Message stuck in Outbox (Outlook 2007)

[Austel]

Here are the symptoms: <I've seen the exact same symptoms reported in forums,
but have not been able to find a solution.>

After working properly for ages (more than 12 months) all of a sudden both
new and forwarded received messages, on clicking "Send" go to the Outbox, but
when I visit the Outbox, they display in Italics for a very small fraction of
a second then switch to normal font and then refuse to be sent.

An e-mail struck in the Outbox has a header with:
- an icon which looks like a message outside an open envelope it came in (if
ready to send it should be a closed envelope)
- has a date of "None" (should be date/time stamped)
- Is in normal font (should be italics)

The Outbox folder name in the Folder Panel is in bold followed by the number
of messages in the Outbox shown in square brackets (normally round brackets
appear around the number indicating the messages are waiting to be sent).

I've tried:
- opening the message and clicking Send again - same result.
- creating a new message, saving it to draft, opening it, clicking send - it
goes to the Outbox but on checking displays in normal font and cannot be sent.
- forward a message that has been received - same result.
- upgrading from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007 - same result.
- messages with and without attachments - same result
- I've updated my virus scanner and done a complete scan - nothing found.
- I've run Ad-Aware - nothing unusual found.
- If I select a stuck message in Outbox, right click it and from the right
click menu select "Forward", the message is opened, has the recipients'
addresses already in the relevant address fields and then immediately click
send (without changing it in any way) it appears in the Outbox as a normal
message waiting to be sent, ie the "should be's" above are all true, and the
clicking "Send/Receive" on the Toolbar sends the newly forwarded message on
its way BUT NOT the stuck message.

Additional info:
- this behaviour occurs regardess of whether the addressee's (intended
recipient) e-mail address is in the To: or CC: or BCC: field.
- I can repeat the above very consistently.

I can always Send/Receive manually. And yes, the pop/smtp of the accounts
are all setup correctly. They work just fine as long as I don't visit the
Outbox.

--

 

[williamtell]

Try this:

Open Outlook>click File>click Work Offline>close Outlook>open Outlook,
Delete E-Mails>close Outlook>open Outlook>click File, uncheck Work Offline
HTH

 

[Austel]

I had tried this before, but just to be sure, I tried it again with your
exact sequence.
Didn't help
Thanks for the suggestion, though...

 

[williamtell]

Oh well,
Hopefully another person on the NG will have the cure.

 

[VanguardLH]

Here are the symptoms: <I've seen the exact same symptoms reported in forums,
but have not been able to find a solution.>

After working properly for ages (more than 12 months) all of a sudden both
new and forwarded received messages, on clicking "Send" go to the Outbox, but
when I visit the Outbox, they display in Italics for a very small fraction of
a second then switch to normal font and then refuse to be sent.

An e-mail struck in the Outbox has a header with:
- an icon which looks like a message outside an open envelope it came in (if
ready to send it should be a closed envelope)
- has a date of "None" (should be date/time stamped)
- Is in normal font (should be italics)

The Outbox folder name in the Folder Panel is in bold followed by the number
of messages in the Outbox shown in square brackets (normally round brackets
appear around the number indicating the messages are waiting to be sent).

I've tried:
- opening the message and clicking Send again - same result.
- creating a new message, saving it to draft, opening it, clicking send - it
goes to the Outbox but on checking displays in normal font and cannot be sent.
- forward a message that has been received - same result.
- upgrading from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007 - same result.
- messages with and without attachments - same result
- I've updated my virus scanner and done a complete scan - nothing found.
- I've run Ad-Aware - nothing unusual found.
- If I select a stuck message in Outbox, right click it and from the right
click menu select "Forward", the message is opened, has the recipients'
addresses already in the relevant address fields and then immediately click
send (without changing it in any way) it appears in the Outbox as a normal
message waiting to be sent, ie the "should be's" above are all true, and the
clicking "Send/Receive" on the Toolbar sends the newly forwarded message on
its way BUT NOT the stuck message.

Additional info:
- this behaviour occurs regardess of whether the addressee's (intended
recipient) e-mail address is in the To: or CC: or BCC: field.
- I can repeat the above very consistently.

I can always Send/Receive manually. And yes, the pop/smtp of the accounts
are all setup correctly. They work just fine as long as I don't visit the
Outbox.

Can you delete the items stuck in the Outbox folder?

How big are these stuck items?

Have you tried loading Outlook in its safe mode which will not load any
add-ons that you installed into Outlook?

outlook.exe /safe

Have you rebooted into Windows' Safe Mode (with networking) and retested?

Tried enabling the troubleshooting logging in Outlook? With Outlook not
loaded, first delete any remnant logfile. Then load Outlook but enable only
one e-mail account (to track its operation alone instead of having to
decipher the logging for mail polls against multiple accounts). Enable the
troubleshooting logging function in Outlook. Exit and reload Outlook. If
mail polls aren't scheduled, do a manual mail poll. Exit Outlook after the
first mail poll (which should also fail to send those items). Review the
logfile to see if there even was a mail poll or, if there was, what happened
during the mail poll.