Does Imap operate OK in Outlook 2002?

[Simon]

Hello colleagues,

I have a Dual Core Processor, plenty of RAM and main memory (hard disk),
with Windows XP SP3, a Netgear PSTN router for broadband access and have
recently upgraded to IE8. Using Office XP (2002 applications) upgraded with
the Office 2007 compatibility downloads, the whole platform looks pretty
stable still.

However, I decided to abandon Outlook Express, although I love its big
button interface, and move to Outlook 2002 for its more integrated
functionality with Office and IE8 which is very helpful.

Within OE, I had implemented an IMAP protocol to access my AOL account.
Knowing how these things can go wrong, I manually recreated the same protocol
and account in OL2002, re-captured all folders, mail and contacts without any
problem.

However, several bizarre features are emerging:

1) I can't switch off the default to Personal Folders (Outlook Today) so
that I point at the Imap/AOL Inbox on start-up. Is this to be expected?

2) I've lost the big button facility that came with OE and can't find an
accessibility feature to increase button sizes in OL2002 (dimming eyesight
and visual-spatial co-ordination issues)

3) OL2002 does not configure a PURGE Button on its command bar in order to
complete the delete/erase imap email; you have to open Edit on the standard
tool bar to acquire this feature.

4) On first use, contact email addresses don't load automatically i.e.
OL2002 does not predict the email address as you type it out, nor offer a
choice if there is more than one email address for the recipient. This is
deeply annoying.

5) Most annoyingly, having sent a new email using the Imap/Aol account, the
email is stored as an Unread Item in the Sent Box with Header items such as
the recipient field and subject field blank and the Date Sent field showing
None. In addition, the email is shown as hosting an attachment (paperclip)
when none has been attached. All true header data is returned correctly as
well as the body text if/when I click on the email to change it to Read Item,
waiting for any period or signing out/in to OL2002 changes nothing by
comparison

AFAICT, there are no rules operating which are causing any of this and I
have run the repair wizard in Office XP with no change to the above.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to next steps?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

1) I can't switch off the default to Personal Folders (Outlook Today) so
that I point at the Imap/AOL Inbox on start-up. Is this to be expected?

Can you click Tools>Options>Other>Advanced options, click "Browse" to the
right of "Startup in this folder", and select the IMAP inbox?

2) I've lost the big button facility that came with OE and can't find an
accessibility feature to increase button sizes in OL2002 (dimming eyesight
and visual-spatial co-ordination issues)

Decreasing your screen's resolution should make everything larger.

3) OL2002 does not configure a PURGE Button on its command bar in order to
complete the delete/erase imap email; you have to open Edit on the standard
tool bar to acquire this feature.

Seelect any IMAP folder. Then right-click an empty area of the toolbar and
choose Customize. Select the Edit menu in the left pane. You should then see
"Purge Deleted Messages" in the right pane. Select it and drag it to a spot
on your toolbar. If you reference you non-IMAP folders, it will disappear
from the toolbar, but when you're in an IMAP folder, it will reappear.

4) On first use, contact email addresses don't load automatically i.e.
OL2002 does not predict the email address as you type it out, nor offer a
choice if there is more than one email address for the recipient. This is
deeply annoying.

Correct, but once you've resolved it, the autocompletion cache should remember
it. In OE, typing in the To field actually referenced the Windows Address
Book. Autocompletion in Outlook doesn't. It simply remembers the addresses
you've used. If you want to populate the autocompletion cache with all of the
addresses in your Contacts folder, open that folder, press Ctrl-A to select
all of your contacts, click Actions>New Message to Contact and when the new
message window opens, press Ctrl-K to resolve all the addresses. You can then
close the new message window without sending the mail.

5) Most annoyingly, having sent a new email using the Imap/Aol account, the
email is stored as an Unread Item in the Sent Box with Header items such as
the recipient field and subject field blank and the Date Sent field showing
None. In addition, the email is shown as hosting an attachment (paperclip)
when none has been attached. All true header data is returned correctly as
well as the body text if/when I click on the email to change it to Read
Item,
waiting for any period or signing out/in to OL2002 changes nothing by
comparison

Are you scanning outgoing messages with an antivirus scanner? If so,
uninstall the AV program and reinstall it without the mail scanning feature.
Scanning email can exhibit the symptoms you describe.

 

[Simon]

Brian,

Can you click Tools>Options>Other>Advanced options, click "Browse" to the
right of "Startup in this folder", and select the IMAP inbox?

No; imap.uk.aol.com/Inbox does not appear in the drop-down list, none of the
imap folders do but all of the Outlook folders are there. Is there a routing
problem here?

Decreasing your screen's resolution should make everything larger.

Yes, but rather hoped that this might be application specific; there is a
large icon switch somewhere but the design sends my eyeballs spinning. Your
solution works nevertheless.

Select any IMAP folder. Then right-click an empty area of the toolbar and
choose Customize. Select the Edit menu in the left pane. You should then see
"Purge Deleted Messages" in the right pane. Select it and drag it to a spot
on your toolbar. If you reference you non-IMAP folders, it will disappear
from the toolbar, but when you're in an IMAP folder, it will reappear.

Done; thanks.

Correct, but once you've resolved it, the autocompletion cache should remember
it. In OE, typing in the To field actually referenced the Windows Address
Book. Autocompletion in Outlook doesn't. It simply remembers the addresses
you've used. If you want to populate the autocompletion cache with all of the
addresses in your Contacts folder, open that folder, press Ctrl-A to select
all of your contacts, click Actions>New Message to Contact and when the new
message window opens, press Ctrl-K to resolve all the addresses. You can then
close the new message window without sending the mail.

Done, brilliant, thanks.

Are you scanning outgoing messages with an antivirus scanner? If so,
uninstall the AV program and reinstall it without the mail scanning feature.
Scanning email can exhibit the symptoms you describe.

I use Norton Symantec; I did what you suggested but it doesn't work which
leaves me rather relieved as you can guess. I would think that it's an
unacceptable solution anyway given the implicit insecurity of switching off
email scanning. Is there a fix besides a different AV app (I've just renewed
my sub!)?

Brian, you have been very helpful; perhaps I can ask one more question?

In OE, I was able to switch off the feature that automatically converts
Unread messages to Read after the cursor has skimmed them for a few seconds;
but in OL2002, I can't find the same switch. Any ideas?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

No; imap.uk.aol.com/Inbox does not appear in the drop-down list, none of the
imap folders do but all of the Outlook folders are there. Is there a routing
problem here?

Are you subscribed to the IMAP folders? What I described to you works just
fine for me.

I use Norton Symantec; I did what you suggested but it doesn't work which
leaves me rather relieved as you can guess. I would think that it's an
unacceptable solution anyway given the implicit insecurity of switching off
email scanning. Is there a fix besides a different AV app (I've just renewed
my sub!)?

There is absolutely NO risk entailed in not scanning your mail. You still
have your AV program installed and its on-access scanner running. IN order
for a mail-borne threat to affect your computer, it must run. First, your own
brain will tell you not to run attachments from within mail. Second, even if
you do, the attachment will have to be written to disk before it will run and
your AV program will catch it then. Third, your AV program can NEVER catch an
outbound virus. If you had one and your AV program knows how to detect it, it
already would have detected it before you ever composed the message.

In OE, I was able to switch off the feature that automatically converts
Unread messages to Read after the cursor has skimmed them for a few seconds;
but in OL2002, I can't find the same switch. Any ideas?

Right-click the gray border around the Preview pane. There should be an
Options item on the context menu. Select it and the options on when to flag a
message as read will be available. Adjust them as you please.

 

[Simon]

No; imap.uk.aol.com/Inbox does not appear in the drop-down list, none of the

Are you subscribed to the IMAP folders? What I described to you works just
fine for me.

Yes, all the imap folders are in the subscriber list accessed at Tools/Imap
Folders/Query. I can't point directly at imap.uk.aol.com/inbox on start-up
still.

There is absolutely NO risk entailed in not scanning your mail. You still
have your AV program installed and its on-access scanner running. IN order
for a mail-borne threat to affect your computer, it must run. First, your own
brain will tell you not to run attachments from within mail. Second, even if
you do, the attachment will have to be written to disk before it will run and
your AV program will catch it then. Third, your AV program can NEVER catch an
outbound virus. If you had one and your AV program knows how to detect it, it
already would have detected it before you ever composed the message.

Well, yes, we all hope that any incoming threat is detected by the AV before
it gets written to disk if by some error the threat gets an opportunity
(opening dodgy attachments inadvertently) to implement; email scanning is a
further protection feature as it is supposed to detect the threat presence
before the opportunity presents. Outgoing email which is compromised is
difficult conceptually but presumably means that the AV has failed somewhere
in the workflow.

I wish your suggestion had worked however as I still have this header
absence issue. I have checked all the email download settings and they seem
fine. The Imap Sent mail is still losing the recipient field, subject field
and date field.

Right-click the gray border around the Preview pane. There should be an
Options item on the context menu. Select it and the options on when to flag a
message as read will be available. Adjust them as you please.

Thanks, done, excellent.

Your suggestion for loading the contact addresses into the autocomplete
cache worked (Control-A/Control-K) but seems that the instruction isn't
retained by OL2002 as I had to re-implement the fix when starting up for the
first time this AM.
Any ideas?

 

[Jon]

"There is absolutely NO risk entailed in not scanning your mail"
What if there's some script in the email message itself, which is not an attachment. Would the
on-access AV scanning catch this?

"your own brain will tell you not to run attachments from within mail"
Why is running an attachment from within mail any worse than saving it as a file then running it?
You've made it clear that the AV on-access scanning would catch a virus in both cases.

 

[Simon]

"There is absolutely NO risk entailed in not scanning your mail"
What if there's some script in the email message itself, which is not an attachment. Would the
on-access AV scanning catch this?

"your own brain will tell you not to run attachments from within mail"
Why is running an attachment from within mail any worse than saving it as a file then running it?
You've made it clear that the AV on-access scanning would catch a virus in both cases.

This thread is really about OL2002 and IMAP issues, not about AV semantics.
I'm really interested insolving the probs previously indicated.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Well, yes, we all hope that any incoming threat is detected by the AV before
it gets written to disk

There's no hoping involved. NOTHING can start execution unless loaded from
disk. Period.

if by some error the threat gets an opportunity
(opening dodgy attachments inadvertently) to implement; email scanning is a
further protection feature as it is supposed to detect the threat presence
before the opportunity presents.

Your own common sense is a bett AV program than any mail scanner. 1) Never
open an unsolicted attachment, even if it appears to some from somone you
know. Simply delete the message immediately. 2) If the message contains an
attachment you requested and the message appears to come from the person from
whom you requested it, save the attachment to disk so your AV program can
examine it.

Following these two rules will keep you 100% safe.

Outgoing email which is compromised is
difficult conceptually but presumably means that the AV has failed somewhere
in the workflow.

And if it failed to detect it on disk, it will fail when it's in an outbound
message because, clearly, the AV program can't detect that particular threat.

I wish your suggestion had worked however as I still have this header
absence issue. I have checked all the email download settings and they seem
fine. The Imap Sent mail is still losing the recipient field, subject field
and date field.

What IMAP service are you using and how have you defined the account settings?

Your suggestion for loading the contact addresses into the autocomplete
cache worked (Control-A/Control-K) but seems that the instruction isn't
retained by OL2002 as I had to re-implement the fix when starting up for the
first time this AM.
Any ideas?

That's an indication that your mail profile is damaged. Create a new one,
point it at your existing default PST and add in the IMAP account again. It
could be that this may also repair the missing header issue (although it may
not, too).

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

"There is absolutely NO risk entailed in not scanning your mail"
What if there's some script in the email message itself, which is not an
attachment. Would the
on-access AV scanning catch this?

Outlook doesn't run scripts in messages if you leave it configured to use the
Restricted network zone.

 

[Simon]

Hello Brian,

A week later, I've been rather busy with other things so would like to
resume this thread?

What IMAP service are you using and how have you defined the account settings?

I think you mean who is my provider? It's AOL and my account settings are:

incoming imap.uk.aol.com
outgoing smtp.uk.aol.com

with the Secure Password Authentication box unticked

That's an indication that your mail profile is damaged. Create a new one,
point it at your existing default PST and add in the IMAP account again. It
could be that this may also repair the missing header issue (although it may
not, too).

I am not sure what you mean here; when configuring OL2002, I simply created
a POP3 account initially within Outlook; and then added in an IMAP account
(settings above) making it the default inbox.

If you mean me to start again,

1) Should I delete the old POP3 and IMAP accounts before creating new
accounts?

2) where do I find and then "point to" the .PST file with the new Outlook?

Just slightly confused about process when consulting Outlook Help as well.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I am not sure what you mean here;

What I mean is this: http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/newprofile.htm

when configuring OL2002, I simply created
a POP3 account initially within Outlook; and then added in an IMAP account
(settings above) making it the default inbox.

You can't make an IMAP Inbox the "default". You can certainly make the IMAP
account the default account, which means that when you create a new message,
that account will be used to send it, but the default Inbox will always be the
Inbox in the delivery location PST, where "Outlook Today" is the root. This
is the PST used by the POP account.

If you mean me to start again,

1) Should I delete the old POP3 and IMAP accounts before creating new
accounts?

Don't touch the existing mail profile containing these accounts. Use the Mail
applet in Control Panel to create a completely new profile. Don't copy the
existing profile.

2) where do I find and then "point to" the .PST file with the new Outlook?

Just slightly confused about process when consulting Outlook Help as well.

I think the page whose URL I supplied will go a long way toward alleviating
the confusion.

 

[Simon]

I think the page whose URL I supplied will go a long way toward alleviating
the confusion.

Ok, i'll have a go at this; meantime, I'm now having a great deal of
trouble sending AOL email within Outlook and downloading headers, messages
and attachments. This has happened since I downloaded IE8 but is probably
more attributable to poor service from the ISP. I get a time-out message
asking me to wait for a further 60s while the PC connects to the IMAP server
presumably to establish a connection to allow the SMTP protocol to work? POP3
seems to work well however using the same ISP.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I get a time-out message
asking me to wait for a further 60s while the PC connects to the IMAP server
presumably to establish a connection to allow the SMTP protocol to work?
POP3
seems to work well however using the same ISP.

Try lengthening your server timeout value. it will be on the Advanced tab of
your account properties.