Outlook 2002 errors on reply to contact

By any chance, do you have a mixed verison of Office applications?
Outlook XP and Word 2003? (or any other combinations)... if that is the case we could expect these type of errors.

No. All regular clients are Office XP. No mixed versions.

I used a laptop with Office 2003 for testing only.

Can you paste a screenshot of the error please? Edit it in MSPaint if you want to hide some company details...

The JPEG shows 3 of the error screens that appear when I click on the Reply button. Clockwise from 9: Initial error message, clicking on "what data the error report contains", and the top of clicking on "techical information".
OutlookXP-ReplyError.jpg

Poor wording with the image post above. There are no more error screens.

Does the error only happen from one specific mailbox or all?

If you create a new test user and mailbox and reply to the Contact does the error occur again?

The error occurs consistently on multiple mailboxes with Outlook 2002 on multiple computers. I have not found a mailbox or computer that does not exibit the error.

I created a new user/mailbox and tested. The same error occured.

so it is an Outlook XP/2002 issue if it works on Outlook 2003...

Is all this happening to one contact or all contacts? If all contacts, have you verified that you are not applying your address policies to contacts. Do the contacts still have the correct SMTP addresses?

Also, is this happening with a single machine running outlook 2002 or on all machines running outlook 2002? if the former, you can try an outlook repair.

Precifijo,

As stated earlier this is happening on multiple machines. I have not tried all workstations, but I have not found a workstation where this does not happen.

Joe M

DarkStar3d,

There is only one contact defined -- small system. I can send email to the contact by typing in the contact name or by browsing after clicking on the "To:" button. It is only a problem when clicking on "Reply".

> If all contacts, have you verified that you are not applying your address policies to contacts.

I don;t know what you mean here.

Joe M

If its only on a reply, look at the headers and see what the From address is. Does it match the actual from address of the contact?

Have a look on the server in the application event logs and see  if an event is generated when the outlook client crashes.

darkstar3d,

SMTP from address matches SMTP of contact with some variations in capitlization. Note that I have tried variations in the capitalization of the contact's SMTP address with no change in behavior.

The displayed name in the header From address (form of "Display Name <SMTP_Name@SMTP_Domain.com>" without the quotes) matches the display name of a user and is different from the display name of the contact.

MegaNuk3,

Logs do not go back to last error. I will need to do this test off-hours to create a new instance.

I have a workaround in place that I will need to modify to run this test. Contact used for Exchange forwarding is now hidden and aiming at a 3rd mailbox. That mailbox forwards to my off-site mailbox. This lets others reply to emails from my off-site mailbox without triggering the error. If I put the original contact back during work hours, others will start getting Outlook aborts again.

MegaNuk3,

No log entry on Server App log.

Added email contact TestContact. Sent email into server from the SMTP address of TestContact. Tried a reply, Got the error on the workstation, but no log entry on the server.

Then deleted TestContact. Tried to reply to the same email. No abort of Outlook, but message was undeliverable. It somehow concocted the email address of TestContact@domain_name.com instead of using the "from" SMTP email address!

The undeliverable message with domain name dithered:

Delivery has failed to these recipients or distribution lists:

'Test Contact'
The recipient's e-mail address was not found in the recipient's e-mail system. Microsoft Exchange will not try to redeliver this message for you. Please check the e-mail address and try resending this message, or provide the following diagnostic text to your system administrator.

  _____  


Sent by Microsoft Exchange Server 2007


Diagnostic information for administrators:

Generating server: SERVER-SBS.domain_name.local

IMCEAEX-_O=domainname_OU=First+20administrative+20group_cn=Recipients_cn=TestContact@domain_name.com
#550 5.1.1 RESOLVER.ADR.ExRecipNotFound; not found ##

Original message headers:

Received: from SERVER-SBS.domain_name.local
([fe80::42b:d5e9:cd4c:9964]) by SERVER-SBS.domain_name.local
([fe80::42b:d5e9:cd4c:9964%10]) with mapi; Tue, 5 Oct 2010 23:39:07 -0700
Content-Type: application/ms-tnef; name="winmail.dat"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
From: Joe Marshall <JoeM@domain_name.com>
To: 'Test Contact'
<IMCEAEX-_O=domainname_OU=First+20administrative+20group_cn=Recipients_cn=TestContact@domain_name.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2010 23:39:05 -0700
Subject: RE: Test from MSc for reply after adding test contact
Thread-Topic: Test from MSc for reply after adding test contact
Thread-Index: ActlIFoPTI0ljMpYRgW6lHn6YjOSvgAAMQUw
Message-ID: <95AE48138CF36241B2B5DF4294B2E5401FC38D454F@SERVER-SBS.domain_name.local>
In-Reply-To: <33D2B5439C4C429E8A6D1A74250FA7C0@JoeLatD620>
Accept-Language: en-US
Content-Language: en-US
X-MS-Has-Attach:
X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: <95AE48138CF36241B2B5DF4294B2E5401FC38D454F@SERVER-SBS.domain_name.local>
MIME-Version: 1.0

This <IMCEAEX-_O=domainname_OU=First+20administrative+20group_cn=Recipients_cn=TestContact@domain_name.com> should be an actual email address. Are you pulling the test contact from the Outlook cache or from the GAL? If from the cache, delete it and pull it again from the GAL. If this is what the GAL has, I would restart all the Exchange servers (or at least all Exchange services on all Exchange servers). If more than one server, shut them down and make sure the routing group master is started first.

If a full restart is not feasible, PSS has a tool called remonitor that can fix this. Hopefully, it is Outlook though.

darkstar3d,

TestContact was added as a Mail Contact via the Exchange 2007 Management Console. I only want the contact to have the external SMTP address. For reasons unknown to me, Exchange adds the TestContact@domain_name.com address as part of the contact information. I did not see a corresponding mailbox.

When I reply to the email, I just open the email and click on Reply. I don't believe that is pulling the address from the GAL or the cache (but I am certainly not any sort off Exchange guru). Outlook (Exchange?) populates the "To" field with "Test Contact". I don't know where it pulls that from. If I double-click on it I get a contact-like information display with all blank fields except for display which has "/o=DOMAINNAME/ou=first administrative group/cn=Recipients/cn=TestContact"

If I start a new email with "test c" and hit tab, I get a Microsoft LDAP Directory error "Operations Error". If I try to display the Company LDAP Directory in Outlook's Select Name dialog I get the same error.

This is an SBS installation with only one server (SBS2008, Exchange 2007).

I am not familiar with SBS, but if you can't display the GAL, that is an issue. Did you reboot this server? Are there any LDAP errors in the application log?

You may have to increase logging levels to maximum in order for it to generate the errors.

darkstar3d,

I have rebooted the server again. The only LDAP log entry I see is a warning in the Directory Service log from ActiveDirectory_DomaineService (ID 2886, Category LDAP Interface) that says security can be increased by configuring the server to reject cleartext requests. I don't see any LDAP related entries in the Application log. I do not know how to increase the logging levels for LDAP.

If you mean Global Address List when you say GAL, I don't know what I said to make you think I cannot display it. The Global Address List displays fine in both Outlook 2002 and 2003 when using the "Select Names" dialog. There are a number of other lists available on the dropdown menu. Outlook 2002 shows a list called "Company LDAP Directory" that Outlook 2003 does not. I get errors in Outlook 2002 when I try to look at that list, not the Global Address List.

SBS 2008 is a product bundle from Microsoft. It consists of Windows Server 2008, Exchange 2007, and other MS products configured to run together on a single server computer. My network only has the single server box.

MegaNuk3,

I get the same behavior when I run "Outlook /safe".

The More Information just says to upgrade Outlook.

hmmm, try turning on Outlook logging so we can see if anything useful is logged:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/outlook-help/what-is-the-enable-logging-troubleshooting-option-HA001174266.aspx

MegaNuk3,

The Outlook 2002 logging does not seem to show anything useful with the error. I believe that Outlook aborts without flushing the log file buffer. OPMLog-Contact.log is the log for the test with the mail contact. I enabled logging, exited Outlook, started Outlook, exited Outlook, started Outlook, replied to email, Outlook aborted. The only log entries came from the middle start/exit.

OPMLog-NoContact.log is from a sequence when the mail contact was not defined. I enabled logging, exited Outlook, started Outlook, replied to email, and exited Outlook. The log entries seem complete, but probably do not contain anything useful relating to the problem.
OPMLOG-Contact.log
OPMLog-NoContact.log

hmmm, sorry to say this, but I think it is time you considered upgrading to MS supported version of Outlook...

Various MS pages on Exchange 2007 say that while that version of Exchange doesn't work with Outlook 2000, it does work with Outlook 2002/XP and newer. Granted that this is somewhat at odds with the sunsetting of Office 2002.

When you say you are using the Contact for forwarding are you using it inside the mailbox i.e. with mailbox rules to do the forwarding or outside the mailbox i.e. in Active Directory you have set the mailbox to forward to this Contact as an Alternate Recipient?

The mail contact was set up in Exchange Server Manager. The mailbox was set to forward to that contact in Exchange Server Manager also.

Here is something for you to test.

1.) ensure the contact exists in AD with a valid e-mail address
2.) give yourself "Send As" rights/permission on the Contact
3.) send a mail 'From' the contact to an internal mailbox via Outlook using the 'From' field on a new mail
4.) try and reply to the mail from the contact, did it work?

This may be my lack of knowlege, but I have not been able to find a way to grant "Send As" rights on the mail contact. In Exchange 2007 Managment Console, there is no option to manage "Send As" permissions for mail contacts like there is for mailboxes. I have not had any luck searching for a way around this.

Hmmm, I'll have a look at Exchange 2007 cause the steps above are for Exchange 2003. I thought you were on Exchange 2003 when you talked about 'Exchange Server Manager' I thought you meant Exchange System Manager which means Exchange 2003, whereas in Exchange 2007 it is Exchange Management Console and Exchange Management Shell.

You can't use EMC for setting 'Send As' on the contact you have to use EMS:
Add-ADPermission <contact name> -User <username you want to have rights> -ExtendedRights 'Send As'

Sorry about the bad use of terminology and delay. I have been out of town.

I created a new mail contact in EMC and assigned the Send-As permission via EMS. I then logged in as JoeM and use Outlook 2002 to send an internal email "from" the test contact to JoeM. I replied without Outlook aborting. The reply went to the external email address.

I also sent in a external email from the mailbox listed in the mail contact. I replied to it without having a problem.

Weird, so the problem has gone or is being experienced with a different Contact?

The problem is not solved. I am not sure what is happening. I have tried a number of tests.

First I added back a contact that is being forwarded to (like the original contact). I gave a send as permission for the contact to a mailbox. When I sent an internal email from that mailbox "from" the contact, I was able to reply to it with no problem.  

When I sent in an Internet email from that contact and replied, the original symptom reappeared and Outlook 2002 crashed.When I tried to send a new email to that contact, it was not deliverable (it seemed to try to send it to a non-existent internal address that Exchange created along with the mail contact.

I deleted the mail contact. I now could send an email to the email address that was in the contact. I could reply successfully to emails received while the contact was not defined. When I tried to reply to an email that had been received while the contact was defined, Outlook crashed. It appears that Exchange 2007 is tagging the email with something if it received while the contact is defined. Outlook 2002 apparnetly does not know how to handle that email and has problems replying to it even after the contact has been deleted.

My best guess so far. When an Internet email is received from an SMTP address that is listed as belonging to a mail contact, Exchange 2007 stored something about the contact along with the received email. When Outlook2002/Exchange2007 tries to reply to that email, Outlook crashes. The contact does not need to be defined at the time that the reply is attempted.

When a mail contact is defined in Exchange 2007, Exchange assigned an SMTP email address for the local domain to it even though no mailbox exists for that SMTP address. The SMTP address is in addition to the desired external SMTRP address. The SMTP address cannot be deleted through the EMC. When sending an email to the mail contact, Outllook2002/Exchange2007 tried to send it to the non-existent internal SMTP address. Outlook2003/Exchange2007 sends it to the desired external email address.

You are right that the end solution is to advance beyond Outlook 2002, but that won't happen for a few months. If the above test results don't make something pop into your mind then the horse may be dead. It may make more sense to live with the stench for a while than continue to beat it.

Does the same thing happen if you use an outlook inbox rule to do the forward?

No, differnt things.

I added the mail contact. I set an Outlook 2002 rule to forward to the mail contact. I tested and this worked. I changed the rule to forward as an attachment. This also worked. I retested without Outlook 2002 running. Also worked. I did these tests both from the address in the test contact and from a third address. Worked both ways.

I then tried to manually reply from Outlook 2002 to an Internet email sent from the address in the test contact. Outlook 2002 crashed.

I then removed the rule and deleted the contact. I tried to manually reply to the Internet email from the address in the test contact (received while the contact was defined). I got the same adddressing error as before (dithered):

Generating server: SBS.domain.local

IMCEAEX-_O=DOMAIN_OU=First+20administrative+20group_cn=Recipients_cn=JoeM+5FMSCTest@domain.com
#550 5.1.1 RESOLVER.ADR.ExRecipNotFound; not found ##

The automatic SMTP address that Exchange 2007 created for the test contact is
      "JoeM_MSCTest@domain.com"

I have finally installed outlook xp/2002 connected to exchange 2007 so should be able to test this and see if it crashes my outlook too.

It works from my outlook 2002 client
Mso.dll is 10.0.6626.0
Outlook is 10.6515.6626. (straight SP3)

I am going to apply all available updates ( I am running this on xp pro sp3 machine) and see if I can get the same outlook versions as yours

My Outlook 2002 client is 10.6863.6867.
The Mso.dll in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Office10 is 10.0.6867.0.
The Mso.dll in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Office12 is 12.0.6545.5004. I presume that this came with the extensions for Office 2007 compatibility.

My versions are the same as yours now and I don't have the problem... I don't have the other mso.dll though cause I haven't installed an office 2007 viewer (yet) can you see what hotfix installed that?

Hmm, my office12 mso.dll is 12.0.6514.5000 and reply still works

I have installed the latest updates and my office 12 mso.dll is now 12.0.6545.5004 and reply still works

I am pretty sure that the Office 12 MSO.dll came with the "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats" download and not from a hotfix. Once the compatibility pack was installed, hotfixes may have updated it.

The compatibility pack is available at "http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en"

Oops! Missed your comments about getting mso.dll v12.

My test was essentially this: I have Exchange running on a machine in domain "DomainName.com". I added a contact "TestContact" with the SMTP address "SomeOne@OtherDomain.com". I then sent an Internet email from SomeOne@OtherDomain.com to User1@DomainName.com. I logged in as User1 and used Outlook 2002 to reply to the email. I then got the error.

Timing was important. The email fromn SomeOne had to be received while the TestContact definition existed.

Do you think your test is the same?

Are you running exchange 2007 SP3 on your sbs2008 server?

I am running Exchange 2007 SP2.

On  machine with Outlook 2002 I deleted nickname cash by deleting profile.NK2 file. I added TestContact. I sent email from outside SMTP address in TestContact. I replied in Outlook 2002 with success. I sent new email from Outlook 2002 to email address in TestContact -- again success.

Could there be a problem with a Mail Contact changing while there is some information about the TestContact (or related email address) in Outlook 2002's nickname cache?

You don't have to delete the whole NK2 file. You can just delete individual entries. Start typing the name you want to delete in the new message-->to box and then when the suggestions popup you can use the up and down arrows on your keyboard to select which entry you want and press the DELETE key on your keyboard to delete it.

Is the issue now resolved?

I wanted to have MageNuk3's answer 33863754 declared the major portion of the answer followed by his reply 34236848. I wanted to add my commnets 34381732 with as few points as possible to flesh out the solution for anyone looking at it in the future. I don't know how my 0 point comment was taken as the solution with the high point comments considered assisted solutions. I do not recall taggng it as the best solution.

Joe M

Thanks for the points

This is somewhat a diagnosis of elimination. Outtlook 2002 just seems to have some problems with Exchange 2007 SP2 (& SP3).

MegaNuk3 was very helpful eliminating possibilities. I included on of my comments (at 0 points) to flesh things out.