If you see a padlock next to an email in Outlook and you cannot open the email then you have likely received an encrypted email that is secured using Office 365’s new encryption capabilities. Here’s how to open it.
If the email is in your inbox then you’ve likely been sent the email to your own email address. However please verify that it wasn’t forwarded to you from someone else. Only the original recipient can open the encrypted email.
The cause of this issue is usually that your Office 365 was logged out of Outlook or another account was mistakingly signed in. To correct the problem please do the following:
- Open Outlook
- Click on File
- Click on Office Account
- On the left side of the screen under Account sign out of all accounts.
- Then sign in using the account that the email was sent to. This account should also have an Office 365 license.
- Close Outlook
- Re-open Outlook
- Open the email
And that’s it!
Another option if that doesn’t work is to try to open the email using the web app version of Outlook. You can do this by going to outlook.office.com