Computer Experts (Outlook), Solve the Mystery of the Vanishing e-mail Reply

[nsxtasy]

Okay, here's the situation. I'm using Microsoft Outlook '98. (No criticism, please.) It works great for everyone except, now, for one particular individual, and only under certain specific circumstances.

He sends me e-mails, rich text (HTML) format. If I hit reply and type in a reply, and hit send, it goes to my Outbox, but when I look at it there (and if I send it to him, what he sees) it turns out it is blank, and what I have sent is lost. Once it is sent, when it goes to Sent Items, the content is as follows:

ÿþ<

HOWEVER, if I type in my reply, and change the format of my reply from rich text to plain text, the content of my reply appears just fine when I look at it in the outbox. It also appears fine if I then change it back from plain text to rich text. It also appears fine if I type in an e-mail from scratch and enter his name in the to: field.

So the ONLY time my reply vanishes is if I reply directly to his e-mail and I send it back in rich text (HTML) format, without changing it to plain text.

Any idea what could be causing this?

TIA

 

[docjohn]

I'm no expert but it sounds like your flugal stimper circuit is bypassed by a corrupt doppelganger.Try going to settings ,fumfignater then wombaski %#$. :biggrin: Or not.

 

[NeoNSX]

LOL... spot on <B>docjohn</B>... you should be an IT consultant; you make more sense than most of us...

Okay, here's the situation. I'm using Microsoft Outlook '98. (No criticism, please.)

I won't say a single word....

Seriously though; you should think of upgrading. The only thing worse than Outlook'98 was '97, and both are totally inadequate against today's viruses and spam. Just some free if unwanted advice.



This is a fairly common problem with Outlook; especially when emailing people using web-based email. The problem most likely isn't you, it's his email client at fault. ()
My recommendation would be try docjohn's suggestion, and if that doesn't work just reply in simple text.


It's been YEARS since i've had to deal with Outlook'98 thank goodness, but you could also try changing the Text Encoding you're sending (like this instance with Outlook Express: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=230224 )

Any idea what could be causing this?

See above. It could also be the solar alignment of jupiter's stars and the constellation of orion's sun. Microsoft are blaming that on recent security holes found in IE.

 

[NsXMas]

I have the same problem on the receiving end. I use Hotmail. When a buddy of mine emails me and adds attachments, his email looks like "lakejrlkawjrea twlkj asfjsadfa fsadfkdajfl djfkjskjkadfjskajflsdfkjasklfjaldfjsafjlskfd".

When I hit reply, it all of a sudden reformats his email to readable English. He's using Outlook w/ Exchange server. Don't you love how compatible even Microsoft's Hotmail service is with its own product - Outloook/Exchange??

 

[Arshad]

He sends me e-mails, rich text (HTML) format. If I hit reply and type in a reply, and hit send, it goes to my Outbox, but when I look at it there (and if I send it to him, what he sees) it turns out it is blank, and what I have sent is lost. Once it is sent, when it goes to Sent Items, the content is as follows:

ÿþ<


Have you tried:

1) Create a new message, set it to rich text
2) Email it to him
3) Check your sent mail, does it have the same strange chars at top? Does he see the message fine?


I'm not convinced that what you've sent is actually lost. Have you tried saving the file out to disk (from sent mail) and checking the byte count? Is it only a few bytes long? If not, try loading it up in MS Word and see if it shows the original message.

BTW, what version of Outlook is he using? I suspect it's a different/newer version and that they changed the structure of the rich text document between versions which is causing it to truncate the message when it displays it, even though the entire contents are probably there and possibly even being sent. The clue are those strange chars in your message which look like a binary header. Since only 3 chars appear, my guess is that it's a 32bit binary value with the 4th byte 0. When you try and print this as plaintext, it hits the zero and thinks it's reached the end of the string and stops. Looking at the file in a hex editor would allow you to view the entire contents of the file.

Then again, this might be some weird Windows thing -- I'm a Mac guy, what the hell do I know?

 

[steveny]

It could also be the solar alignment of jupiter's stars and the constellation of orion's sun. Microsoft are blaming that on recent security holes found in IE.

Don't you mean...

It could also be the solar alignment of juniper's stars and the constellation of orcale's sunmicro. Would be better for Microsoft to blame those guys don't you think. :wink:

 

[nsxtasy]

Have you tried:

1) Create a new message, set it to rich text
2) Email it to him
3) Check your sent mail, does it have the same strange chars at top? Does he see the message fine?

Yes. I do not encounter problems when I create a new message and send it to him, only when I reply to his.

I'm not convinced that what you've sent is actually lost. Have you tried saving the file out to disk (from sent mail) and checking the byte count? Is it only a few bytes long? If not, try loading it up in MS Word and see if it shows the original message.

Tried that. The reply that I typed in is indeed lost, even if the message is saved and opened in MS Word.

Oh well, I'm not going to worry about it. Now I know that I'll just change any replies to his e-mails to plain text, or else create a new message with rich text contents. Thanks, all, for the suggestions...

 

[ChopsJazz]

It could also be the solar alignment of jupiter's stars and the constellation of orion's sun. Microsoft are blaming that on recent security holes found in IE.

Unless your moon is in Uranus. Which is another problem altogether... :tongue: