Blank Reading Pane

[Ray]

Please tell me someone else is having the same problem. I have seen the posts about email virus scanning and have
eliminated that as a probable cause.

Windows Server 2003-Exchange Server 2003
Happens randomly
Outlook 2003 or 2007 (Mostly 2007)
Outook view set to AutoPreview

Message is received
Message Notification pops up from system tray displaying part of message body
In the AutoPreview pane, message appears and beginning of message body is displayed
Single Click message - Reading pane body is blank
Double click message to fully open it - Message body is blank

Log into web server and open message through web client - The message body is displayed.

There doesn't appear to be a rhyme or reason for the randomness. If Bob Helen and David are in the same office in the
same business and all send an email with a cc to the guy next to me, I may get Bob's and Helen's fine, but David's might
be blank. However, the guy next to me may get them all fine - or any number of them blank.

Two more things -
1. Chances are that if I get David's blank this time - it will be blank next time as well
2. I can't recall this happening within our organization, just on mail from outside.


Does this ring a bell with anyone. We're beginning to get desparate...
Thanks
Ray

 

[Nikki Peterson]

There is an OLD issue that involved IE 6 and Windows 98 operating
system.

Could be a font issue. You do not have the FONT used by the sender.

Could be a format issue. You are not viewing the HTML page completely,
and the black background and white font are messing with you.

Could be that you have an anti-virus checker that is working overtime on
your email. I personally do not use anti-virus on my email. I only use it
for my computer. This is sufficient.

Nikki

Please tell me someone else is having the same problem. I have seen the
posts about email virus scanning and have
eliminated that as a probable cause.

Windows Server 2003-Exchange Server 2003
Happens randomly
Outlook 2003 or 2007 (Mostly 2007)
Outook view set to AutoPreview

Message is received
Message Notification pops up from system tray displaying part of message
body
In the AutoPreview pane, message appears and beginning of message body is
displayed
Single Click message - Reading pane body is blank
Double click message to fully open it - Message body is blank

Log into web server and open message through web client - The message body
is displayed.

There doesn't appear to be a rhyme or reason for the randomness. If Bob
Helen and David are in the same office in the
same business and all send an email with a cc to the guy next to me, I may
get Bob's and Helen's fine, but David's might
be blank. However, the guy next to me may get them all fine - or any number
of them blank.

Two more things -
1. Chances are that if I get David's blank this time - it will be blank next
time as well
2. I can't recall this happening within our organization, just on mail from
outside.


Does this ring a bell with anyone. We're beginning to get desparate...
Thanks
Ray

 

[Ray]

I'm so glad I got at least 1 response... Ok...to address these...

The computer is on WinXP-Pro sp3 and IE7
The virus checker is disabled completely and still getting the problem...

As far as the other 2 go. We are an elementary school. We have form on a page on our website that allows kids to answer
a brain teaser question- so they all would have the exact same settings, fonts, etc. Some of these come through fine,
some have missing bodies...

I'm completely stumped - which is not good since I'm the one everyone is depending on to solve the problem. I'm
searching for a way to MAKE it happen - then maybe I can find a way to prevent it...

Do you have any other suggestions for what I can check, test, etc?
Ray

P.S.
Thank you so much for your response. This is about the 6th time in the last 4 months I have posted this question and I
usually get a "disable your antivirus" response and then all goes silent. I don't know if everyone is simply seeing the
"blank emal" statement and not reading anything else or if truly no one else has a clue. For sure - no one else has
jumped in and said they have the same problem. Maybe I'm posting this in the wrong group -- Thanks Again.

 

[Nikki Peterson]

I need to understand a bit more. Is it a Web Page that someone
clicks a button and then it sends an email to the desired address?

Nikki

I'm so glad I got at least 1 response... Ok...to address these...

The computer is on WinXP-Pro sp3 and IE7
The virus checker is disabled completely and still getting the problem...

As far as the other 2 go. We are an elementary school. We have form on a
page on our website that allows kids to answer
a brain teaser question- so they all would have the exact same settings,
fonts, etc. Some of these come through fine,
some have missing bodies...

I'm completely stumped - which is not good since I'm the one everyone is
depending on to solve the problem. I'm
searching for a way to MAKE it happen - then maybe I can find a way to
prevent it...

Do you have any other suggestions for what I can check, test, etc?
Ray

P.S.
Thank you so much for your response. This is about the 6th time in the last
4 months I have posted this question and I
usually get a "disable your antivirus" response and then all goes silent. I
don't know if everyone is simply seeing the
"blank emal" statement and not reading anything else or if truly no one else
has a clue. For sure - no one else has
jumped in and said they have the same problem. Maybe I'm posting this in
the wrong group -- Thanks Again.

 

[Trudi Tucker]

I'm having the same problem that began only two days ago. I'm running Outlook
Express v6 on my home PC. All emails that arrive will display header and
subject information but the body content appears blank, in both preview pane
and when opening the message into its own window.

I'd appreciate resolution suggestions as I've not applied any patches or
changed any option / configuration settings.

Thanks in advance!
Trudi

 

[Nikki Peterson]

This group is focused on Microsoft Outlook which is different from
Outlook Express. However, the links below should get you where
you need to be.

Differences between Outlook and Outlook Express
http://ask.support.microsoft.com/kb/257824/EN-US/

A good source of Outlook Express info can be found here:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/

For Outlook Express (OE) support:
http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...px?dg=microsoft.public.outlookexpress.general

Nikki Peterson

I'm having the same problem that began only two days ago. I'm running
Outlook
Express v6 on my home PC. All emails that arrive will display header and
subject information but the body content appears blank, in both preview pane
and when opening the message into its own window.

I'd appreciate resolution suggestions as I've not applied any patches or
changed any option / configuration settings.

Thanks in advance!
Trudi

 

[Ray]

Nikki - Thank you for sticking with me...
I hope you understand - this happens on mail from anywere - from hotmail, google, yahoo, Lotus Notes, etc..

The specific example I quoted there was to answer concerning your statement about it possibly being a font issue or a
format issue. Yes - in this example - the children fill in fields on a web page and click a submit button. The mail is
sent by the web server - so it should have the same format and fonts every time.

Please ask more questions - I might eventually discover something I haven't thought of yet.

Thank you thank you....
Ray

 

[Trudi Tucker]

My apologies & thanks for the links Nikki!
Trudi

This group is focused on Microsoft Outlook which is different from
Outlook Express. However, the links below should get you where
you need to be.

Differences between Outlook and Outlook Express
http://ask.support.microsoft.com/kb/257824/EN-US/

A good source of Outlook Express info can be found here:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/

For Outlook Express (OE) support:
http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...px?dg=microsoft.public.outlookexpress.general

Nikki Peterson

I'm having the same problem that began only two days ago. I'm running
Outlook
Express v6 on my home PC. All emails that arrive will display header and
subject information but the body content appears blank, in both preview pane
and when opening the message into its own window.

I'd appreciate resolution suggestions as I've not applied any patches or
changed any option / configuration settings.

Thanks in advance!
Trudi

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

The virus checker is disabled completely and still getting the problem...

For some antivirus programs is it necessary to completely uninstall the
program and reinstall it without the mail scanner. Simply disabling it may
not be enough.

 

[Ray]

I could understand how the body could be removed from the email by a virus checker - but did you read the part about how
the message is still available through web access, and when AutoPreview is enabled? If the virus checker removed the
body, shouldn't it be gone - not just invisible momentarily?

Thanks... Still just searching for an answer... I will try uninstalling the software anyway.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I could understand how the body could be removed from the email by a virus
checker - but did
you read the part about how the message is still available through web
access, and when
AutoPreview is enabled? If the virus checker removed the body, shouldn't
it be gone - not just
invisible momentarily?

Most HTML-encoding mail clients create multipart MIME messages with two
parts: the HTML part and the exact same message in Plain Text (although the
two parts really don't have to contain the same thing). HTML-enabled mail
clients display the HTML part and non-HTML-enabled clients show the Plain
Text part. AutoPreview shows the Plain Text part. Web access renders via a
full-function web browser, which is often much more forgiving of malformed
HTML than is a mail client, so it may also show the message. Moreover, a
mail scanner works on the client side, so what a client presents and what's
on the server may not agree if, in fact, the process is affected by the
scanner. It could also be font or character encoding settings on the local
PC or in Outlook.

 

[Ray]

Do you have any direction you can point me in trying to determine said cause???

I can tell you this - If I forward a blank email anywhere - it's always blank when it's received.

Also - I was under the impression from another post I read a couple of months ago that if the virus checker mangled the
message, then the content would be permanantly lost - so I thought since we could still read the messages via web, it
was ruling out the virus checker..

Could a firewall with virus detecting capabilities also cause this???

If I created another account on a separate computer, one without any antivirus or antispam software, would you think an
existing blank message would stay blank - or should it display the body... (this is provided it was the scanner causing
the problems)

Also - based on the HTML vs Plain Text content, would a text only email client display the message?

Thank you so much for all your assistance...
Ray

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Could a firewall with virus detecting capabilities also cause this???

Sure. Anything that wedges itself between Outlook and the mail server can
interfere.

If I created another account on a separate computer, one without any
antivirus or antispam
software, would you think an existing blank message would stay blank

I'd expect it to stay blank, but it depends on where the message gets
altered.

Also - based on the HTML vs Plain Text content, would a text only email
client display the message?

I don't know.