Why would Outlook 2007 send out a message that is blank?
I have a user running Windows XP Pro SP2 with all current updates and Office 2007 Plus Professional with all updates; and this user is having a problem when sending emails through Outlook 2007. When he creates the message all is well, the problem occurs after he hits the send button. The message that is sent out to the end users is blank, however when you hit reply to tell the person they sent a blank email, the message mysteriously appears for you to read and respond to. The catch is that the responses sent back are also blank until you hit reply.
I need a fix for this! I have run the diagnostics, repair, done a complete uninstall, registry wipe, and then re-installed the product to no avail. Any help on this would be much appreciated
I need a fix for this! I have run the diagnostics, repair, done a complete uninstall, registry wipe, and then re-installed the product to no avail. Any help on this would be much appreciated
SOLUTION
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Use another email client like Outlook Express or Thunderbird. Does the blank message occur there?
ASKER
I have not tried that, will check. I guess this would help too. I am running Exchange 2003 on a Windows Server 2003 Standard OS (X32)
bill_hays, another reason why message could be blank is because the background color is the same as the typed words. Highlight the typed works, which would change its color, and check if you see the words.
SOLUTION
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I found a solution for our user, it turns out there are two settings in AVG that can effect this.
1 Open up AVG Control Center by right clicking the AVG icon in your sys tray and selecting Launch Control Center.
2 Double click on E-mail Scanner. (you can also click on E-mail scanner then click on properties)
3 Click on button that says 'Configure'.
4 Uncheck both the 'Certify Mail' check boxes under 'Email Scanning'.
5 Click on 'OK' twice on both the screens
6 Restart Microsoft Outlook 2007.
Make sure you pay attention that there are two boxes that need to be unchecked, otherwise it will only fix one direction of the email. Hope this is the solution for you as well.
1 Open up AVG Control Center by right clicking the AVG icon in your sys tray and selecting Launch Control Center.
2 Double click on E-mail Scanner. (you can also click on E-mail scanner then click on properties)
3 Click on button that says 'Configure'.
4 Uncheck both the 'Certify Mail' check boxes under 'Email Scanning'.
5 Click on 'OK' twice on both the screens
6 Restart Microsoft Outlook 2007.
Make sure you pay attention that there are two boxes that need to be unchecked, otherwise it will only fix one direction of the email. Hope this is the solution for you as well.
ASKER
Thanks for the feedback unisupport and war1.
war1 - same issue occurs with outlook express or thunderbird through a pop client; as for the background, not the issue. The thing that is wierd is as soon as I reply to the users email that is blank I can then see what they really sent to me, however when I send my response they or anyone else I CC on the message has the same issue and can't see the message till they respond to tell me my message is blank.
unisupport - I am using Trend and the settings are already globally set to not certify mail and not scan email at the desktop level because I am doing it at the Server level. I tried turning this off on the server, but it didn't seem to work, still had the same problem for the three days I had my AV turned off.
This is very annoying, I have since decided to roll back to 2003 but still have this scenario running in my test environment.
war1 - same issue occurs with outlook express or thunderbird through a pop client; as for the background, not the issue. The thing that is wierd is as soon as I reply to the users email that is blank I can then see what they really sent to me, however when I send my response they or anyone else I CC on the message has the same issue and can't see the message till they respond to tell me my message is blank.
unisupport - I am using Trend and the settings are already globally set to not certify mail and not scan email at the desktop level because I am doing it at the Server level. I tried turning this off on the server, but it didn't seem to work, still had the same problem for the three days I had my AV turned off.
This is very annoying, I have since decided to roll back to 2003 but still have this scenario running in my test environment.
If other email clients have same problem, then the problem is not due to Outlook or any specific email client.
Disable your antivirus, antispyware, and firewall, one at time, and test if you send the blank email.
Disable your antivirus, antispyware, and firewall, one at time, and test if you send the blank email.
ASKER
war1 - I have disabled my AV even uninstalled it, no antispyware running on the machines at I am using an internet spyware hardware filters! Same with firewall, using a hardware firewall and turned off the XP Firewall.
The issue doesn't ever start or happen if the clients involved are running Outlook 2003, however if someone with Outlook 2007 get involved in the conversation they are the start of the problem. I guess the break down is that it looks to be Office 2007 and XP related, as if the users are running Office 2003 and XP the problem doesn't exist until it is started by someone using the Outlook 2007. Maybe this would be better under a complete Office 2007 issue? Your thoughts?
The issue doesn't ever start or happen if the clients involved are running Outlook 2003, however if someone with Outlook 2007 get involved in the conversation they are the start of the problem. I guess the break down is that it looks to be Office 2007 and XP related, as if the users are running Office 2003 and XP the problem doesn't exist until it is started by someone using the Outlook 2007. Maybe this would be better under a complete Office 2007 issue? Your thoughts?
Blank messages is likely to Outlook integration or email scanning feature of your anti-virus or security program.
In your addin manager of Outlook 2007, make sure antivirus is turned off.
In your addin manager of Outlook 2007, make sure antivirus is turned off.
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Just a thought for anyone who stumbles along on this.
Blank emails and mysterious deletions can also be directly traced to ActiveSync errors, especially with BlackBerry products. Try deleting all the "Desktop" related service books on the device and re-sending them.
Blank emails and mysterious deletions can also be directly traced to ActiveSync errors, especially with BlackBerry products. Try deleting all the "Desktop" related service books on the device and re-sending them.
Actually I should append that.
If you are replying to a message and the whole thing ends up blank on send, try searching for "related" on the blank message. You may find that the message/folder doesn't exist - it's all been moved to the trash. This would be the ActiveSync problem.
If it's every message, that's almost certainly related to some add-in or another in Outlook.
If you are replying to a message and the whole thing ends up blank on send, try searching for "related" on the blank message. You may find that the message/folder doesn't exist - it's all been moved to the trash. This would be the ActiveSync problem.
If it's every message, that's almost certainly related to some add-in or another in Outlook.
ASKER
nothing is easy....unfortunately we completely rebuilt our test machines and the users that were having this problem and have since not had this issue. I hate not getting a good answer but nothing seemed to work. I am working with MS on this now. Thanks to all who answered.
We have resolved this issue at my office. We helped the user that was creating the HTML e-mail message to change their font settings and uncheck the Hidden box. The user did not remember checking the Hidden text box, but it was checked. Clearing the check box resolved the issue, along with some additional steps. First, here are the 3 locations to check for the Hidden font status in Outlook 2007.
Tools menu
Options...
Stationery and Fonts button
In the resulting dialog window, you will see 3 buttons labelled Font. Click each one. In the first 2 font buttons for new messages and replying/forwarding, the check boxes should be filled in, NOT checked, and not empty. Filled in tells the system to leave it unchanged from the +BODY theme defined in Word 2007. Under the 3rd Font button for plain text, the boxes should be unchecked.
Click the Ok buttons all the way back to Outlook. Try to create a new HTML message. You might have to restart Outlook, but we did not.
Next steps, if needed, would be to go into Word 2007 and modify the Normal style. Right click the Nomal style box on the ribbon bar and click Modify. Ensure that your Font... settings are set correctly for your desires, unchecking Hidden if it is checked.
As a good measure, we also did the steps listed below, but I don't believe it is required. But just in case, I'll list these additional steps that we performed below. Changes to the font in Outlook 2007 and Word 2007 effect both applications, since Word 2007 is the editor for Outlook 2007. Chances are you will find that fixing the Font settings will correct your problem. We have no idea how the user's font setting got set to hidden. The user certainly would not have set it intentionally. We have had only one user report this problem.
Additional Steps:
Rename the frmcache.dat , normal.dot , outcmd.dat , extend.dat,
Make a backup of the proifle reg key listed below
Delete the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software
Repair Outlook from Control Panel
Tools menu
Options...
Stationery and Fonts button
In the resulting dialog window, you will see 3 buttons labelled Font. Click each one. In the first 2 font buttons for new messages and replying/forwarding, the check boxes should be filled in, NOT checked, and not empty. Filled in tells the system to leave it unchanged from the +BODY theme defined in Word 2007. Under the 3rd Font button for plain text, the boxes should be unchecked.
Click the Ok buttons all the way back to Outlook. Try to create a new HTML message. You might have to restart Outlook, but we did not.
Next steps, if needed, would be to go into Word 2007 and modify the Normal style. Right click the Nomal style box on the ribbon bar and click Modify. Ensure that your Font... settings are set correctly for your desires, unchecking Hidden if it is checked.
As a good measure, we also did the steps listed below, but I don't believe it is required. But just in case, I'll list these additional steps that we performed below. Changes to the font in Outlook 2007 and Word 2007 effect both applications, since Word 2007 is the editor for Outlook 2007. Chances are you will find that fixing the Font settings will correct your problem. We have no idea how the user's font setting got set to hidden. The user certainly would not have set it intentionally. We have had only one user report this problem.
Additional Steps:
Rename the frmcache.dat , normal.dot , outcmd.dat , extend.dat,
Make a backup of the proifle reg key listed below
Delete the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software
Repair Outlook from Control Panel
ASKER
I do appreciate the info. I guess it slipped my mind when I was typing up my original question, I guess that's why I need to slow down and think before typeing. Anyways I use Trend Micro AV and did disable it for a couple days and still received the same problem. I am sorry for not including it.
Thanks, bill