Outlook Connector Synchronization and Blank Email Problems

[wjb]

Hi,

I'm having a couple of problems since installing Outlook Connector. I'm
running Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 with IE8 and Office 2007 Ultimate.

Prior to installing Outlook Connector, Outlook and Hotmail were always
synchronized. If I deleted an email from Outlook or moved it to a local
folder, the email was removed from the Hotmail Inbox on the Hotmail server.
Since installing Outlook Connector, this does not happen anymore. I have to
remember to physically delete and clean up the emails o the server by
logging in to Hotmail via IE.
Recently, I noticed that many of my emails suddenly become blank. The text,
Subject, Date, etc. are all blanked out except for the Sender which is set
to "None". All such emails are still on the server and are accessible
directly via IE. One noteworthy change is that I recently changed my cell
phone to a BlackBerry Tour 9630 and set up my Hotmail account on the Tour.
However, I only ever delete emails from the "Handheld", never the server,
and, as mentioned above, the emails are still on the server. Even more
bizarre, I have refrained from deleting emails on the Tour, period. Still
emails got blanked out.

The questions are: (1) How can I keep the server and Outlook synchronized;
and (2) How can I prevent this random blanking of some emails?

Thanks very much.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

I'm having a couple of problems since installing Outlook Connector. I'm
running Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 with IE8 and Office 2007 Ultimate.

Prior to installing Outlook Connector, Outlook and Hotmail were always
synchronized. If I deleted an email from Outlook or moved it to a local
folder, the email was removed from the Hotmail Inbox on the Hotmail server.
Since installing Outlook Connector, this does not happen anymore. I have to
remember to physically delete and clean up the emails o the server by
logging in to Hotmail via IE.

Something is wrong with what you say here. Outlook without the Outlook
Connector has not been able to access Hotmail in the way you describe since
September 1, 2009. If you are able to move folders and messages around in
Outlook and the result is reflected on Hotmail, then you MUST be using the
Outlook Connector already.

Recently, I noticed that many of my emails suddenly become blank. The text,
Subject, Date, etc. are all blanked out except for the Sender which is set
to "None". All such emails are still on the server and are accessible
directly via IE. One noteworthy change is that I recently changed my cell
phone to a BlackBerry Tour 9630 and set up my Hotmail account on the Tour.
However, I only ever delete emails from the "Handheld", never the server,
and, as mentioned above, the emails are still on the server. Even more
bizarre, I have refrained from deleting emails on the Tour, period. Still
emails got blanked out.

I don't know of any way for Blackberries to access Hotmail except via POP, but
then, I don't use a Blackberry. How do you define the Hotmail account on the
Blackberry?

 

[wjb]

Sorry about the confusion. What I meant by 'Prior to installing Outlook
Connector" actually refers to the period before September 1, 2009. I just
wanted to describe one of the changes observed when I started using Outlook
Connector. as far as the BlackBerry is concerned, recently I received a
notification from RIM that I needed to remove my Hotmail access from the
Tour, then re-activate it again to move it to POP, which I successfully did.
However, my observation last night, I think, absolves the BlackBerry since
emails that I only viewed through the BlackBerry, but did not delete, not
even on the Handheld only, still ended up being blanked out.

Even then, the problem could be made much less of a nuisance if, while
emails are still on the Hotmail server, I were able to "re-synchronize" my
Outlook client with the Hotmail server. As it stands, the synchronization
only occurs when emails are first retrieved. If any damage happens to them
within Outlook, then there appears to be no way to rectify that. Or is
there? That is the crux of the question.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Are you using an antivirus scanner on your email?

I can't repro the blank message problem, but someone else thinks its related
to moving the messages - when you move the messages to a local, they aren't
properly deleted from online. His blank messages seem to match the ones he
moved.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

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

Do you sync your mailbox with a smartphone or pda?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=39473

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

Sorry about the confusion. What I meant by 'Prior to installing Outlook
Connector" actually refers to the period before September 1, 2009. I just
wanted to describe one of the changes observed when I started using Outlook
Connector. as far as the BlackBerry is concerned, recently I received a
notification from RIM that I needed to remove my Hotmail access from the
Tour, then re-activate it again to move it to POP, which I successfully did.
However, my observation last night, I think, absolves the BlackBerry since
emails that I only viewed through the BlackBerry, but did not delete, not
even on the Handheld only, still ended up being blanked out.

Even then, the problem could be made much less of a nuisance if, while
emails are still on the Hotmail server, I were able to "re-synchronize" my
Outlook client with the Hotmail server. As it stands, the synchronization
only occurs when emails are first retrieved. If any damage happens to them
within Outlook, then there appears to be no way to rectify that. Or is
there? That is the crux of the question.

When using the Outlook Connector, Outlook and Hotmail will synchronize at each
send/receive event. This is a two-way sync, so changes you make either online
or in Outlook will show up in both places the next time a send/receive occurs.

I'm using the Outlook Connector 14 beta. Give htat a try to see if it behaves
any better.
http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/archive/2009/12/04/announcing-the-outlook-hotmail-connector-beta.aspx

 

[wjb]

That might be it. I haven't quite related it to the moved emails, but I'll
check going forward and will post an update depending on my findings so
others can benefit.

Are you using an antivirus scanner on your email?

I can't repro the blank message problem, but someone else thinks its
related to moving the messages - when you move the messages to a local,
they aren't properly deleted from online. His blank messages seem to match
the ones he moved.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

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

Do you sync your mailbox with a smartphone or pda?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=39473

Hi,

I'm having a couple of problems since installing Outlook Connector. I'm
running Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 with IE8 and Office 2007 Ultimate.

Prior to installing Outlook Connector, Outlook and Hotmail were always
synchronized. If I deleted an email from Outlook or moved it to a local
folder, the email was removed from the Hotmail Inbox on the Hotmail
server.
Since installing Outlook Connector, this does not happen anymore. I have
to
remember to physically delete and clean up the emails o the server by
logging in to Hotmail via IE.
Recently, I noticed that many of my emails suddenly become blank. The
text,
Subject, Date, etc. are all blanked out except for the Sender which is
set
to "None". All such emails are still on the server and are accessible
directly via IE. One noteworthy change is that I recently changed my cell
phone to a BlackBerry Tour 9630 and set up my Hotmail account on the
Tour.
However, I only ever delete emails from the "Handheld", never the server,
and, as mentioned above, the emails are still on the server. Even more
bizarre, I have refrained from deleting emails on the Tour, period. Still
emails got blanked out.

The questions are: (1) How can I keep the server and Outlook
synchronized;
and (2) How can I prevent this random blanking of some emails?

Thanks very much.

 

[wjb]

Do you know of anyway that I can be able to retrieve these emails. I tried
to forward them to myself again hoping that there was still a clean copy on
the server. Didn't work, not that I really expected it to.

Are you using an antivirus scanner on your email?

I can't repro the blank message problem, but someone else thinks its
related to moving the messages - when you move the messages to a local,
they aren't properly deleted from online. His blank messages seem to match
the ones he moved.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

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

Do you sync your mailbox with a smartphone or pda?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=39473

Hi,

I'm having a couple of problems since installing Outlook Connector. I'm
running Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 with IE8 and Office 2007 Ultimate.

Prior to installing Outlook Connector, Outlook and Hotmail were always
synchronized. If I deleted an email from Outlook or moved it to a local
folder, the email was removed from the Hotmail Inbox on the Hotmail
server.
Since installing Outlook Connector, this does not happen anymore. I have
to
remember to physically delete and clean up the emails o the server by
logging in to Hotmail via IE.
Recently, I noticed that many of my emails suddenly become blank. The
text,
Subject, Date, etc. are all blanked out except for the Sender which is
set
to "None". All such emails are still on the server and are accessible
directly via IE. One noteworthy change is that I recently changed my cell
phone to a BlackBerry Tour 9630 and set up my Hotmail account on the
Tour.
However, I only ever delete emails from the "Handheld", never the server,
and, as mentioned above, the emails are still on the server. Even more
bizarre, I have refrained from deleting emails on the Tour, period. Still
emails got blanked out.

The questions are: (1) How can I keep the server and Outlook
synchronized;
and (2) How can I prevent this random blanking of some emails?

Thanks very much.

 

[John Steiner]

I was having the same problem, only my blank emails were only showing up in
my Deleted folder. I also run Norton 360 and have turned it off.

I was making one attempted fix a day to see what seemed to fix the problem.
While I am not yet certain that it is permanently fixed the last last thing
that I did was to upgrade to the new beta of Outlook Connector. That seemed
to fix it because it has been 36 hours since the last time I had a bunch of
emails show in the deleted box and it had previously been an issue that
occurred every 24 hours.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Are you forwarding from outlook or by logging into the account online?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

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

Do you sync your mailbox with a smartphone or pda?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=39473

Do you know of anyway that I can be able to retrieve these emails. I tried
to forward them to myself again hoping that there was still a clean copy
on the server. Didn't work, not that I really expected it to.

Are you using an antivirus scanner on your email?

I can't repro the blank message problem, but someone else thinks its
related to moving the messages - when you move the messages to a local,
they aren't properly deleted from online. His blank messages seem to
match the ones he moved.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

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

Do you sync your mailbox with a smartphone or pda?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=39473

Hi,

I'm having a couple of problems since installing Outlook Connector. I'm
running Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 with IE8 and Office 2007 Ultimate.

Prior to installing Outlook Connector, Outlook and Hotmail were always
synchronized. If I deleted an email from Outlook or moved it to a local
folder, the email was removed from the Hotmail Inbox on the Hotmail
server.
Since installing Outlook Connector, this does not happen anymore. I have
to
remember to physically delete and clean up the emails o the server by
logging in to Hotmail via IE.
Recently, I noticed that many of my emails suddenly become blank. The
text,
Subject, Date, etc. are all blanked out except for the Sender which is
set
to "None". All such emails are still on the server and are accessible
directly via IE. One noteworthy change is that I recently changed my
cell
phone to a BlackBerry Tour 9630 and set up my Hotmail account on the
Tour.
However, I only ever delete emails from the "Handheld", never the
server,
and, as mentioned above, the emails are still on the server. Even more
bizarre, I have refrained from deleting emails on the Tour, period.
Still
emails got blanked out.

The questions are: (1) How can I keep the server and Outlook
synchronized;
and (2) How can I prevent this random blanking of some emails?

Thanks very much.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

I was having the same problem, only my blank emails were only showing up in
my Deleted folder. I also run Norton 360 and have turned it off.

I was making one attempted fix a day to see what seemed to fix the problem.
While I am not yet certain that it is permanently fixed the last last thing
that I did was to upgrade to the new beta of Outlook Connector. That seemed
to fix it because it has been 36 hours since the last time I had a bunch of
emails show in the deleted box and it had previously been an issue that
occurred every 24 hours.

My personal opinion is that Microsoft did something on the MSN/Hotmail servers
because a LOT of people have been complaining about the blank message issue.