Outlook 2007 doesn't automatically show New Messages in IMAP...

[L. D. James]

In all previous versions of Outlook (as well as outlook express), the
mail spool would be scanned every five minutes and you would see new
messages in the list. It was that way initially with 2007, however,
suddenly the new messages usually don't show unless I change mail
folders and come back to the Inbox folder.

I get the sound notification of new mail, however, the actually message
doesn't automatically show (most of the time).

If I exit out of Outlook over and over to try to reset it, some times
it will show the new messages automatically for a while, then it will
stop again. I deleted the profile and created a brand new profile.
That didn't fix it. I also uninstalled Office 2007 and reinstalled
0ffice 2007, that didn't fix it either.

Can someone tell me where the option to have the new messages (for
IMAP) to be shown every five minutes, or any other comments of how to
check/fix the problem.

Thanks in advance for any comments on the matter.

-- L. James

 

[Patrick Schmid]

You can tell Outlook to schedule a send/receive every 5 mins. To do
this, go into Tools, Options, Mail Setup, Send/Receive, check "schedule
an automatic send/receive every X mins" (set X to 5). Then make sure to
hit edit on the only send/receive group and check for your IMAP account
what it should download.
Let me know if this works. My thinking is that you might have a
different problem though, because Outlook notifies you that there are
new emails. Can you check to see if with your current settings, the
unread message count for the Inbox reflects the new messages that are
not shown in the message list? If it does, then you prob. have a
different problem that the send/receive settings won't fix. Post back if
that is the case.

Patrick Schmid

 

[L. D. James]

You can tell Outlook to schedule a send/receive every 5 mins. To do
this, go into Tools, Options, Mail Setup, Send/Receive, check "schedule
an automatic send/receive every X mins" (set X to 5). Then make sure to
hit edit on the only send/receive group and check for your IMAP account
what it should download.
Let me know if this works. My thinking is that you might have a
different problem though, because Outlook notifies you that there are
new emails. Can you check to see if with your current settings, the
unread message count for the Inbox reflects the new messages that are
not shown in the message list? If it does, then you prob. have a
different problem that the send/receive settings won't fix. Post back if
that is the case.

Thanks, Patrick. I had already tried the "schedule an automatic
send/receive every X mins" option. On all the Outlook computers I've
used or setup in the past, this has always been set at the default 30
minutes. However, the notification and update has always been within 5
minutes. This is why I was asking for some other place where this
parameter might be checked.

In fact, even if this feature is turned off on all the other computers,
the Inbox notification and display is still always updated every 5
minutes if it's the current selected folder. I set and maintain this
for over 50 clients. It's only my personal computer that I have
elected to test the Office Beta.

And yes, the number of (total) items in the bottom left hand corner is
incremented by the new messages that are notified by the sound
notification. The unread count is incremented also. I'm just not able
to see the message unless I select a different folder and come back to
the Inbox.

-- L. James

 

[Patrick Schmid]

You have a different problem then, meaning nothing to do with
send/receive or collection of emails in general. Try starting Outlook
with the /cleanviews switch and see if the behavior changes.

Let me give you some background on IMAP that will explain what you are
talking about. For IMAP, you don't even have to schedule an automatic
send/receive, in fact you never have to use send/receive ever, if you
don't want to. The only benefit you get from an automatic send/receive
is that you can tell Outlook to download all messages from all folders
and therefore get full offline copies of all IMAP folders and messages.
The switch to make this for all folders is new in 2007 (it was a pain to
set this up in 2003) and you can find it when you edit the IMAP account
in the send/receive groups.

With send/receive off, Outlook will update all headers in an IMAP folder
when you switch to that folder (that includes first time opening of
Outlook if it defaults to your Inbox). Notice though that Outlook only
triggers a header update if you are switching from an IMAP folder to
another. If you are switching from a folder in your local non IMAP PST
to an IMAP folder, this update won't happen (it doesn't look like this
behavior is going to change by RTM). If you simply stay in a folder,
then you can still get new messages arriving in that folder. This is the
beauty of IMAP. Every command Outlook sends to the server forces the
server to tell Outlook whenever there are new messages. So if Outlook
downloads a full message, because you clicked on one that only
downloaded the header, then Outlook will also get a notice if there are
new messages in that folder.
The real great thing is that there is NOOP command. Essentially a
command Outlook can send to the server that does nothing but keep the
connection to the server from timing out. If however there are new
messages, then the server will respond with that notice to the NOOP
command, and Outlook will download the new headers. In the more account
settings, advanced tab, you can adjust the timeout interval. If you set
this interval to 5 mins, then Outlook will send a NOOP command every 5
mins to prevent an IMAP timeout. Hence this is why you can get new
messages automatically without having to do anything in Outlook.

Just for a bit more background: Outlook 2007 Beta 1 had a bug whereby
new messages would be retrieved from the server, the new message count
adjusted correctly and the mail notification icon appeared, but the new
messages didn't show in the message list. This is exactly the problem
you are describing. I am hoping that the /cleanviews switch will solve
the problem for you. If it doesn't, send me an email and I'll take the
troubleshooting offline with you (you can get my email from my website).
Basically, I'll request a bunch of information from you, so that I can
submit a bug on this to Microsoft.

Patrick Schmid

 

[L. D. James]

Just for a bit more background: Outlook 2007 Beta 1 had a bug whereby
new messages would be retrieved from the server, the new message count
adjusted correctly and the mail notification icon appeared, but the new
messages didn't show in the message list. This is exactly the problem
you are describing. I am hoping that the /cleanviews switch will solve
the problem for you. If it doesn't, send me an email and I'll take the
troubleshooting offline with you (you can get my email from my website).
Basically, I'll request a bunch of information from you, so that I can
submit a bug on this to Microsoft.

You described the characteristic exactly. The /cleanviews doesn't
remove the bug.

As you mentioned, I'll click on your website so that we can exchange
the information you need.

Thanks.

-- L. James