Emails still stuck in Outbox Outlook 2007 SP2

S

scorpionleather

Emails still keep getting stuck in the Outbox in Outlook 2007 SP2. When is
Microsoft ever going to fix this bug? In the past I've always heard it
blamed on plug-ins but my install is very clean (minimal software installed
on this computer). If I exit Outlook completely and then restart, then the
email will send. I'm using an IMAP account. If there is some interaction
with some stealthy plug-in causing this, then Microsoft should be able to
issue a patch to detect proper use/timing of the send queue... at least
display an error or something.
 
G

Gordon

scorpionleather said:
Emails still keep getting stuck in the Outbox in Outlook 2007 SP2. When
is Microsoft ever going to fix this bug?

Not a bug here.......
In the past I've always heard it blamed on plug-ins but my install is very
clean (minimal software installed on this computer). If I exit Outlook
completely and then restart, then the email will send. I'm using an IMAP
account.

So am I. Two of them. And I have no trouble sending messages immediately....
 
D

DL

All fine here also.
So what pluggins are shown in Outlook Trust Centre?
And what time setting do you have set for mail polling?
 
S

scorpionleather

DL said:
All fine here also.
So what pluggins are shown in Outlook Trust Centre?
And what time setting do you have set for mail polling?

Almost all plugins are Microsoft provided except for Adobe PDFMaker and
iTunes. Are either of these very common apps known to cause this bug?

Send/receive is set to 5 minutes (which should be a reasonable time to
wait).

I would suggest to Microsoft to monitor the Outbox and detect when a message
is stuck. It should try to detect which plug-in (if any) has frozen up the
outgoing message. This is a very common problem many people encounter and
most (including mine) go unsolved.
 
S

scorpionleather

After unregistering the Apple OutlookChangeNotifier plug-in that gets
installed with iTunes, Outlook seems snappier starting up and exiting. I
wonder if Apple is messing up Outlook.

Microsoft should prevent Outlook plug-ins from silently installing! When I
install something like iTunes or Adobe Acrobat it never shows me a checkbox
about modifying Outlook. Why does Microsoft allow third party apps to
mangle up the email app?
 
G

Gordon

scorpionleather said:
Send/receive is set to 5 minutes (which should be a reasonable time to
wait).

Actually no it's not. That may not be sufficient time for the various
packets to be received and sent by your mail server. Try setting the
polling time to 10 minutes (Outlook Default setting) and see if that helps.
 
D

DL

MS has been taken to court / investigated over monopoly alligations, if they
prevented third party apps from installing then doubtless further court /
investigations would be instigated by these third parties
 
B

Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]

Almost all plugins are Microsoft provided except for Adobe PDFMaker and
iTunes. Are either of these very common apps known to cause this bug?

Both are known to interact badly with Outlook in various ways, particularly
iTunes. If you do not sync your iPod or iPhone with Outlook, then uninstall
the add-in and see if that helps the problem.
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

I've had several reports that outlookchangenotifier is a problem (it also
prevents desktop alerts from working). It's apparently not needed unless you
use the mobile me service but is installed anyway (or so I was told - I don't
have any iToys to confirm.)




--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Let's Really Fix Outlook 2010
http://forums.slipstick.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34
 
S

scorpionleather

...thanks, Is there any way I can "block" future third party add-ins from
installing into Outlook? For example when I update iTunes or allow the
Adobe auto-update, I don't want these add-ins to silently re-install.

Vista pops up the UAC dialog all the time to help contain rogue
applications, so why couldn't there be another dialog that detects the
mutilation of Office apps and asks the user whether they want to allow an
add-in or not..
 
B

Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]

..thanks, Is there any way I can "block" future third party add-ins from
installing into Outlook? For example when I update iTunes or allow the
Adobe auto-update, I don't want these add-ins to silently re-install.

I distinctly recall being able to disable the installation of the iTunes
add-in when I installed iTunes. I've never had Adobe Acrobat, so I don't know
about that.
 
S

scorpionleather

I know that most, if not all, of these applications never provided me with
checkboxes during installation to create Outlook add-ins. I would be sure
to uncheck them, but instead they just silently mangled Outlook.

This kind of paratism should be put to an end by Microsoft. This may be a
part of the security team's interest. If one application is embedding
itself within some other application, there should be a warning dialog
similar to UAC.

Otherwise if Microsoft doesn't do that security enhancement, then they
should not be surprised when Microsoft is blamed for things like mail stuck
in the outbox..
 
B

Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]

I know that most, if not all, of these applications never provided me with
checkboxes during installation to create Outlook add-ins. I would be sure to
uncheck them, but instead they just silently mangled Outlook.

Maybe it's because I always perform custom installs whenever the option of
such is given. It could be that's where I saw the option for iTunes.
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

Unfortunately, there isn't a way to prevent it. It's usually not a problem
as most of the time its obvious that you are installing something that works
with outlook. iTunes is the sneaky one since people install it for music
without realizing it can sync calendar and contacts on ipods too. (It may
be an option but half the time people hit ok automatically without reading
the dialog.) Other sneaky addins are preinstalled (like Dell's
outlookaddin.)

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Let's Really Fix Outlook 2010
http://forums.slipstick.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34
 
S

scorpionleather

I work in the IT industry. I always choose "Advanced" on all installs to
keep my system clean and uncheck all the unecessary tag-alongs. Yet these
add-ins snuck past me. So just imagine, the add-ins are there for all the
rest of the general public too. So Microsoft should implement stronger
security to prevent application parasitism.
 
S

scorpionleather

All this time we were blaming the third party add-ins.

However as I type this, there is an email stuck in the Outbox and all of the
add-ins (except for the Microsoft ones) have been removed.

So it may be a Microsoft bug after all.
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

What error message do you get on the send/receive? Did you try unchecking
the MS addins? Unless you use VBA macros or exchange server, you don't need
the extra addins.

Please include the previous message in the reply so everyone knows the
problem and things you've already replied.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Let's Really Fix Outlook 2010
http://forums.slipstick.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34
 
S

scorpionleather

Diane Poremsky said:
What error message do you get on the send/receive? Did you try unchecking
the MS addins? Unless you use VBA macros or exchange server, you don't
need the extra addins.

There is no error message at all. What happens is that after a few hours
goes by (or a day) I wonder why someone didn't reply to my email. Then I
notice, of course, the email is still in my Outbox! So I exit Outlook, and
then start it up again. Upon starting again, the email is finally sent. So
now I have a regular habit of restarting Outlook.

I haven't tried unchecking the Microsoft add-ins because I assume that
Microsoft can communicate within their departments to ensure that Microsoft
add-ins do not mangle their own Outlook product. However it appears that
this is a major Microsoft bug and there is no way for Microsoft to deny it,
they just have to fix it and then I won't have to restart Outlook all the
time.
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

It's not a major bug - if it were, many more people would have problems
sending mail. There are 2 common causes - an antivirus scanner scanning
outbound mail and setting the send/receive settings under 8 -10 min. ( or
pressing the send/receive button too frequently).

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Let's Really Fix Outlook 2010
http://forums.slipstick.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34
 
S

scorpionleather

Diane Poremsky said:
It's not a major bug - if it were, many more people would have problems
sending mail. There are 2 common causes - an antivirus scanner scanning
outbound mail and setting the send/receive settings under 8 -10 min. ( or
pressing the send/receive button too frequently).

With all respect and thanks for your help so far ... but ... I disagree.
This is a major bug and if you search Google there are hundreds (if not
thousands) of postings from people talking about the exact same problem. In
most of these postings there is never any resolution. Having email stuck in
such a core email application that is supposed to reliably send email is a
critical bug.
 

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