Fix: The Content can’t be Displayed because the S/Mime Control isn’t Available

The “The Content can’t be displayed because the S/Mime Control isn’t Available” error is mostly encountered by users that are using Internet Explorer to launch Outlook Web Access and look at their emails that might be encrypted or digitally signed. The error itself is quite commonly faced by a lot of users and can be resolved quite easily by making some configurational changes and implementing the solutions that we have listed below.

Why is “The Content can’t be displayed because the S/Mime Control isn’t Available” Error Caused on your Computer?

After investigating this issue in detail and consulting our experts, we came to the conclusion that the following are the primary reasons due to which the error occurs.

• Site not Trusted: Internet Explorer might not be trusting the Outlook Web Access website due to which you are getting the “The Content can’t be displayed because the S/Mime Control isn’t Available” error. Therefore, following the solution that we have listed below, you should add the website to your trusted list of sites to circumvent the issue.
• S/MIME not Installed: If the S/Mime Control hasn’t been installed on your browser, you might run into this error message because it is required to achieve certain functionality that is used while launching into the Outlook Web Access Application.
• Missing Admin Permissions: Some Admin permissions that the browser needs in order to access encrypted or digitally signed content might not have been granted to it due to which the “The Content can’t be displayed because the S/Mime Control isn’t Available” error is being triggered.
• Group Policy: If the group policy on your computer has not been properly configured, you will run into the error message while trying to access certain content. Therefore, following the solutions below, try to reconfigure the group policy in order to get rid of this issue.
• Missing Extensions: Some extensions might be helpful in increasing the functionality of your browser to allow for increased compatibility with the web app. Therefore, we suggest that you install these extensions that have been mentioned in the solutions below.

Now that we have taken you through almost all of the major reasons behind its occurrence, it is time that we move on towards implementing the solutions.

Fixing The Content can’t be displayed because the S/Mime Control isn’t Available Error:

Method 1: Add Outlook Web App in Trusted Sites

1. Press “Windows + R” keys combination from your keyboard to open Run and type “inetcpl.cpl” in the search bar and hit the “Enter” key.

   

2. After that, click on the “Security” tab, select the “Trusted sites” option and afterwards, click on the “Sites” button.
3. Now paste the correct link to your OWA in the box associated with “Add this website to the zone” and click on the “Add” button.
4. Uncheck the box “Require server verification (https:) for all sites in the zone” and close the window.
5. Now launch into Internet Explorer by searching it in the windows search bar.
6. After that click on the “Settings” icon at the top right corner of the screen and select the “Compatibility View settings” option.
7. Now paste the same link in the “Add this website” box and click on the “Add” button.
8. Finally, close all the windows and see if the content can’t be displayed because the s/mime control isn’t available Microsoft edge issue is resolved.

Method 2: Install S/MIME

1. For this purpose, launch into your Outlook Web App and enter your correct credentials to log-in.

   

2. After that, click on the “Options” dropdown at the top right corner and select “See All options…”.
3. Now select the “Settings” option in the left menu. Navigate to the “S/MIME” tab from the menu.
4. Open the link “Download the S/MIME control”. It might redirect you to your browser and start the download or open a dialogue box with “Run” and “Save” options.
5. Launch the file, after the download is completed. Now install the program by following the on-screen instruction.
6. Now refresh your Internet Explorer and you will see the “This website wants to run the following add-on” message in a yellow strip.
7. Right-click on this strip and select “Run Add-on on All Websites”. Make sure you confirm all the confirmation or warning boxes.

   

8. Finally, close all the windows and see if the “the content can’t be displayed because the s/mime control isn’t available. mac” issue persists.

Method 3: Run Internet Explorer with Administrative Privileges

1. First, press the “Window + R” keys simultaneously to open the “Run” prompt. In the search bar, type the following address and hit the “Enter” key:

   C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer

2. Right-click on the “iexplore.exe” icon in the folder and select “Properties” from the context menu.
3. After that navigate to the “Compatibility” tab and checkmark the box associated with “Run this program as an administrator”

   

4. Finally, save the changes made and see if the issue is resolved.

Method 4: Disable Saving Encrypted Pages

1. Press the “Window + R” keys combination from your keyboard to open the “Run” prompt, type in “inetcpl.cpl” in the search bar and hit the “Enter” key.

   

2. After that, click on the “Advanced” tab and scroll down till you find the “Do not save encrypted pages to disk” option and afterwards uncheck the box associated with it and click on “Apply”.

   

3. Restart your PC and see if Mail is working properly.

Method 5: Install Outlook Web App Extension Using Registry

1. Press the “Window + R” keys combination to open the “Run” prompt, type “Regedit” in the search bar and hit the “Enter” key.

   

2. Now you need to decide on which browser you want to install the extension. There are different paths for different browsers. Paste any of the following addresses in the address bar for the browser you are using and hit the “Enter” key.

For Microsoft Edge:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Edge\ExtensionInstallForcelist

For Google Chrome:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome\ExtensionInstallForcelist

Value name: 1

Value type: REG_SZ

Value O365: maafgiompdekodanheihhgilkjchcakm;https://outlook.office.com/owa/SmimeCrxUpdate.ashx

Value Exchange on Premises:

maafgiompdekodanheihhgilkjchcakm;https://<your owa url>/owa/SmimeCrxUpdate.ashx

3. Once you are in the destination folder, right-click on empty space and select “New->String Value” and set the above values as mentioned.
4. Finally, restart your PC and see if “the content can’t be displayed because the s/mime control isn’t available.  chrome” issue is resolved.

Method 6: Edit Group Policy

1. Copy & paste the following URLs in your browser to download & install Group Policy Template for your browser:

For Microsoft Edge:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/business/download

For Google Chrome:

https://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-templates

2. After that, press “Window key” and type group policy management in the search bar and select “Edit Group Policy” from results.

For Google Chrome:

Proceed to the following path:

 User Configuration-> Administrative Templates-> Windows Components-> Google-> Google Chrome-> Extensions-> Configure the list of force-installed apps and extensions

For Microsoft Edge:

Proceed to the following path:

User Configuration-> Administrative Templates-> Windows Components-> Microsoft Edge-> Extensions-> Control which extensions are installed silently

3. Now click on the “Enabled” button and then click on the “Show…” under the “Options” section.
4. Finally set these values to install the extensions.

Office 365:

maafgiompdekodanheihhgilkjchcakm;https://outlook.office.com/owa/SmimeCrxUpdate.ashx

Exchange On-Premises:

maafgiompdekodanheihhgilkjchcakm;https://<your owa url>/owa/SmimeCrxUpdate.ashx

5. Save the changes that you have just made and restart your PC to see if the issue is resolved.

Method 7: Configure S/MIME Extension

1. Paste the following URL in the search bar and hit the “Enter” key:

For Google Chrome:

extension://maafgiompdekodanheihhgilkjchcakm/Options.html

For Microsoft Edge:

extension://maafgiompdekodanheihhgilkjchcakm/Options.html

2. Checkmark all the boxes and type in your trusted domain or website in the empty box.
3. Finally, click on the “Save” button and restart your browser.

Method 8: Tweak Outlook Web Settings

1. Launch into the web version of your Outlook Web App and get into settings.

For Office 365:

Click on the wheel icon at top right corner->View all outlook settings->Mail->S/MIME.

For Office 2013/16/19:

Click on the wheel icon at top right corner->Options->Mail->S/MIME.

2. Now checkmark both boxes and save the settings.
3. Restart your Browser and see if the “the content can’t be displayed because the s/mime control isn’t available. firefox” issue has been resolved.

Method 9: Install IE Tabs Extension for Chrome

1. Launch your Chrome browser by double-clicking on the Chrome icon on your desktop and click here to proceed to Chrome Web Store.
2. Now, in the search bar type “IE tabs” and hit the “Enter” key and afterwards click the “Add To Chrome” button on the top right corner.

   

3. After the extension is successfully added, check if the “the content can’t be displayed because the s/mime control isn’t available. Chrome” issue is resolved.

Hopefully, after following the above methods you would’ve got rid of the “the content can’t be displayed because the s/mime control isn’t available” issue but if you need any further assistance in this matter please feel to Contact Us.