - Start then select Run, type outlook.exe /safe and hit enter.
  • In Windows 7 or Vista - Start then type outlook.exe /safe and hit enter in "Search programs and files"
SOLUTION 3: Corrupted Mailbox
  1. Open Control Panel and double click the Mail icon. 
  2. Click Data Files
  3. Rename or delete the OST or PST.
  4. Start Outlook.  If you are using Exchange the OST will be recreated.  
  5. If you are using POP/PST,  Outlook will not be able to find the PST file so you will need to recreate it yourself.
SOLUTION 4: Rebuild Profile


An Outlook profile contains specific information about your email account.  Since the profile is a container holding data, it’s always possible that data got corrupted in one way or another.  Profiles aren’t controlled from within Outlook. Instead, they’re set and changed from within the Mail control panel.
  1. Click Start>Settings>Control Panel (or Start>Control Panel)
  2. Double-click the Mail control panel icon
  3. Click the Show Profiles button.
  4. Delete your old profile, we recommend creating a new one by clicking the Add button and then following the wizard. 


2 comments:

Unknown said...

It's a good solutions....Worth it...Thank you so muchhhh :)

Unknown said...

Excellent, this frmcache.dat delete worked for Outlook 2016 on Window 2010. Thanks so much.