Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2011 "Not Responding" after upgrade to Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan

I'm experiencing issue with my Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2011 after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

Activity Monitor and/or Force Quit Applications shows Microsoft Outlook is Not Responding.

I found following knowledge base article:

Outlook for Mac 2011 on OS X 10.11 hangs during account sync operation

Microsoft's workaround:

To work around this issue, run Outlook for Mac 2011 on Mac OS X Yosemite (version 10.10) or an earlier version.

Is there anything else I can do?


FIX: Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 14.5.6 update


Microsoft has an update to fix the problem now.

For more information, check out this knowledge base article documenting the problem: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3098396

Shortly after you start Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2011 on Mac OS X El Capitan (version 10.11), Outlook hangs when it tries to sync with the server. The Spinning Wait cursor is displayed, and the application status is displayed as "Not Responding."

[...]

This issue occurs in Outlook for Mac 2011 version 14.5.5 and earlier versions when they are running on Mac OS X El Capitan (version 10.11).

To install the fix, you can either:

  • Open Outlook and click Check for Updates on the help menu (if your outlook freezes before you can update, you can create a blank profile temporarily by ALT-Clicking on the Outlook icon),

  • Download the update package at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49183