OL E-mails All Arriving with File Attachments

[A Baffled User]

Four or five days ago, e-mails I receive on a regular basis started arriving
in my box accompanied for the first time by .txt attachments containing the
precise content of the e-mail itself. The report I receive from my state
weather service every day, personal messages from friends, and commercial
messages, none of which has ever included a file attachment before, all have
started arriving with attachments. This is a waste of bandwith and space on
my hard drive. Is there a way to stop the file attachments from coming? I've
been opening each message and removing them, but what a pain! I've checked
all the options in OL (still using OL 2000, BTW, on Windows XP SP3) and
found nothing that will do the trick.

Thanks!

Joan

 

[Orland, Kathleen]

If you open Outlook in safe mode, does this behaviour continue?

Start > Run > outlook.exe /safe
(note the space between outlook.exe and /safe)

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

Four or five days ago, e-mails I receive on a regular basis started arriving
in my box accompanied for the first time by .txt attachments containing the
precise content of the e-mail itself. The report I receive from my state
weather service every day, personal messages from friends, and commercial
messages, none of which has ever included a file attachment before, all have
started arriving with attachments.

Do you scan incoming messages with an antivirus program? If so, the first
thing you should do to try to diagnose this problem is to uninstall your AV
program and reinstall it without the mail scanning feature. You want to
eliminate as many variables as possible. Scanning incoming mail can interfere
with Outlook's decoding of it. Also, start Outlook in safe mode (hold Ctrl
when you start it) and see if that makes a difference. If it does, you have
an add-in cauing the problem.

 

[A Baffled User]

I've just opened OL as you instructed and will report back once I've gotten
some new messages. I notice that when OL opened, there was no Preview pane
as there usually is. I assume that's a function of safe mode.

Joan

 

[A Baffled User]

I do have AVG antivirus, but I haven't made any changes to the options on
that program since it was installed and I've never had file attachments
cropping up in most (though not all) of my messages until the last four or
five days.

Right now I've opened OL in safe mode, as both you and Kathleen Orland
suggested. Let's see if safe mode makes any difference. I might not really
be able to tell until tomorrow morning, when I get tomorrow's versions of
the messages that come in every day and that have suddenly sprouted file
attachments.

Thanks to both you and Kathleen!

Joan

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

I do have AVG antivirus, but I haven't made any changes to the options on
that program since it was installed and I've never had file attachments
cropping up in most (though not all) of my messages until the last four or
five days.

That's irrelevant because usually AVG updates itself every single day and that
ABSOLUTELY changes the program. If one of those updates had a problem, then
it could do exactly what you've described.

 

[A Baffled User]

Hmmm... Well, maybe I'll try writing to AVG. In the meantime, I'll wait to
see if there is any difference between normal mode and safe mode.

Joan

 

[Orland, Kathleen]

You can disable the email scanning services to see if that's the issue. Open
your services control panel and look for the AVG mail scanning service and
disable it. AVG will protest and tell you it's in error mode, but it will
still work and you can still update it. Since it's just a temporary test, it
shouldn't e an issue.

 

[A Baffled User]

I was just going to update my post. You suggested yesterday that I open OL
in safe mode, which I did. Today, for the first time in several days, my
regular e-mails arrived WITHOUT any attachments. So what does that tell us?
And what should I do now? I don't notice any difference in the general
functioning of OL in safe mode. Should I just keep it in that mode?

 

[A Baffled User]

As I just posted to Kathleen Orland, running OL in safe mode has apparently
gotten rid of the freeloading file attachments. So maybe my problem is not
related to my antivirus program?

I suppose I should restart OL in non-safe mode to be sure.

Joan

 

[Tom Willett]

You're problem may indeed be related to the anti-virus.
Safe mode loads Outlook without many of the customization files and add-ins
loaded. If Outlook works correctly in Safe mode, the problem is with one of
your add-ins or customization files.

: As I just posted to Kathleen Orland, running OL in safe mode has
apparently
: gotten rid of the freeloading file attachments. So maybe my problem is not
: related to my antivirus program?
:
: I suppose I should restart OL in non-safe mode to be sure.
:
: Joan
:
:
: : > : >
: >>I do have AVG antivirus, but I haven't made any changes to the options
on
: >>that program since it was installed and I've never had file attachments
: >>cropping up in most (though not all) of my messages until the last four
or
: >>five days.
: >
: > That's irrelevant because usually AVG updates itself every single day
and
: > that ABSOLUTELY changes the program. If one of those updates had a
: > problem, then it could do exactly what you've described.
: > --
: > Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]
:
:

 

[Orland, Kathleen]

Did anyone ask exactly what the attachments were?

If running Outlook in safe mode removes the attachments, then you have a
case of something that integrates with Outlook that causes the problem. AVG
adds an attachment to every email to certify that it's been scanned. That
may be the attachment you're seeing. It may perhaps be another Outlook Add
in.

I would suggest that you disable your Add Ins, restart Outlook and add each
one back, testing in-between to see which one is the culprit.

--

Kathleen Orland

I was just going to update my post. You suggested yesterday that I open OL
in safe mode, which I did. Today, for the first time in several days, my
regular e-mails arrived WITHOUT any attachments. So what does that tell us?
And what should I do now? I don't notice any difference in the general
functioning of OL in safe mode. Should I just keep it in that mode?

 

[A Baffled User]

The attachments are not messages saying that the message in question has
been scanned for viruses. They contain EXACTLY THE SAME CONTENT as the
messages themselves. So if the message contains weather-related information,
the attachment contains the exact same information.

I only have to add-ins, an OL Backup and a WOPR PlaceBar Customizer, both of
which have been present for years. Is there some reason why they would start
creating the kinds of file attachments I've described all of a sudden?

Thanks for your help, Kathleen!

Joan

 

[Tom Willett]

: The attachments are not messages saying that the message in question has
: been scanned for viruses. They contain EXACTLY THE SAME CONTENT as the
: messages themselves. So if the message contains weather-related
information,
: the attachment contains the exact same information.
:
: I only have to add-ins, an OL Backup and a WOPR PlaceBar Customizer, both
of
: which have been present for years.

You also have the anti-virus program scanning email!

 

[Orland, Kathleen]

I would say it's likely your antivirus then. Windows updates, antivirus
updates, antivirus engine updates - nothing is static.

You can reinstall AVG and omit the email scanning portion or just disable
the email scanning service. I would test by disabling the email scanning
service. Go into Computer Management, you can either right-click on My
Computer or find it in the Control Panel (what it's called depends on your
O/S, look for something similar to Administrative Tools). Disable the
service, AVG will complain but it won't stop your ability to update your
virus definitions.

 

[A Baffled User]

Right, but it's presumably been scanning my e-mail for months if not years
and never started spawning file attachments that are duplicates of the
content of the e-mails until six days ago.

 

[A Baffled User]

Thanks, Kathleen. First I'll take OL out of safe mode to see if the
attachments start recurring. If they don't come back, then maybe I'll just
cross my fingers and hope for the best...?

If they do, then I'll follow your instructions.

Ciao for now,
Joan

 

[Tom Willett]

You don't understand. These issues with the A/V email scanning can pop up
out of nowhere. It's been this way for years.

You need to at least rule it out. Uninstall your A/V program. Reboot.
Install A/V program without the email scanning module. You are still
protected with the realtime scan. The email scanning is simply a marketing
tool.

: Right, but it's presumably been scanning my e-mail for months if not years
: and never started spawning file attachments that are duplicates of the
: content of the e-mails until six days ago.
:
: : >
: > : > : The attachments are not messages saying that the message in question
has
: > : been scanned for viruses. They contain EXACTLY THE SAME CONTENT as the
: > : messages themselves. So if the message contains weather-related
: > information,
: > : the attachment contains the exact same information.
: > :
: > : I only have to add-ins, an OL Backup and a WOPR PlaceBar Customizer,
: > both
: > of
: > : which have been present for years.
: >
: > You also have the anti-virus program scanning email!
: >
: >
:
:

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

Right, but it's presumably been scanning my e-mail for months if not years
and never started spawning file attachments that are duplicates of the
content of the e-mails until six days ago.

Your AV program updates itself, probably silently, every day. That means it
can start behaving differently at any time and you'll never know it until it
causes problems. That's why the McAfee update of a couple of weeks ago killed
tens of thousands of PCs all over the world - they updated their AV program
and messed up with the detection strings, causing the program to quarantine
SVCHOST.EXE, an essential WIndows program, bringing all those machines down.

 

[A Baffled User]

Okay, I see. So my e-mails would still be scanned for nefarious content even
without the e-mail scanning module?

Note, however, that messages have been coming in today without any copycat
attachments even though I exited OL safe mode and restarted the program
normally last night. I'm thinking maybe I should just leave well enough
alone until the problem recurs. Does that seem reasonable?

Joan