Exchange Messages Randomly Disappear from Inbox and Sent Items

[Aholowka]

This applies to:

Entourage 04
Entourage 08
OSX 10.4.x
OSX 10.5.x

Exchange Server 2003SR2/Win2003Server-32bit

From time to time some of my users will report that randomly, messages just
disappear from their Inbox and Sent items folder (10-50 messages). No other
folders seems to be affected.

The messages are not deleted by rules, recipient policies or obvious
mistakes. I will check their accounts via OWA and indeed the messages in
question have disappeared. I also check the recover deleted items via OWA as
well and they are not recoverable via this method either.

Exchange Server does not report any database corruptions issues during its
overnight maint steps

What do you think is happening ?

I have a few thoughts on what may be causing this problem:

- the user is quitting Entourage before a network/sync to Exchange is
completed ?

- user closes the lid of the MacBook/MacBookPro before a network/sync to
Exchange is completed ?

- (note that this email disappearance has occured before when a users
Entourage crashes during a network/sync to Exchange..usually from
offsite...we use an SSL connection, n VPN, to talk to Exchange from offsite)

When a user is reporting general Entourage issues, we do not do a DB
rebuild, but create a new account and then sync from Exchange

Thanks,

Andrew

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

From time to time some of my users will report that randomly, messages just
disappear from their Inbox and Sent items folder (10-50 messages). No other
folders seems to be affected.

The messages are not deleted by rules, recipient policies or obvious
mistakes. I will check their accounts via OWA and indeed the messages in
question have disappeared. I also check the recover deleted items via OWA as
well and they are not recoverable via this method either.

Exchange Server does not report any database corruptions issues during its
overnight maint steps

I don't have a solution for you but I doubt the problem is Entourage or
else we'd be hearing about this from many folks. When you say this is
happening with different versions of Entourage, I'm really led to
believe this problem is server-side.

The fact that this is happening to multiple users also leads me to
believe you do have a problem of some sort on your Exchange Server. Any
messages deleted through Entourage should appear in the Recover Deleted
Items area of your server.

Quitting without syncing shouldn't really be a problem since Entourage
will just sync the messages the next time it connects.

If I had to guess I would suspect you'll also tell me this doesn't
happen to Outlook users, just Entourage. If that's the case then the
problem is probably to do with your WebDAV/OWA connection. Entourage is
the only mail client that connects this way.

Have a look at this blog post of mine where I suggest ways to optimize
Entourage for working with Exchange. I especially endorse connecting
users to back-end servers inside the network. This may give you some ideas:

"Optimize Entourage to better work with Exchange"
<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/03/optimize_entourage_to_better_work_with_exchange.html>


Hope this helps!

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>

 

[Aholowka]

Thanks for the reply. Inside the network all of the Entourage clients talk
to Exchange 2003 via the backend server...Never had the problem inside the
network.

Where this occurs is when my MacBookPro users are outside the network: home,
hotel, etc. This is when the disappearing email occurs....and this is where
they are communicating with Exchange via https:/mail.xxxxx.com from an
offsite Entourage client

We also have a lot of iphones that talk to Echange too..however, they active
sync to: mail.xxxxx.com and all is OK....The email disappearance is only when
an offsite Entourage client talks to Exchange via https://mail.xxxxx.com.

Is there any benefir of having Entourage sync to mail.xxxxx.com ?

Exchange is protected via SSL. We do have a VPN, but do not use it to
access Exchange from outside the network. The VPN is used for printing, file
server access, etc.

Thanks,

Andrew

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

Thanks for the reply. Inside the network all of the Entourage clients talk
to Exchange 2003 via the backend server...Never had the problem inside the
network.

Where this occurs is when my MacBookPro users are outside the network: home,
hotel, etc. This is when the disappearing email occurs....and this is where
they are communicating with Exchange via https:/mail.xxxxx.com from an
offsite Entourage client

We also have a lot of iphones that talk to Echange too..however, they active
sync to: mail.xxxxx.com and all is OK....The email disappearance is only when
an offsite Entourage client talks to Exchange via https://mail.xxxxx.com.

Is there any benefir of having Entourage sync to mail.xxxxx.com ?

Exchange is protected via SSL. We do have a VPN, but do not use it to
access Exchange from outside the network. The VPN is used for printing, file
server access, etc.

That pretty much confirms the problem is with your external OWA server.
Remember, Entourage is really the only mail client that communicates
with Exchange via WebDAV. ActiveSync is different. MAPI for Outlook is
different. Comparing these is like comparing apples to oranges.

I would suggest that since folks already have VPN that they connect to
this first and then use Entourage.

I'd also suggest posting your question and findings in the
microsoft.public.exchange.admin newsgroup. Maybe an Exchange person
could give you more insight into what's happening.

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>