Outlook cannot print unless an item is selected

Outlook 2019 (Office 365) displays an error message when you try to print an email. The error happens both when trying to print file > as well as with right-click -> quick print, the same error message always appears. However, documents from Word or Excel can be printed on the printer.

Symptom

Cannot print unless an item is selected, Select an item, and then try to print again.

Solution

Exit Outlook and open File Explorer, type %APPDATA% in the address bar, and change to the Microsoft and Outlook directory. The full path is C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook. Search for the file OutlPrnt, if it exists, it can be deleted (only this one file).

The next time you start Outlook, the OutlPrnt file is regenerated, so the error is fixed and emails can be printed again.

  The file OutlPrnt is re-created after going to File => Print => Print Options => Preview in Outlook.

Conclusion

In this post, we describe what to do when you get the error message “Cannot print unless an item is selected”. Sometimes it can happen that Outlook 2019 (Office 365) displays an error message when you try to print an email. The error happens both when trying to print file > as well as with right-click -> quick print, the same error message always appears. However, documents from Word or Excel can be printed well.

Microsoft Outlook is the preferred email client used to send and receive emails by accessing Microsoft Exchange Server email. Outlook also provides access contact, email calendar and task management features.