Re: Outlook11 Fetching mail (POP) then destroying it -- serious problem

From: ///Matt (SpammersDieSlowly_at_MyHand.tld)
Date: 01/18/05 

Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 13:43:16 -0800

A solid workaround - creating a from-scratch 'delivery profile' did
the trick. Now we'll pour through the server logs to see which mail
was tossed into the singularity.

Microsoft: Feature request: Check for this condition (e.g. generate
error if delivery PST cannot be resolved; generate warning if delivery
PST is not currently open). That's a very dangerous bug, and worth of
a few lines of 'checkup code.

Thanks,
-///Matt

"neo [mvp outlook]" <neo@online.mvps.org> wrote in message
news:OlQFUAW$EHA.4028@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> The only time I have seen Outlook (any version) toss mail into the
> proverbial black hole is when Outlook couldn't figure out what the
> default delivery location is. What I would try is creating a new
> profile via the mail applet in the control panel (don't copy the
> existing one) and delete the old one. When creating this new mail
> profile, create a new PST while you are at it. At the very least,
> you can run the Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe) against the old one
> to rule out minor corruption.
>
> Outside of that, do you have any type of 3rd party
> applications/addins or internet security products that can scan
> e-mail in real-time? If so, consider disabling while
> troubleshooting. This will really help isolate if it is an Outlook
> 2003 thing or something external to Outlook that is influencing the
> behavior.
>
>
> "///Matt" <SpammersDieSlowly@MyHand.tld> wrote in message
> news:ujnW5QV$EHA.600@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>> One installation of Outlook (from Office11) has chosen to retrieve
>> mail from all configured accounts (6), and place it... nowhere.
>> This
>> is a new behavior, exhibited on a three-month-old installation.
>> The
>> result is that inbound messages are lost, and since the server did
>> it's job, the sender has no way of knowing the message was
>> destroyed.
>> This is an alarming and expensive behavior. So far, Office11
>> hasn't
>> been a particularly buggy package, but quality seems to be making
>> up
>> for quantity in that regard.
>>
>> Things we have already tried:
>> * Deleting and recreating two test accounts -- their inbound mail
>> was
>> still destroyed.
>> * Assuring the "deliver mail to" settings are correct (it would not
>> have surprised me to find an invalid Send To setting being honored
>> without generating an error).
>> * Using the installers "repair" function (not sure it did anything)
>> * Reviewing the mail server's logs, and even packet sniffing the
>> POP
>> sessions to confirm the mail is being fetched and not eaten by the
>> server; this confirmed that the mail server is not the problem.
>> * Sending test messages, then searching the PST files for keywords
>> from them (using non-encrypted non-compressed PSTs of course) --
>> they
>> were not to be found. I don't know if it should, but the PST files
>> did not change size after test messages were eaten.
>> * Scanning all local hard drives at the sector level for phrases
>> embedded in test messages (write cache disabled) -- not fast on
>> 0.5TB
>> drives -- offered no help.
>> * Disabling all but TCP/POP3 access off the machine, to assure the
>> messages weren't being saved to some network path.
>> * Assured there are no "macros" at all, let alone any which would
>> divert incoming mail (at least the UI says there aren't any, and I
>> know of no other way to check).
>>
>> Complete removal and reinstallation of Outlook would be a last
>> resort,
>> because A) it's inability to isolate and save it's settings makes
>> setting up this installation a multi-hour process, and B) the
>> registry
>> settings are never properly cleared, and doing so manually usually
>> throws the rest of Office into a tizzy (a true reinstallation of
>> Office requires formatting the disk and rebuilding this
>> workstation,
>> which is 20+ hours work -- [developer's station - hundreds of aps,
>> thousands of settings, etc.]).
>>
>> Any ideas? Has anyone seen this new 'toss mail into a black hole'
>> behavior before (perhaps it's only new to us)? Assuming the prior
>> will be "no" and "no", does anyone have any ideas for sniffing it
>> out?
>> You can imagine what kind of trouble this bug is causing -- losing
>> client mail is "not good". We're duplicating mail at the server
>> as a
>> (hopefully) temporary workaround; it's a real nightmare. May go to
>> IMAP temporarily, but would rather it just worked.
>>
>> Is there a debug log we can turn on? Only useful if it logs events
>> in
>> such a way as to be comprehensible by someone without the source
>> code
>> to Outlook.
>>
>> Thanks for any help or ideas,
>> -///Matt
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>

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