I am using Outlook for Mac 14.3.8 (latest version) under Mac OS 10.8.5 (latest version) on a Macbook Pro Retina, Mid 2012.

I have been using Office for Mac on my Macbook happily for many months, but since about one month I have a serious problem.

Outlook will crash at random times, meaning I see the "spinning wheel", when clicking on the Outlook window. This alone would not be a tragedy, but I am unable to "Force quit" Outlook. Not only this, but soon after this all other active processes freeze as well! The only way to resolve the situation is to restart the macbook by holding down the power button.

I have contacted the Apple support, who suggested to clean the caches and to verify/repair the SSD hard disk. This has been done, but it has not solved the problem. And interestingly, the freezing occurs only when Outlook is running, so I would be tempted to exclude a hardware or OS defect.

Unfortunately I can not say what has triggered this issue (e.g. update of Outlook or update of Mac OS). 

I would be thankful for hints on how to investigate this problem in more detail. I have checked the Console, but found no entries that could be related to this.

Best regards,

Leopold Talirz