mgross333
asked on
Sent emails not in Outlook Sent folder
This is for a customer ; I fix PCs for a living.
Outlook 2007. OS is probably Vista Home Premium SP1 64 bit OS but could have been upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OS.
Current problem is Outlook works fine EXCEPT sent emails do not end up in Sent folder. But they do go out as he is getting replies to some sent emails.
PC appears to have a subtle Power Supply problem that caused it to go into sleep mode and not leave Sleep mode and beep when it was rebooted. This is background; do not reply in any way on this problem; I know how to fix this.
Customer did not know he had HW problem and (before calling me) went back about 2 weeks with System Restore. He is not sure if the System Restore occurred before first seeing above Outlook problem or after.
Above Outlook problem did NOT exist before HW problem and did not exist for three years after PC was new.
Question 1: Could System Restore have caused the EXACT Outlook problem described above. If so how do we fix it?
Note System Restore CAN cause problems. Example. Norton AV updates are gone back to System Restore date and must be reinstalled. Example: Any programs installed since System Restore back to date are no longer installed.
i.e System restore does not just (sometimes) fix things; it also can cause problems and THAT is why I am asking Question 1.
Question 2: Some email clients have a setting that causes Sent email to end up in OR NOT end up in the Sent email folder. (Such settings used to be common 7 - 8 years ago).
Please provide detailed step by step instructions on how to get sent emails to end up in the Sent folder if the setting is to NOT have them in the sent folder
OR
a link to same
OR
say that Outlook 2007 **ALWAYS** places all sent emails in the Sent folder and this can NOT be turned off.
Note: I have searched thru the Outlook 2007 Tools>Options menu and can NOT find a setting affecting this BUT I could have missed something.
Note: Uninstalling Office 2007 and reinstalling it (to solve the problem) is a very undesirable option. He has 4 email addresses and calendars and tasks and the account defs would have to be set up again and the Outlook.pst file imported again.
And uninstalling Office 07 (or even Outlook 07 if that can be separately done) does not get rid of all of it as I know from actual experience. One of the lowest priority things for programmers to do is to write a COMPLETE Uninstall program. For a large program like Outlook 2007 there are pieces all over the computer and some are left AND THE SETTING I am talking about (if it exists which is not certain) might just be left and a reinstall may not reverse it.
In any case I am looking HERE for a solution OTHER THAN uninstalling and reinstalling Office 2007.
Regards,
Mike
Outlook 2007. OS is probably Vista Home Premium SP1 64 bit OS but could have been upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OS.
Current problem is Outlook works fine EXCEPT sent emails do not end up in Sent folder. But they do go out as he is getting replies to some sent emails.
PC appears to have a subtle Power Supply problem that caused it to go into sleep mode and not leave Sleep mode and beep when it was rebooted. This is background; do not reply in any way on this problem; I know how to fix this.
Customer did not know he had HW problem and (before calling me) went back about 2 weeks with System Restore. He is not sure if the System Restore occurred before first seeing above Outlook problem or after.
Above Outlook problem did NOT exist before HW problem and did not exist for three years after PC was new.
Question 1: Could System Restore have caused the EXACT Outlook problem described above. If so how do we fix it?
Note System Restore CAN cause problems. Example. Norton AV updates are gone back to System Restore date and must be reinstalled. Example: Any programs installed since System Restore back to date are no longer installed.
i.e System restore does not just (sometimes) fix things; it also can cause problems and THAT is why I am asking Question 1.
Question 2: Some email clients have a setting that causes Sent email to end up in OR NOT end up in the Sent email folder. (Such settings used to be common 7 - 8 years ago).
Please provide detailed step by step instructions on how to get sent emails to end up in the Sent folder if the setting is to NOT have them in the sent folder
OR
a link to same
OR
say that Outlook 2007 **ALWAYS** places all sent emails in the Sent folder and this can NOT be turned off.
Note: I have searched thru the Outlook 2007 Tools>Options menu and can NOT find a setting affecting this BUT I could have missed something.
Note: Uninstalling Office 2007 and reinstalling it (to solve the problem) is a very undesirable option. He has 4 email addresses and calendars and tasks and the account defs would have to be set up again and the Outlook.pst file imported again.
And uninstalling Office 07 (or even Outlook 07 if that can be separately done) does not get rid of all of it as I know from actual experience. One of the lowest priority things for programmers to do is to write a COMPLETE Uninstall program. For a large program like Outlook 2007 there are pieces all over the computer and some are left AND THE SETTING I am talking about (if it exists which is not certain) might just be left and a reinstall may not reverse it.
In any case I am looking HERE for a solution OTHER THAN uninstalling and reinstalling Office 2007.
Regards,
Mike
ASKER
DrMadAxe,
Thanks for you post. However as I said I am resistant to reinstalling. As far as I know there is now way to BACKUP the account settings (please correct me if I am wrong) and there are 4 email addresses and 4 account defs. So this would take a while.
All EE Outlook Experts: Since posting I have done a Google Search and answered my Question 2: Do NOT post any of the answers below as I already know them But as of yet, no one has answered my Question 1 relating to System Restore possibly causing the problem..
Answer 1: Tool>Options>Preferences>E mail Option Click 2nd option to save the sent email
OR
Answer 2: While in the Sent Folder View (in top menu bar) >Current View> Messages
I doubt that either of these answers is the problem as my customer is not computer savy enough to have found these and changed the default options. BUT I WILL CHECK THESE SETTINGS FIRST THING.
The 2nd answer is unlikely on another count. The other options like View Last 7 days do not match the symptom; think about it. Immediately after sending (with View last 7 days set) the email would be in the sent folder. Another option is Unread messages only. I do not quite see what that means for the Sent email folder.
Here's another one from my Google search
Answer 3: Check if system clock has not been set back. This relates to (2),. If the Current view is set to last 7 days and the system clock is set back in time MORE THAN 7 days than no sent emails would appear. The problem with that idea is as I said above, I doubt that my customer could have changed the default view settings.
HOWEVER I WILL CHECK THE ABOVE IDEAS (Answer 1 thru 3) first thing upon arrival to be sure.
Again what about System restore back 2 weeks causing the problem ?
Mike
Thanks for you post. However as I said I am resistant to reinstalling. As far as I know there is now way to BACKUP the account settings (please correct me if I am wrong) and there are 4 email addresses and 4 account defs. So this would take a while.
All EE Outlook Experts: Since posting I have done a Google Search and answered my Question 2: Do NOT post any of the answers below as I already know them But as of yet, no one has answered my Question 1 relating to System Restore possibly causing the problem..
Answer 1: Tool>Options>Preferences>E
OR
Answer 2: While in the Sent Folder View (in top menu bar) >Current View> Messages
I doubt that either of these answers is the problem as my customer is not computer savy enough to have found these and changed the default options. BUT I WILL CHECK THESE SETTINGS FIRST THING.
The 2nd answer is unlikely on another count. The other options like View Last 7 days do not match the symptom; think about it. Immediately after sending (with View last 7 days set) the email would be in the sent folder. Another option is Unread messages only. I do not quite see what that means for the Sent email folder.
Here's another one from my Google search
Answer 3: Check if system clock has not been set back. This relates to (2),. If the Current view is set to last 7 days and the system clock is set back in time MORE THAN 7 days than no sent emails would appear. The problem with that idea is as I said above, I doubt that my customer could have changed the default view settings.
HOWEVER I WILL CHECK THE ABOVE IDEAS (Answer 1 thru 3) first thing upon arrival to be sure.
Again what about System restore back 2 weeks causing the problem ?
Mike
i'd check to see if the latest office and windows service packs / updates were installed first.
try visiting windowsupdate.microsoft.co m and see if it's missing any
try visiting windowsupdate.microsoft.co
ASKER
Thanks to all for your continued posts,
Let me start by saying that DrMadAxe may be right. The only way to fix this is to uninstall and reinstall Office (first writing down ALL 4 email account definitions (including ports etc ) before uninstall and also making a copy oif the Outlook.pst file)). Then create 4 email accounts, do a single Send/Receive and wait for it to finish. Then Import the backed up Outlook.pst file with the ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL "NO DUPES" setting checked in the File>Import dialog. Because as I stated the two (really one) setting that affects this is MOST UNLIKELY to have been changed by the customer. I say "really one" because the View setting (see my post above) as far as I can see has NO option that means that Sent emails do not appear in the Sent items folder if that folder is selected IMMEDIATELY after the email is sent (correct me if I am wrong)
l33tf0b
Sent emails have been saved in the Sent items folder for 3 years under Outlook 2007. Why would one need an update to ANYTHING to get it to work ???? It is the default setting for Outlook 2007.
If you are responding to my thought that maybe the System Restore back two weeks caused this , my sentence above covers that too.
ve3ofa,
#1 I believe your screen shot is NOT FROM Outlook 2007 (maybe Outlook 2010 ???) . In Outlook 2007 if one does (as I specified in my post above (not my Original question)
Tool>Options>Preferences>E mail Option Click 2nd option to save the sent email
Note: The Preferences is a tab that in practice is already selected. Now the 2nd option IS "Save copies of messages in the Sent Items folder" so I already covered that.
If one then clicks the Advanced Email options button in that window a popup occurs with the Save settings similar to your screen shot EXCEPT the "Save copies of messages in the Sent Items folder" is **NOT** in that sub-menu. I just checked what I am saying here on my Windows 7 SP1 PC running Outlook 2007 (Outlook may or may not be updated)
Regarding the other line in the Save settings that you have shown with a green diamond, I do not see the relevance. When customer sends a new email it does not appear in the Sent items folder. I assume (but have not asked) if he replies to an email in the Inbox the same thing happens. What happens when replying to messages NOT in the inbox is not the customer complaint.
Regards,
Mike
Let me start by saying that DrMadAxe may be right. The only way to fix this is to uninstall and reinstall Office (first writing down ALL 4 email account definitions (including ports etc ) before uninstall and also making a copy oif the Outlook.pst file)). Then create 4 email accounts, do a single Send/Receive and wait for it to finish. Then Import the backed up Outlook.pst file with the ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL "NO DUPES" setting checked in the File>Import dialog. Because as I stated the two (really one) setting that affects this is MOST UNLIKELY to have been changed by the customer. I say "really one" because the View setting (see my post above) as far as I can see has NO option that means that Sent emails do not appear in the Sent items folder if that folder is selected IMMEDIATELY after the email is sent (correct me if I am wrong)
l33tf0b
Sent emails have been saved in the Sent items folder for 3 years under Outlook 2007. Why would one need an update to ANYTHING to get it to work ???? It is the default setting for Outlook 2007.
If you are responding to my thought that maybe the System Restore back two weeks caused this , my sentence above covers that too.
ve3ofa,
#1 I believe your screen shot is NOT FROM Outlook 2007 (maybe Outlook 2010 ???) . In Outlook 2007 if one does (as I specified in my post above (not my Original question)
Tool>Options>Preferences>E
Note: The Preferences is a tab that in practice is already selected. Now the 2nd option IS "Save copies of messages in the Sent Items folder" so I already covered that.
If one then clicks the Advanced Email options button in that window a popup occurs with the Save settings similar to your screen shot EXCEPT the "Save copies of messages in the Sent Items folder" is **NOT** in that sub-menu. I just checked what I am saying here on my Windows 7 SP1 PC running Outlook 2007 (Outlook may or may not be updated)
Regarding the other line in the Save settings that you have shown with a green diamond, I do not see the relevance. When customer sends a new email it does not appear in the Sent items folder. I assume (but have not asked) if he replies to an email in the Inbox the same thing happens. What happens when replying to messages NOT in the inbox is not the customer complaint.
Regards,
Mike
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ASKER
My solution worked (although I concede customer on phone did not say that FORWARDED emails were there; he said NO emails were in Sent items since two weeks ago which means the problem in my question was not correct). Posts by EE experts did not solve problem (partly because problem was not accurately stated by customer).
Because of this I have unchecked Add question to KB below.
Because of this I have unchecked Add question to KB below.
. I know that you are against reinstalling but you may want to at least try and do a backup with it as soon as possible. I would highly encourage a reinstall after back up. It will save you more time then trying to trouble shoot everything over and over with the same results.