Exchange 2003/ 2007 emails coming in blank, but text appears ifforwarded

[QH]

We have two email servers, one that is Exchange 2003 and another which
have just 30 users on that is on Exchange 2007 (we hope to migrate the
rest of the 2003 users on to it). These are backend servers, but all
emails within our company are delivered by one of two hub-client
servers (both of which are Exchange 2007). We have this weird problem
where occasionally people get messages sent to them which appear
entirely blank, but if they then forward them, the text becomes
visible. It appears that something is playing with the formatting of
emails, and I am not sure what. Sometimes we have found that when a
problem email has multiple recipients in the office, some people can
read it fine, while others have it blank. I thought it might be to
what the email format option is set to within Outlook, but when I have
changed the email format to something else (rtf, plain text, html and
even selecting word as email editor), it does not make the text in the
apparently blank email appear. Has anyone else had this problem, and
if so what is the fix?

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

It sounds like the message is munged - hitting Forward allows Outlook to
rewrite the message and fix the problem. Does it happen with specific
senders or randomly? (There was a known issue with Outlook 2003 and mail
sent from a Mac.)

What version of Outlook? Do you have the latest updates installed for
Outlook and Exchange?

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Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

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[John Oliver, Jr. [MVP]]

Yes, does this happen with specific emails (internal and/or external)? I
have seen this issue once before and it was actually related to the users
workstation profile. Recreated the profile and everything worked again.

 

[QH]

It happens with both internal and external users. When you suggest to
recreate profiles, would that be of the person sending the email or
the one that receives it? I am uncertain where it gets corrupted.

QH

 

[John Oliver, Jr. [MVP]]

Is any program/software scanning your email? More specific, AV software
device? I would look at what devices/software actually touch the message
before it reaches Exchange. Eliminate them as a possible cause first. I
would also run ExBPA on your Exchange Server to insure its running without
issue. Also, when the mails are blank, does this occur also in OWA as well
as Outlook?