MS 365 Subscription, Chrome, Outlook Live, and Spell Check

[Bobwood]

Spell Check has mysteriously stopped working on Outlook Live (using Chrome). Spell check does work on another email system I use with Chrome, and does work with other text entry such as LF etc.

I have spent hours reading how to correct the problem but to no avail.

Having recently allowed my MS 365 subscription to lapse, could this somehow be the cause?

[Infrasonic]

Just to cover the obvious first -- have you gone into outlook.live.com webmail... settings/ email/ compose and reply/ microsoft editor settings (all the way at the bottom of the page)/ corrections -- spelling and grammar switches on.

[Bobwood]

Yes, and I've switched both on and off several times, I've restored defaults, and I've watched just about every video that claims to show how to make spelling and grammar come back.

Occasionally a word will be underlined in red if spelled incorrectly, but once I place the cursor on the word the left click to correct functionality isn't there, and all other red underlines mysteriously lose their underline. If I subsequently type more words into the same email after clicking on a red underlined word, no further red underlying occurs no matter how incorrectly I type.

Also for completeness, if I manually use the Chrome drop down, Edit, Show Spelling and Grammar, it will find all in incorrectly spelled words, and offer me a correction in a dialogue box on screen.

And I've rebooted the Mac too, and logged out of Outlook etc.

I was just a bit suspicious about my lapsed MS 365 subscription because I read that Outlook takes its spelling features from Word if that's installed.

[Infrasonic]

Occasionally a word will be underlined in red if spelled incorrectly, but once I place the cursor on the word the left click to correct functionality isn't there, and all other red underlines mysteriously lose their underline. If I subsequently type more words into the same email after clicking on a red underlined word, no further red underlying occurs no matter how incorrectly I type.

I just composed a test email in Outlook.live.com and got the same behaviour, never had an O365 account, so it's not that.
I went into Google Keep and the Chrome spell check behaved normally -- suggesting the correct spelling, so it seems to be a clash between Outlook and Chrome settings/extensions somewhere. I'll have a think and a play and come back with any progress.

[Bobwood]

Occasionally a word will be underlined in red if spelled incorrectly, but once I place the cursor on the word the left click to correct functionality isn't there, and all other red underlines mysteriously lose their underline. If I subsequently type more words into the same email after clicking on a red underlined word, no further red underlying occurs no matter how incorrectly I type.

I just composed a test email in Outlook.live.com and got the same behaviour, never had an O365 account, so it's not that.
I went into Google Keep and the Chrome spell check behaved normally -- suggesting the correct spelling, so it seems to be a clash between Outlook and Chrome settings/extensions somewhere. I'll have a think and a play and come back with any progress.

Thank you.

It's a new occurrence. I've been on the same machine, same email account, same Chrome browser, for a long time. Only just started having this problem.

[Infrasonic]

I've just tried MS Edge (Chromium based) browser on another Outlook.live.com account and that is behaving correctly with the built in Outlook spell check with left mouse click suggestions and no disappearing red underlines...
Hmmm.

Edit: In Google Chrome if I turn Outlook Editor off then the right click Chrome spell check works correctly, suggesting the correct spelling.
So it's definitely a clash between the two spell checkers. Why Edge doesn't do it I don't know, more sleuthing required...

[Bobwood]

I've just tried MS Edge (Chromium based) browser on another Outlook.live.com account and that is behaving correctly with the built in Outlook spell check with left mouse click suggestions and no disappearing red underlines...
Hmmm.

Edit: In Google Chrome if I turn Outlook Editor off then the right click Chrome spell check works correctly, suggesting the correct spelling.
So it's definitely a clash between the two spell checkers. Why Edge doesn't do it I don't know, more sleuthing required...

Go for it, Sherlock!

[Infrasonic]

Okay, this is what works for me.
Google Chrome, turn Outlook Editor off and use the Chrome spell checker from right click.

In Edge the Outlook Editor works correctly taking priority, and it seems the built in Chromium Edge spell check doesn't unless you turn Outlook Editor off.
The Edge spell checker options aren't as granular as Chrome so it seems that's why Edge works with Outlook Editor fine with Edge spell check turned on (both being Microsoft products of course...).

As I have multiple Outlook.live accounts and only use Edge regularly for one of them then that will work for me on an account by account basis, I'll leave Outlook Editor off on the Chrome browser accessed accounts.

Hopefully an update to Chrome at some point will fix the issue to allow some sort of prioritisation option, rather than breaking both spell checkers.

[Bobwood]

Wow, that has indeed fixed it.

Outlook Editor 'Spelling' and 'Grammar' now switched off, and Spell Check works when composing emails.

Thank you immensely.