Can't view Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc) in Sent Mail with IMAP

[technosteve]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC
Email Client: imap

I recently switched from a POP3 account to using IMAP. I've noticed that when I send an E-Mail to a recipient and also include a "bcc", the person who I sent a "bcc" to will NOT show up when I go to the "sent mail" folder and click on the E-Mail even if I view the Source. If I send to a primary recipient and even have regular "cc" recipients they all display just fine when I go to my sent mail items and look at the actual sent E-Mail.

I'm seeing this in Entourage 2004 and Entourage 2008 on the Mac. Apple Mail doesn't seem to have this problem with a .Mac account.

Does anyone know how to fix this problem or a workaround?
It's very important for me to see both the primary person I send
to as well as a potential "bcc"! I did a google search on this
and there seems to be some stuff written about this with MS Outlook and other people having the same problem.

I'm really looking for a clear solution so that I can effectively see who I have sent E-Mails to INCLUDING any bcc recipients.

This seems to be a long-standing problem with Entourage.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[technosteve]

Huh? I can see the recipients of Sent Items just fine here.

Specifically the BCC recipients? That's where the problem resides. They just aren't there when I review the message in my Sent Items.

Steve

 

[Mickey Stevens]

Do you have internet headers turned off under the View menu? If so, click
that menu item to turn them off, because the Bcc header only displays with
internet headers turned off.

Also, check your account settings. Go to Tools > Accounts, and double-click
your IMAP account. Click the "Advanced" tab, and try re-selecting the
folder to store sent mail in. I know that Entourage has varying degrees of
functionality with different kinds of IMAP servers. Usually it does a good
job of keeping the server and computer synchronized such that special kinds
of messages like sent messages and drafts behave properly even if they're
stored on the server. However, Entourage can lose track of such e-mails and
just treat them as normal messages, which is what I suspect might be
happening here. In that case, you could have Entourage copy the sent
messages to your computer automatically. You can do this by creating a
rule. Go to Tools > Rules, and click the "Outgoing" tab. Click the "New"
toolbar button to create a new rule. Create a rule that looks like this:
* Execute actions if any criteria are met
IF Account is <the IMAP account>
THEN Copy Message Sent Items (On My Computer).

Then, sent messages should be copied to the "Sent Items" folder under
"Folders on my computer" automatically. You can open a sent message there
to view the Bcc recipients.

To see if it is a server, try finding out what kind of IMAP server you are
connecting to and post back. That might be useful in troubleshooting the
problem. This will often work:
1. Go to Tools > Accounts, and open your IMAP account.
2. Copy down the name of your IMAP server.
3. click the "Advanced Receiving Options" button and write down the port #.
4. Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
5. Type in
telnet your.imap.server 143
(Replace your.imap.server with the IMAP server in your account settings, and
143 with a different port number if necessary.)
6. Depending on what kind of IMAP srrver you're connected to, it may
display the IMAP server software & version.

If that doesn't work, ask your system administrator for that information.
It might also help to Control-click the IMAP account icon in the Folder
List, Control-click it, select "Get Info" from the contextual menu, and copy
down the capabilities of your IMAP server, and post back with that
information. It may help the developers to try to pin down the problem with
that server.

 

[Todd]

Hi Steve

I think I'm repro'ing the this problem using two Gmail accounts now. If you
could tell me what service you have your IMAP account with and what version
of Entourage 2008 (under Entourage->About Entourage) you're using it would
help narrow down whether this issue appears with all or only certain IMAP
accounts.

Thanks!
Todd

--
Regards,
Todd Barthelme - toddbarATmicrosoftDOTcom
Microsoft Entourage Test
Disclaimer: This mail is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.

 

[technosteve]

Hi Todd,

You are correct. We switched to Google Apps which has been a blessing in most cases. We're using imap.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com as our mail servers. I'm using Entourage 2008 12.1.0 (080409) and am also seeing this with Entourage 2004 11.4.0 (Office updated to 11.4.2).

Before I continue, I would really like to see this work as configured. So I hate to give you an out but I have a temporary workaround.

When you follow Google's recommendations for setting up your IMAP account <http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78892> they ask you to NOT check the box that saves sent messages on the server since sending mail through their smtp server automatically puts a copy of it in your Sent Mail folder. Because this option is unchecked, Entourage will then put a copy of the sent email in the local Sent Items folder, which when opened DOES show you the BCC info.

I really do not like the idea of having two Sent folders (it confuses users), plus this makes the Entourage Database grow larger with duplicate email.

Again, would like to see Entourage and Google mail work together on this so only one Sent Mail folder is needed.

Thank you all for your help,
Steve

 

[Diane Ross]

Again, would like to see Entourage and Google mail work together on this so
only one Sent Mail folder is needed.

You need to send feedback to MSFT on this. Send feedback to Microsoft:

When working in Office, you can use the ³Send Feedback² option under the
Help menu in all of the Office applications or visit
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/suggestions.mspx>