[SOLVED] Messages Left in Outbox

[y@w]

I've got a user with the famed 'stuck in outbox' issue. He says that when messages are stuck, he can drag them back into the drafts folder, open, and resend most of the time. However, this method breaks calendar invites for whatever reason (messes up format).

We have done the following to debug:

1. Deleted profile and re-downloaded account data.
2. He had AVG installed so he removed the Outlook add-in with no luck.
3. He then uninstalled AVG, rebooted and no dice. Repeated step 1 with no AVG.
4. Reinstalled Outlook connector and repeat step 1.
5. Uninstalled Office and repeat step 4...

The user has a laptop and a desktop and it seems to be happening on both, though we aren't able to reproduce the problem in a testing system. Both machines use Windows XP SP3 with fully-patched Outlook 2003.

I've looked through other posts on this issue and the only thing of substance I've found is to look for an 'outbox' folder in the web client which doesn't exist for this user. Also, other threads seem to die off when asked to present logs.. I've got logs for whoever wants them

Any suggestions?

[Jbrabander]

I'd check to see that he's running online and not offline. I've had a couple people that I'm guessing clicked "work offline" instead of "exit" when quitting Outlook. A second thing to check would be "send immediately when connected" under Tools/Options/Mail Setup.

Probably not these things, but at least it's something else to check!

[y@w]

Thanks, I didn't think of the "send immediately" check box. The user reports that Outlook never goes offline, though we know that end users aren't always the greatest source I'll check it out and report back.

[Jbrabander]

True...some users tend to think "offline" means "program won't even start".

[y@w]

Ok, I *think* one of the guys here got it with a little help from Jbrabander and Google.

The problem was indeed from the checkbox to "send automatically" not being checked, but not for the usual reasons. The user had unchecked that box on purpose. For whatever reason, he likes to have the 'safety net' of not having it send automatically so he can review messages for mistakes. That was some background information we didn't have before. So, according to a few forum threads like this one, when one opens a message that's staged for delivery, Outlook turns the "send" flag off. Even if the user clicks send it doesn't get turned back on. However, when he drags the message to the drafts folder and clicks send it will turn the "send" flag back on, he clicks send/receive, and bam out goes the message.

We'll let the user test with the checkbox turned back on and see what it does, but I'd put money down that that was the problem. Thanks for your help!

[Jbrabander]

Wow...I really wasn't even aware of a flag like that. That's good to know! I can understand the want of checking a message before sending, but good grief, just read it over before you hit "send"!

[y@w]

Haha yeah that's what I thought the save as draft button was for