Outlook not sending attachments

[Ernie]

One of my users on Outlook XP cannot send any emails with attachments. Emails
withOUT attachments are sent normally, but anything WITH an attachment LOOKS
like it gets sent (it goes into the Outbox, and then to the Sent Items
folder) but never actually arrives at the recipient's mailbox. Our mail is
handled through an ISP, and all other users can send attachments without a
problem.

 

[K. Orland]

Just to clarify, the email with attachment is in Sent Items and still
includes the attachment so it looks as though it's sent normally? If this is
the case, are you sure the issue is not at the recipient end? Does this
happen for all recipients, just one, or some?
Are the recipients who don't receive the attachment NOT using Outlook? In
that case, check the Outlook email format. If it's set to rich text, any
email client other than Outlook will have difficulty reading it or not read
it at all. This would affect attachments as well.
Also, if Outlook and Word are different versions (for example Outlook 2000
with Office 97) and Word is used as the email editor, attachments will be
stripped out when sent to people not using Outlook.

 

[Brian Tillman]

One of my users on Outlook XP cannot send any emails with
attachments. Emails withOUT attachments are sent normally, but
anything WITH an attachment LOOKS like it gets sent (it goes into the
Outbox, and then to the Sent Items folder) but never actually arrives
at the recipient's mailbox. Our mail is handled through an ISP, and
all other users can send attachments without a problem.

If the message is in the Sent Items folder, that's a fairly conclusive
indication that your mail server accepted the message. Thus, the problem is
on the mail server, not in Outlook.

 

[Ernie]

Kathleen,

This happens for all recipients... some folks using Outlook XP, some Outlook
Express, some Outlook 2003, and even one using (gasp) Groupwise. I haven't
been able to highlight any one thing as common to all but for the fact that
they all contain attachments. What he's been doing for me to help isolate it
a little is sending an email beforehand telling the recipient he's about to
send an email with an attachment (which they invariably get), then sends the
email with the attachment (which they invariably don't get), then sends a
THIRD email asking to let him know if they got the mail with the attachment.
They have so far ALWAYS responded that they DID NOT get the email with the
attachment... but they got both the UNattachment emails.

This is a small town government, and I've been doing tech support for
clients like this for quite some time, but this is a new one.

Ernie

 

[Ernie]

Brian,

It would be really nice if I could approach it that way, but there are more
than a dozen other users at this same location, using the same ISP under the
same configuration who do NOT have this problem.

Ernie

 

[Brian Tillman]

It would be really nice if I could approach it that way, but there
are more than a dozen other users at this same location, using the
same ISP under the same configuration who do NOT have this problem.

Still, if I were you, I'd enable diagnostic logging to verify that the
messages were actually reaching the server and, if so, complain to the ISP.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300479/en-us