Problems reading HTML email in MS Outlook 2003
A customer of mine came up with what I thought was an interesting problem today and I can't figure out how to solve it. This customer can send HTML email to me and I can read it just fine. I can send HTML email to her and she can read it just fine. If the customer sends an HTML email to herself it shows up as plain text, double spaced, and has a text file attached that is the same thing, plain text, double spaced.
When I say plain text, by the way, I mean the HTML tags have been stripped. She's not looking at HTML code, she's looking at the human readable text, only with all formatting stripped.
She can obviously send HTML just fine, as it looks fine on my end. She can receive it fine cause what I send her looks fine on her end. WHY would sending the email to herself mess it up? I've tried composing and reading in Word, and composing and reading in Outlook's built in editor, too. No change. Also, Tools > Options > Preferences > Email Options > Read all standard mail in plain text is NOT checked. She used to send herself HTML emails and everything worked fine up until about 2 weeks ago. She insists she did not change anything, and now it doesn't work.
Can anyone help me out here? Personally I can't fathom why she'd want to send herself HTML emails, but obviously she has a reason and it's driving her batty that she can't do it, so consequently, it's driving me batty :)
Thanks in advance guys!
PS.. She is NOT on an Exchange server. POP3 and SMTP through her ISP, which has not changed since this used to work.
When I say plain text, by the way, I mean the HTML tags have been stripped. She's not looking at HTML code, she's looking at the human readable text, only with all formatting stripped.
She can obviously send HTML just fine, as it looks fine on my end. She can receive it fine cause what I send her looks fine on her end. WHY would sending the email to herself mess it up? I've tried composing and reading in Word, and composing and reading in Outlook's built in editor, too. No change. Also, Tools > Options > Preferences > Email Options > Read all standard mail in plain text is NOT checked. She used to send herself HTML emails and everything worked fine up until about 2 weeks ago. She insists she did not change anything, and now it doesn't work.
Can anyone help me out here? Personally I can't fathom why she'd want to send herself HTML emails, but obviously she has a reason and it's driving her batty that she can't do it, so consequently, it's driving me batty :)
Thanks in advance guys!
PS.. She is NOT on an Exchange server. POP3 and SMTP through her ISP, which has not changed since this used to work.
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Hrm.. Webmail.. I had not thought of that. Ok.. I'll call her tomorrow and try the webmail and junk mail settings that have been suggested so far and then I'll post back an update. In the mean time, though.. if anyone has any other ideas, now's the time to speak up. I'd love to call her with a list of say 5 items to try just so I increase my odds of solving the issue without having to do another callback later.
Thanks guys!
Thanks guys!
ASKER
Ok. I was able to connect with her today and discovered some very interesting behavior. If I log into webmail and send an email to her from webmail and check it in webmail, it works fine. If I send from webmail and check in Outlook it works fine. If I send from Outlook and check in webmail, it doesn't work. If I send from Outlook and check in Outlook it doesn't work. I've added her address to both trusted sender and trusted recipient. Now here's the odd part. Based on the above I'd figure something is going wrong during the send in Outlook. However, if I send from her Outlook to my address, it looks fine on my end.
I also set up her Outlook with my email account, and tried using my SMTP server to send to both her address and my address. Sending using my SMTP server to her address, she gets plain text. Sending using my SMTP server to my address (checking it on her Outlook) works fine.
And once again, no AV antispam settings were set up. I double checked this. This is just weird. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
I also set up her Outlook with my email account, and tried using my SMTP server to send to both her address and my address. Sending using my SMTP server to her address, she gets plain text. Sending using my SMTP server to my address (checking it on her Outlook) works fine.
And once again, no AV antispam settings were set up. I double checked this. This is just weird. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
ASKER
Oh yes, I also ruled out some odd database corruption issue by moving all the contents of the "local settings\application data\microsoft\outlook" folder to a backup folder and allowing Outlook to set up a new PST file. No difference.
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As for gg suggestion, It's not going into her junk mail folder, it's coming straight into the inbox. Also, I have sent a couple test messages to myself to test a similar theory to what you just described and I can receive emails sent to myself exactly how they should look, so if this is what's happening, it's because something has been changed to cause this behavior. I have no problem trying what you suggest, but I'd like to see if anyone has any other ideas before I contact her again and try it. No offense, I just don't have much faith that your suggestion is correct, so I'd like to get something else to try as well before I contact her. So thank you for the suggestion, gg I will keep it in mind.
Any other ideas from anyone in the mean time?