Some e-mail contacts not working as "to" addresses - undeliverable

[greggoak]

When I type an address in the "to" field and it starts to auto-complete based
on recent address entries, I can hit "return" and it works if it puts the
name of the recipient (the "display as" version from contacts) in between
apostrophes (so 'John Smith'), or if it gives the name of the person then the
e-mail address in between <> (so John Smith <[email protected]>). That
always works. It also works if I manually type a complete address.

But if I get the name of the contact without apostrophes or without the
address in brackets, or more importantly, when I click on an address in my
contacts it puts in the name of the recipient (the "display as" version,
again), but WITHOUT the apostrophe and then it doesn't work. I get an
immediate returned mail from "system administrator" but I think this is from
Outlook itself, not my ISP. I don't think anything ever left my machine. But
not sure on that point.

But in any case, the message as "undeliverable" in the subject line and then
"the following recipient(s) could not be reached" then the name of the
contact, the date/time of the e-mail and then it says "The requested
operation failed."

I'm using Outlook 2003 and I haven't knowingly changed any settings, but
this started happening to me recently (not problems with the same software
and setup for years - this spontaneously started happening).

I'm not a computer expert - this is the best I can do to describe the
problem.

Thanks,
Gregg

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Post is too imprecise for any specific answers. No idea what you mean by
"when I click on an address in my Contacts." You appear to have two separate
problems:
1. Corrupt entry in the autocompletion cache. Delete any entry that does not
work.
2. Corrupt address in a Contact Record. Recreate any Contact that doesn't
work.

 

[greggoak]

Russ,

Thanks for the reply. Since I don't know the correct vocabulary, I'll just
give an example in precise step-by-step detail. Hopefully this will help.

1) I use CTRL + N to open a new message.
2) I click on the "to" to the left of the "to" field, which opens a dialog
showing all my contacts in alpha order, with the header "select names."
3) I double click on any of the names in that list and their "display as"
alias appears in the "to" field under the "message recipients" header in this
same dialog window.
4) Once I'm done with picking people to send the message to, I click "ok"
and that dialog box closes and all those names are now input automatically
into the "to" field of my message. Again, using whatever "display as" alias
had been set up for that name.
5) I click send.
6) Instantly (suggesting it is from my machine, not a server), I get a
message in my inbox that is presented as being from "System Administrator"
and just to to the left of the word "system administrator" where there is
normally an icon of an open or closed envelope, there is a little symbol of a
red arrow pointing left in the middle of a circle with wavy lines to its
right. The subject line begins with "Undeliverable" and in the body of this
message is says:

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: XXXX
Sent: (it lists here the date and time)

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

John Doe on (it lists here the date and time)
The requested operation failed.


This is happening with the majority of the contacts in my Outlook - I have
thousands. These all worked perfectly for years and then this started
happening a few weeks ago. I don't know of any incident that could have
precipitated this. No new software, no virus (that I know of), etc.

If I manually type the address completely it works. The addresses themselves
are not wrong.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Gregg

-----------------

Post is too imprecise for any specific answers. No idea what you mean by
"when I click on an address in my Contacts." You appear to have two separate
problems:
1. Corrupt entry in the autocompletion cache. Delete any entry that does not
work.
2. Corrupt address in a Contact Record. Recreate any Contact that doesn't
work.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

When I type an address in the "to" field and it starts to auto-complete
based
on recent address entries, I can hit "return" and it works if it puts the
name of the recipient (the "display as" version from contacts) in between
apostrophes (so 'John Smith'), or if it gives the name of the person then
the
e-mail address in between <> (so John Smith <[email protected]>). That
always works. It also works if I manually type a complete address.

But if I get the name of the contact without apostrophes or without the
address in brackets, or more importantly, when I click on an address in my
contacts it puts in the name of the recipient (the "display as" version,
again), but WITHOUT the apostrophe and then it doesn't work. I get an
immediate returned mail from "system administrator" but I think this is
from
Outlook itself, not my ISP. I don't think anything ever left my machine.
But
not sure on that point.

But in any case, the message as "undeliverable" in the subject line and
then
"the following recipient(s) could not be reached" then the name of the
contact, the date/time of the e-mail and then it says "The requested
operation failed."

I'm using Outlook 2003 and I haven't knowingly changed any settings, but
this started happening to me recently (not problems with the same software
and setup for years - this spontaneously started happening).

I'm not a computer expert - this is the best I can do to describe the
problem.

Thanks,
Gregg

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Only the ones I already posted. There is more to this story, I am sure. But
you've posted no information that would permit any further help. As I said,
you email addresses are corrupt.
Do you back up your data?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ,

Thanks for the reply. Since I don't know the correct vocabulary, I'll just
give an example in precise step-by-step detail. Hopefully this will help.

1) I use CTRL + N to open a new message.
2) I click on the "to" to the left of the "to" field, which opens a dialog
showing all my contacts in alpha order, with the header "select names."
3) I double click on any of the names in that list and their "display as"
alias appears in the "to" field under the "message recipients" header in
this
same dialog window.
4) Once I'm done with picking people to send the message to, I click "ok"
and that dialog box closes and all those names are now input automatically
into the "to" field of my message. Again, using whatever "display as"
alias
had been set up for that name.
5) I click send.
6) Instantly (suggesting it is from my machine, not a server), I get a
message in my inbox that is presented as being from "System Administrator"
and just to to the left of the word "system administrator" where there is
normally an icon of an open or closed envelope, there is a little symbol
of a
red arrow pointing left in the middle of a circle with wavy lines to its
right. The subject line begins with "Undeliverable" and in the body of
this
message is says:

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: XXXX
Sent: (it lists here the date and time)

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

John Doe on (it lists here the date and time)
The requested operation failed.


This is happening with the majority of the contacts in my Outlook - I have
thousands. These all worked perfectly for years and then this started
happening a few weeks ago. I don't know of any incident that could have
precipitated this. No new software, no virus (that I know of), etc.

If I manually type the address completely it works. The addresses
themselves
are not wrong.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Gregg

-----------------

Post is too imprecise for any specific answers. No idea what you mean by
"when I click on an address in my Contacts." You appear to have two
separate
problems:
1. Corrupt entry in the autocompletion cache. Delete any entry that does
not
work.
2. Corrupt address in a Contact Record. Recreate any Contact that doesn't
work.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

When I type an address in the "to" field and it starts to auto-complete
based
on recent address entries, I can hit "return" and it works if it puts
the
name of the recipient (the "display as" version from contacts) in
between
apostrophes (so 'John Smith'), or if it gives the name of the person
then
the
e-mail address in between <> (so John Smith <[email protected]>).
That
always works. It also works if I manually type a complete address.

But if I get the name of the contact without apostrophes or without the
address in brackets, or more importantly, when I click on an address in
my
contacts it puts in the name of the recipient (the "display as"
version,
again), but WITHOUT the apostrophe and then it doesn't work. I get an
immediate returned mail from "system administrator" but I think this is
from
Outlook itself, not my ISP. I don't think anything ever left my
machine.
But
not sure on that point.

But in any case, the message as "undeliverable" in the subject line and
then
"the following recipient(s) could not be reached" then the name of the
contact, the date/time of the e-mail and then it says "The requested
operation failed."

I'm using Outlook 2003 and I haven't knowingly changed any settings,
but
this started happening to me recently (not problems with the same
software
and setup for years - this spontaneously started happening).

I'm not a computer expert - this is the best I can do to describe the
problem.

Thanks,
Gregg

 

[greggoak]

Russ,

Yes, I do back up my data, but for my contacts, the backup is on my
Blackberry. I don't think I've synched since this problem started, but I'm
not 100% sure. Why do you ask about backup? Was the idea that a backup prior
to the problem might be useful, or....?

So at this point, it seems I have two options:

1) See if my Blackberry backup helps. But I don't know how to reload my
contacts from my Blackberry. I just know how to synch them, which won't help
with this issue because the addresses in the contacts are correct and synch
feature only looks for changes or new items.

2) Manually re-input my roughly 3,000 contacts.

Or is there another option you can think of? Is there some piece of info I
could give that would help troubleshoot further? Is there a helpline at
Microsoft that might solve this, or a company that I could get in touch with?
From other posts on here it sounds like I'm not the only person having this
specific problem.

Thanks!
Gregg

Only the ones I already posted. There is more to this story, I am sure. But
you've posted no information that would permit any further help. As I said,
you email addresses are corrupt.
Do you back up your data?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ,

Thanks for the reply. Since I don't know the correct vocabulary, I'll just
give an example in precise step-by-step detail. Hopefully this will help.

1) I use CTRL + N to open a new message.
2) I click on the "to" to the left of the "to" field, which opens a dialog
showing all my contacts in alpha order, with the header "select names."
3) I double click on any of the names in that list and their "display as"
alias appears in the "to" field under the "message recipients" header in
this
same dialog window.
4) Once I'm done with picking people to send the message to, I click "ok"
and that dialog box closes and all those names are now input automatically
into the "to" field of my message. Again, using whatever "display as"
alias
had been set up for that name.
5) I click send.
6) Instantly (suggesting it is from my machine, not a server), I get a
message in my inbox that is presented as being from "System Administrator"
and just to to the left of the word "system administrator" where there is
normally an icon of an open or closed envelope, there is a little symbol
of a
red arrow pointing left in the middle of a circle with wavy lines to its
right. The subject line begins with "Undeliverable" and in the body of
this
message is says:

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: XXXX
Sent: (it lists here the date and time)

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

John Doe on (it lists here the date and time)
The requested operation failed.


This is happening with the majority of the contacts in my Outlook - I have
thousands. These all worked perfectly for years and then this started
happening a few weeks ago. I don't know of any incident that could have
precipitated this. No new software, no virus (that I know of), etc.

If I manually type the address completely it works. The addresses
themselves
are not wrong.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Gregg

-----------------

Post is too imprecise for any specific answers. No idea what you mean by
"when I click on an address in my Contacts." You appear to have two
separate
problems:
1. Corrupt entry in the autocompletion cache. Delete any entry that does
not
work.
2. Corrupt address in a Contact Record. Recreate any Contact that doesn't
work.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
When I type an address in the "to" field and it starts to auto-complete
based
on recent address entries, I can hit "return" and it works if it puts
the
name of the recipient (the "display as" version from contacts) in
between
apostrophes (so 'John Smith'), or if it gives the name of the person
then
the
e-mail address in between <> (so John Smith <[email protected]>).
That
always works. It also works if I manually type a complete address.

But if I get the name of the contact without apostrophes or without the
address in brackets, or more importantly, when I click on an address in
my
contacts it puts in the name of the recipient (the "display as"
version,
again), but WITHOUT the apostrophe and then it doesn't work. I get an
immediate returned mail from "system administrator" but I think this is
from
Outlook itself, not my ISP. I don't think anything ever left my
machine.
But
not sure on that point.

But in any case, the message as "undeliverable" in the subject line and
then
"the following recipient(s) could not be reached" then the name of the
contact, the date/time of the e-mail and then it says "The requested
operation failed."

I'm using Outlook 2003 and I haven't knowingly changed any settings,
but
this started happening to me recently (not problems with the same
software
and setup for years - this spontaneously started happening).

I'm not a computer expert - this is the best I can do to describe the
problem.

Thanks,
Gregg

 

[greggoak]

Actually, on the backup point, I just remembered that I do have a separate
backup of my contacts from several months ago. But I'd have to reload that
and then synch with my Blackberry to get the new ones and updates, which
might reintroduce the problem, or.....?

Only the ones I already posted. There is more to this story, I am sure. But
you've posted no information that would permit any further help. As I said,
you email addresses are corrupt.
Do you back up your data?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ,

Thanks for the reply. Since I don't know the correct vocabulary, I'll just
give an example in precise step-by-step detail. Hopefully this will help.

1) I use CTRL + N to open a new message.
2) I click on the "to" to the left of the "to" field, which opens a dialog
showing all my contacts in alpha order, with the header "select names."
3) I double click on any of the names in that list and their "display as"
alias appears in the "to" field under the "message recipients" header in
this
same dialog window.
4) Once I'm done with picking people to send the message to, I click "ok"
and that dialog box closes and all those names are now input automatically
into the "to" field of my message. Again, using whatever "display as"
alias
had been set up for that name.
5) I click send.
6) Instantly (suggesting it is from my machine, not a server), I get a
message in my inbox that is presented as being from "System Administrator"
and just to to the left of the word "system administrator" where there is
normally an icon of an open or closed envelope, there is a little symbol
of a
red arrow pointing left in the middle of a circle with wavy lines to its
right. The subject line begins with "Undeliverable" and in the body of
this
message is says:

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: XXXX
Sent: (it lists here the date and time)

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

John Doe on (it lists here the date and time)
The requested operation failed.


This is happening with the majority of the contacts in my Outlook - I have
thousands. These all worked perfectly for years and then this started
happening a few weeks ago. I don't know of any incident that could have
precipitated this. No new software, no virus (that I know of), etc.

If I manually type the address completely it works. The addresses
themselves
are not wrong.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Gregg

-----------------

Post is too imprecise for any specific answers. No idea what you mean by
"when I click on an address in my Contacts." You appear to have two
separate
problems:
1. Corrupt entry in the autocompletion cache. Delete any entry that does
not
work.
2. Corrupt address in a Contact Record. Recreate any Contact that doesn't
work.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
When I type an address in the "to" field and it starts to auto-complete
based
on recent address entries, I can hit "return" and it works if it puts
the
name of the recipient (the "display as" version from contacts) in
between
apostrophes (so 'John Smith'), or if it gives the name of the person
then
the
e-mail address in between <> (so John Smith <[email protected]>).
That
always works. It also works if I manually type a complete address.

But if I get the name of the contact without apostrophes or without the
address in brackets, or more importantly, when I click on an address in
my
contacts it puts in the name of the recipient (the "display as"
version,
again), but WITHOUT the apostrophe and then it doesn't work. I get an
immediate returned mail from "system administrator" but I think this is
from
Outlook itself, not my ISP. I don't think anything ever left my
machine.
But
not sure on that point.

But in any case, the message as "undeliverable" in the subject line and
then
"the following recipient(s) could not be reached" then the name of the
contact, the date/time of the e-mail and then it says "The requested
operation failed."

I'm using Outlook 2003 and I haven't knowingly changed any settings,
but
this started happening to me recently (not problems with the same
software
and setup for years - this spontaneously started happening).

I'm not a computer expert - this is the best I can do to describe the
problem.

Thanks,
Gregg

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Aha. The plot thickens. Now we know you've been syncing with a Blackberry,
so now we have at least one clue as to what corrupted your data. In no way
is having data on a mobile device a backup.
You'll need to provide as much troubleshooting information as you can for us
to figure out a solution.
1. What are the mail transports in this profile and which one are you using
when you get these error messages?
2. If you create a new Contact from scratch with a valid email address and
send a message to that Contact by selecting it from the Outlook Address
Book, does it work?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ,

Yes, I do back up my data, but for my contacts, the backup is on my
Blackberry. I don't think I've synched since this problem started, but I'm
not 100% sure. Why do you ask about backup? Was the idea that a backup
prior
to the problem might be useful, or....?

So at this point, it seems I have two options:

1) See if my Blackberry backup helps. But I don't know how to reload my
contacts from my Blackberry. I just know how to synch them, which won't
help
with this issue because the addresses in the contacts are correct and
synch
feature only looks for changes or new items.

2) Manually re-input my roughly 3,000 contacts.

Or is there another option you can think of? Is there some piece of info I
could give that would help troubleshoot further? Is there a helpline at
Microsoft that might solve this, or a company that I could get in touch
with?
From other posts on here it sounds like I'm not the only person having
this
specific problem.

Thanks!
Gregg

Only the ones I already posted. There is more to this story, I am sure.
But
you've posted no information that would permit any further help. As I
said,
you email addresses are corrupt.
Do you back up your data?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ,

Thanks for the reply. Since I don't know the correct vocabulary, I'll
just
give an example in precise step-by-step detail. Hopefully this will
help.

1) I use CTRL + N to open a new message.
2) I click on the "to" to the left of the "to" field, which opens a
dialog
showing all my contacts in alpha order, with the header "select names."
3) I double click on any of the names in that list and their "display
as"
alias appears in the "to" field under the "message recipients" header
in
this
same dialog window.
4) Once I'm done with picking people to send the message to, I click
"ok"
and that dialog box closes and all those names are now input
automatically
into the "to" field of my message. Again, using whatever "display as"
alias
had been set up for that name.
5) I click send.
6) Instantly (suggesting it is from my machine, not a server), I get a
message in my inbox that is presented as being from "System
Administrator"
and just to to the left of the word "system administrator" where there
is
normally an icon of an open or closed envelope, there is a little
symbol
of a
red arrow pointing left in the middle of a circle with wavy lines to
its
right. The subject line begins with "Undeliverable" and in the body of
this
message is says:

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: XXXX
Sent: (it lists here the date and time)

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

John Doe on (it lists here the date and time)
The requested operation failed.


This is happening with the majority of the contacts in my Outlook - I
have
thousands. These all worked perfectly for years and then this started
happening a few weeks ago. I don't know of any incident that could have
precipitated this. No new software, no virus (that I know of), etc.

If I manually type the address completely it works. The addresses
themselves
are not wrong.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Gregg

-----------------

:

Post is too imprecise for any specific answers. No idea what you mean
by
"when I click on an address in my Contacts." You appear to have two
separate
problems:
1. Corrupt entry in the autocompletion cache. Delete any entry that
does
not
work.
2. Corrupt address in a Contact Record. Recreate any Contact that
doesn't
work.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
When I type an address in the "to" field and it starts to
auto-complete
based
on recent address entries, I can hit "return" and it works if it
puts
the
name of the recipient (the "display as" version from contacts) in
between
apostrophes (so 'John Smith'), or if it gives the name of the person
then
the
e-mail address in between <> (so John Smith <[email protected]>).
That
always works. It also works if I manually type a complete address.

But if I get the name of the contact without apostrophes or without
the
address in brackets, or more importantly, when I click on an address
in
my
contacts it puts in the name of the recipient (the "display as"
version,
again), but WITHOUT the apostrophe and then it doesn't work. I get
an
immediate returned mail from "system administrator" but I think this
is
from
Outlook itself, not my ISP. I don't think anything ever left my
machine.
But
not sure on that point.

But in any case, the message as "undeliverable" in the subject line
and
then
"the following recipient(s) could not be reached" then the name of
the
contact, the date/time of the e-mail and then it says "The requested
operation failed."

I'm using Outlook 2003 and I haven't knowingly changed any settings,
but
this started happening to me recently (not problems with the same
software
and setup for years - this spontaneously started happening).

I'm not a computer expert - this is the best I can do to describe
the
problem.

Thanks,
Gregg

 

[greggoak]

I just tested creating a new contact from scratch and it worked. The message
went out and was delivered.

As for the "mail transport in this profile," I don't know what that is. Can
you tell me how I'd check, or explain a bit more about what it is?

Thanks,
Gregg

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

What type of email account(s) are you using in this profile?
Your other answer confirms my suspicion of data corruption, most likely by
your synch software (unless you do anything else that would affect your
Contact data globally). That is why having a true backup may become crucial.
For starters, repair your Outlook Data File by using the Inbox Repair Tool.
After that reset your Outlook Address Book Service by removing it from your
profile, restarting Outlook and adding it back again.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I just tested creating a new contact from scratch and it worked. The
message
went out and was delivered.

As for the "mail transport in this profile," I don't know what that is.
Can
you tell me how I'd check, or explain a bit more about what it is?

Thanks,
Gregg

 

[greggoak]

It's a POP/SMTP account, if I'm understanding that correctly. It's my work
e-mail. I'll try the two suggestions you had, below. Other than the
Blackberry synching, I can't think of anything else that would have a global
impact on my Outlooks. I'm a fairly low-tech user - I'm not playing with
other devices or plug-ins or doing anything complicated. I'm mostly using
default set-ups and settings (Dell fabricated PC running Windows XP with the
Office 2003 suite). The precise POP/SMTP settings for this account changed
about a year ago, but the problem I'm having is much more recent, so I'd
doubt there is a connection.

As for the backup I have, do you think re-synching the data with my
Blackberry after reloading from the backup might reintroduce the problem? Any
thoughts on getting around that? Should I reload my RIM software that drives
the Blackberry?

Thanks for all your help on this!

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You absolutely should _not_ sync anything with your Blackberry again until
we get this figured out. Sync errors are common and cannot be undone other
than by restoring from a good backup. There is a good chance we won't be
able to repair this other than by restoring your data from your backup file.
You should be making backups very frequently if you use sync software.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

It's a POP/SMTP account, if I'm understanding that correctly. It's my work
e-mail. I'll try the two suggestions you had, below. Other than the
Blackberry synching, I can't think of anything else that would have a
global
impact on my Outlooks. I'm a fairly low-tech user - I'm not playing with
other devices or plug-ins or doing anything complicated. I'm mostly using
default set-ups and settings (Dell fabricated PC running Windows XP with
the
Office 2003 suite). The precise POP/SMTP settings for this account changed
about a year ago, but the problem I'm having is much more recent, so I'd
doubt there is a connection.

As for the backup I have, do you think re-synching the data with my
Blackberry after reloading from the backup might reintroduce the problem?
Any
thoughts on getting around that? Should I reload my RIM software that
drives
the Blackberry?

Thanks for all your help on this!