Duplicate Signature Added to Outlook 2003 Email Drafts
We have a user, with Outlook 2003 installed on Windows XP SP2, that is reporting a duplicate signature in saved reply or forward drafts. The issue can be recreated:
1. User clicks reply or forward on an email and signature is auto-applied at the end.
2. User saves email as a Draft to come back to later.
3. User opens draft, by double-clicking on it. (Not by clicking reply or forward.)
4. A duplicate signature is added to the bottom of the draft.
Attempts to fix:
- Disabled COM Objects
- Removed Add-ins
Any help would be grateful. Thanks.
1. User clicks reply or forward on an email and signature is auto-applied at the end.
2. User saves email as a Draft to come back to later.
3. User opens draft, by double-clicking on it. (Not by clicking reply or forward.)
4. A duplicate signature is added to the bottom of the draft.
Attempts to fix:
- Disabled COM Objects
- Removed Add-ins
Any help would be grateful. Thanks.
Is Office 2003 sp3 installed?
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e25b7049-3e13-433b-b9d2-5e3c1132f206&displaylang=en
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e25b7049-3e13-433b-b9d2-5e3c1132f206&displaylang=en
ASKER
Hi apache09. Our company has not authorized the use of SP3 so i wont be able to install it. Although I do think it would fix the problem Thanks for your response.
ASKER
Hello bcapello:
I will try this now and let you know what happens. Thanks
I will try this now and let you know what happens. Thanks
What Office SP is currently being used?
As Outlook should not really behave like this, try the following command line switches.
All Starting with Outlook Closed
Start>Run>Outlook.exe /safe
When Outlook opens in Safe mode do you still have this same problem?
Might also try Clean Profile
Start>Run>Outlook.exe /cleanprofile
If your company does not currently use SP3 it might be a good opportunity to discuss with them the advantages of installing SP3 as it fixes many, many issues in Outlook as well as other Office 2003 applications.
See Attached
Office2003-SP3Changes.xls
As Outlook should not really behave like this, try the following command line switches.
All Starting with Outlook Closed
Start>Run>Outlook.exe /safe
When Outlook opens in Safe mode do you still have this same problem?
Might also try Clean Profile
Start>Run>Outlook.exe /cleanprofile
If your company does not currently use SP3 it might be a good opportunity to discuss with them the advantages of installing SP3 as it fixes many, many issues in Outlook as well as other Office 2003 applications.
See Attached
Office2003-SP3Changes.xls
ASKER
bcapello:
Creating a backup profile did not solve the problem. Thanks for your help
Creating a backup profile did not solve the problem. Thanks for your help
Did the user have any Outlook Templates with a signature on it? I would search for any .OFT files on the client computer. I bet there is one with a signature on it. Search hidden folders as well.
ASKER
I tried the Outlook.exe /cleanprofile as well and this didnt work. Also to my suprise the computer does have outlook sp3 Installed on it. Most of our other pc's have sp2. There are also no .OFT files with signatures on them. I searched hidden as well and set folder options to show hidden files.
ASKER
I did notice that unchecking the box to use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit email messages solves the problem, but I dont want to use that as a work around because our users need that option.
In that case, try renaming the Normal.dot.
Rename the Normal.dotm template or the Normal.dot template in Windows XP and in Windows Server 2003
Quit all instances of Word, including Microsoft Outlook if Word is set as your e-mail editor.
Click Start, and then click Search.
In the Search Results dialog box, under What do you want to search for, click All files and folders.
In the All or part of the file name box, type Normal.dot.
In the Look in box, select your local hard disk. (Or, select an alternate user template location if you are running Word from a network server.)
Expand More Advanced Options and place a check next to "Search Hidden Files and Folders"
Click Search to search for the file.
For each occurrence of Normal.dot that appears in the Search Results dialog box, right-click the file and then click Rename.
Type a new name for the file, such as OldNormal.dot or Normal-1.dot, and then press ENTER.
On the File menu, click Close to quit the Search program.
Open Word and A new one will be created.
Then Open Outlook and try again
Rename the Normal.dotm template or the Normal.dot template in Windows XP and in Windows Server 2003
Quit all instances of Word, including Microsoft Outlook if Word is set as your e-mail editor.
Click Start, and then click Search.
In the Search Results dialog box, under What do you want to search for, click All files and folders.
In the All or part of the file name box, type Normal.dot.
In the Look in box, select your local hard disk. (Or, select an alternate user template location if you are running Word from a network server.)
Expand More Advanced Options and place a check next to "Search Hidden Files and Folders"
Click Search to search for the file.
For each occurrence of Normal.dot that appears in the Search Results dialog box, right-click the file and then click Rename.
Type a new name for the file, such as OldNormal.dot or Normal-1.dot, and then press ENTER.
On the File menu, click Close to quit the Search program.
Open Word and A new one will be created.
Then Open Outlook and try again
ASKER
Apache09:
Thanks for your help. However, renaming the normal.dot did not solve the problem.
Thanks for your help. However, renaming the normal.dot did not solve the problem.
uninstall Office and re-install. If that doesn't work I would create another local profile for the user.
local profile on the computer, not a local mail profile
ASKER
bcapello:
I deleted the local profile on the computer and let it recreate itself. This did not fix the problem. I let the user log onto another pc as well and loaded there signatures on that pc and the problem did not occur. So its definitely a software issue. Just dont know what
I deleted the local profile on the computer and let it recreate itself. This did not fix the problem. I let the user log onto another pc as well and loaded there signatures on that pc and the problem did not occur. So its definitely a software issue. Just dont know what
did u try uninstalling Office?
ASKER
Bcapello
I did uninstall office as well. Didnt fix the problem.
I did uninstall office as well. Didnt fix the problem.
I am at a loss.
ASKER
I am as wel.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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)create a mail profile follow the following steps;
1. go to Control Panel-> Mail-> button Show Profiles&
If you are using a 64-bit edition of Windows;
go to Control Panel-> Additional Options-> View 32-bit Control Panel Items-> Mail-> button Show Profiles&
2. press the button Add&
* Do NOT use Copy& even if you want to recreate your mail profile or youll end up copying the corruption as well
* Do NOT delete your old profile, even when it is corrupted, before you verified that the new one works. You might want to lookup some account settings afterwards
3. Enter a name for your profile
4. Select to add a new mail account