Email viewing via Outlook 2007 and 2000

[Oliver]

Hi, I have an odd scenario and I cannot see what causes the problem.

Director B(XP Professional + Outlook 2000)
Director B sends a copy of her email to User A and C. On her Sent items,
she can see the email ok.

User A (This secretary have access to Director B and C)
PC has XP Professional, MS Outlook 2007. Twice over the last few months,
she received a copied email to her but she cannot view it. However, right
click to the blank email and I can see the source of the email + the content
in unreadable format.

If she forwards this to me, I cannot read it (in Outlook 2000 and 2007)
If she logs on to terminal server and access her Email (Outlook 2000), she
can read the email, she forwards that to me and I can read it (Outlook 2000
and 2007)


Director C (XP Professional and Outlook 2000)
Director can see the email normally.


It looks like there is something to do with Outlook 2007. Is there a fix
for this?

Oliver

 

[Oliver]

I searched through this discussion group and a lot of them mentioned
Anti-Virus software but this maybe a red-herring as I found a way to view the
message - however, the user hasn't done anything to Outlook 2007 setting so
this must be a bug somewhere. To view the message, I open the blank email,
on the Message TAB / actions / other actions / View in browser. This shows
the message in HTML.

I am still looking for a fix. Please help.

Oliver

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Director B(XP Professional + Outlook 2000)
Director B sends a copy of her email to User A and C. On her Sent items,
she can see the email ok.

User A (This secretary have access to Director B and C)
PC has XP Professional, MS Outlook 2007. Twice over the last few months,
she received a copied email to her but she cannot view it. However, right
click to the blank email and I can see the source of the email + the content
in unreadable format.

If she forwards this to me, I cannot read it (in Outlook 2000 and 2007)
If she logs on to terminal server and access her Email (Outlook 2000), she
can read the email, she forwards that to me and I can read it (Outlook 2000
and 2007)


Director C (XP Professional and Outlook 2000)
Director can see the email normally.

Sounds to me like User A has an add-in in Outlook causing the message to be
unrendered Director C and User A's Outlook on the terminal server (which is a
different PC than her own with different software on it) also don't have the
add-in, so Director C and User A, when on the terminal server, don't see the
problem, but User A does when using her own PC.

The most common cause of this, and it's more likely to happen with Outlook
2007 than with earlier versions, is an antivirus program that is integrated
with Outlook and scans incoming mail. If this is the case, have her uninstall
her AV program completely, then reinstall it without the mail scanning
feature. If that's not possible, then see if the AV program's Control Panel
applet, or some setting in the AV program can disable the main scanner. Also
look in Outlook's Add-In Manager and disable any scanning add-in there.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I searched through this discussion group and a lot of them mentioned
Anti-Virus software but this maybe a red-herring as I found a way to view
the
message - however, the user hasn't done anything to Outlook 2007 setting so
this must be a bug somewhere. To view the message, I open the blank email,
on the Message TAB / actions / other actions / View in browser. This shows
the message in HTML.

I don't think it'ds a red herring at all. Your symptoms are precisely the
symptoms that scanning mail can cause. It mangles the message headers in such
a way that the receipient sees the raw HTML and the message encoding. Opening
the message in the browser allows the Internet Explorer engine to render the
HTML for itself.

 

[Oliver]

Brian

To further escalate this, I have another PC with Windows 7 installed and
Office 2007. There is no AV software installed there. So I thought maybe I
could now view the old blank message. Unfortunately, it is still blank, so
what would you do next?? The only way to see this HTML formatted email is to
open the email / more action / view in browser. But this is not acceptable.

I cannot believe our AV software that's been with us for over 7 years and
would suddenly cause such problem with Outlook 2007 upgrade to the same
machine that was working perfectly with Outlook 2000(which had AV installed).

Are there other possible areas other than pointing one's finger at AV
software? Having tried the option above with Windows 7, I am still not
convinced that it is AV software that is causing the problem - otherwise all
HTML formatted messages will have problem - which isn't in my case, only
specific 2 emails in the last few months are blank.

Oliver

 

[Oliver]

Brian,

see my other response. Not all HTML formatted received emails have problem.
Only specifics, only 2 in the last few months.

The original email came from externally, someone using HTML, delivered here
to someone using Outlook 2000, then replied back which got copied in
internally to someone using Outlook 2007. It's kinda confusing but what you
are seeing here is a mixture of Outlook being replied back and forth.

Oliver

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

To further escalate this, I have another PC with Windows 7 installed and
Office 2007. There is no AV software installed there. So I thought maybe I
could now view the old blank message. Unfortunately, it is still blank, so
what would you do next?? The only way to see this HTML formatted email is to
open the email / more action / view in browser. But this is not acceptable.

Once it is blank because of a corruption in the message format, it cannot be
recovered. The data is gone. Outlook does not store messages in their raw
state, but in their post-rendered format. Taking that same damaged message to
another Outlook instance won't change the already-damaged message.

I cannot believe our AV software that's been with us for over 7 years and
would suddenly cause such problem with Outlook 2007 upgrade to the same
machine that was working perfectly with Outlook 2000(which had AV
installed).

Why? AV vendors update their programs all the time and can make mistakes in
the updates that can lead to problems. If you have your AV program silently
install updates, a poorly contructed one can screw with Outlook.

Are there other possible areas other than pointing one's finger at AV
software? Having tried the option above with Windows 7, I am still not
convinced that it is AV software that is causing the problem - otherwise all
HTML formatted messages will have problem - which isn't in my case, only
specific 2 emails in the last few months are blank.

I never said that the AV program was the definitive answer, only that it's a
common cause. Anything that wedges itself between Outlook and the server is
suspect.

 

[Oliver]

Once it is blank because of a corruption in the message format, it cannot be
recovered. The data is gone. Outlook does not store messages in their raw
state, but in their post-rendered format. Taking that same damaged message to
another Outlook instance won't change the already-damaged message.

Thanks, that clarifies a bit more. But if it is damaged, I can still view
the message in Outlook 2000? Yes I can still but not in 2007.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Thanks, that clarifies a bit more. But if it is damaged, I can still view
the message in Outlook 2000? Yes I can still but not in 2007.

Off-hand I'm not able to explain this directly without being able to see your
configurations myself. There are several influences, not the least of which
is ANSI vs. Unicode.

 

[Oliver]

I went back to the Outlook 2000 version, edit the message, and convert it to
PLAIN text, save it. Then went back to Outlook 2007 again, I was able to see
the message finally.

As it doesn't happy often, only 2 emails in the last few months, this would
be a temporary solution until Microsoft finds a fix for this.

 

[iann]

I have the same issue. It doesn't look like the email is corrupt
because it is still viewable within outlook 2007 by clicking view in
browser. Also, it displays fine in OWA and in Outlook 2003. This has
to be an issue with the way microsoft word is rendering the html and
apparently Microsoft hasn't come out with a solution for this issue.