Outlook opens painfully slow with Sophos Central and Intecept X

Hi April, 

   Can you tell me if this only effects a single OS and particular version of Outlook? How many users in total are effected?

A valid step would be to try applying the Intercept X hotfix, which is basically a beta patch for the fixes planned for our next release: https://community.sophos.com/kb/en-us/133140

Let me know what result you get.

Thank you,

FYI: This may be an Outlook issue, I would try either an repair/reinstall of Outlook first.

Tried both does not help.  It is directly related to whether the pst file is on the server or on the local C drive.  If we move the PST to the local C drive the time speeds back up; if the PST is on a network drive, it takes 5 minutes to open Outlook.

Hello April Beachy 

You can try unchecking Remote files under "Real-time Scanning - Local Files and Network Shares" if the pst file is stored on a share, if that will help.

With that option checked, files from the network are scanned when these are accessed. If the server already has Sophos installed and is being protected (for example, has Real-time and scheduled scans, and may also have Intercept X installed), doing real-time scanning on remote(ly accessed) files by the endpoint shouldn't be as necessary.

Also you can choose to add a file type exclusion for PST files locally, or on the network, on your Threat Protection policy.