Email Stuck in Outbox – with no date (Outlook 2003)

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I’m increasingly having the problem where I try to send an email from my laptop to another of my PC’s (desktop at home or at work) and end up with the Email stuck in the Outbox

The key to knowing it will be stuck and doesnt send/receive is that in the outbox, it will show “date – none”. Emails that have a date of today will send just fine.

I can work around it by selecting the email and hitting forward – that always seems to produce an email that is dated today and will send.

But any ideas what is getting the emails stuck in the first place?

Thanks

Paul

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Do you have Outlook send immediately or does it wait for you to click Send/Receive? Does it even try? Are there any send errors?

You might not need to forward: if you open the message in the Outbox and click Send. Does that work?

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Hi –

Been away a while – sorry!

Send immediately when connected is NOT enabled.

If I open the message and click send, that does NOT work – still stuck with date: none.

Click Forward, and the correct (i.e. original) recipient is always filled in (shouldn’t it be blank? why would it assume I would forward to the original recipient?) And then it sends fine.

thanks

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Hi –

Been away a while – sorry!

Send immediately when connected is NOT enabled.

If I open the message and click send, that does NOT work – still stuck with date: none.

Click Forward, and the correct (i.e. original) recipient is always filled in (shouldn’t it be blank? why would it assume I would forward to the original recipient?) And then it sends fine.

thanks

Reply | Quote

Do you have Outlook send immediately or does it wait for you to click Send/Receive? Does it even try? Are there any send errors?

You might not need to forward: if you open the message in the Outbox and click Send. Does that work?

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I have same problem with messages sitting in Outbox with a ‘none’ sent date so here’s hoping for a solution. Only happened since upgrading to Office XP. Automatic receive NEVER works – even though set for 10 minutes always have to hit send/receive to check mail.

When I type an email and ‘send’ it goes to outbox but have to remember to hit send/receive or they stay there. Quite often even after hitting send/receive still won’t send – sometimes closing/reopening Outlook and then trying send/receive again will work, but other times have to open every email in outbox and hit ‘send’ again – usually after that they’re in outbox with a ‘sent date’ then when I hit send/receive they’ll go. Look forward to suggestions…thanks…Katie

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Please check the following:

1. Connection tab set to Local Area Network (LAN). Tools>Email Accounts>View or change existing accounts>Select account>Change…>More Settings…
2. Verify relevant account is in the main Send/Receive group. Tools>Send and Receive Settings>Define Send/Receive Groups>All Accounts>Edit… (focus on receiving here)
3. Verify that your main Send/Receive group is on a regular schedule. Tools>Send and Receive Settings>Define Send/Receive Groups>All Accounts, review the second checkbox under “Online” and “Offline”
4. Verify that “send immediately” is enabled. Tools>Options…>Mail Setup

If all of that is set up properly, I wonder whether your Internet connection is somehow timing out so that Outlook doesn’t realize it’s online??

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Hi – thanks for quick reply. I’ve checked the things you suggested & everything as it should be. As for Outlook thinking it’s offline – I’m not ‘technical’ so forgive me if a stupid question, why would it think it’s offline when I hit ‘send’ but then realise it is online when I hit ‘send/receive’ (for the times when emails will depart the Outbox). The strange thing is even when they won’t go I can still receive – one of those most odd scenarios or maybe it’s just the user…smiles…Katie

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Katie
This may be totally irrelevant, but I’m suspicious of my 2002 version’s automated spelling checker. It is set to check spelling, and seems to ‘hold’ messages that have spelling errors (and not tell me about them). The lack of date is simply that it doesn’t think its been sent. Click on the “Send” button on the message in the Outbox (when its open) to send it.

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Thanks Andrew…are you’re saying if there’s a typo in the email, the Outbox won’t let it go? What chance have us Aussies/New Zealanders got – every 2nd word is probably considered a typo. As for having to hit send/receive before emails will go or worse, reopen the email from Outbox, then hit send again, it’s a worry…I’m fast coming to the conclusion I don’t like Office XP – another problem is with Word – often when I minimise or maximise the application it just closes – when I reopen it, it does the recovery thing, but no error messages – painful plus!!!!!

Katie

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“Not sending” is NOT the norm, I have not ever seen this problem and have been using Outlook since Version 97. I send all kinds of files with words not spelled correctly or not in my dictionary and do not have this problem

There is some setting that is NOT allowing for a “Send Now”

Some times when Outlook is kept open by some other program such as “Pocket PC or Palm” Outlook will not close, and the icon is in the system tray, Outlook in NOT fully open and can NOT send.

As for Word closing, are you using Word as your email editor, if so, if Outlook is closed and no Word file is open then there is no need of it being open, so it closes.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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I don’t have pocket pc or palm thingies. The not sending issue has happened since upgrade to XP few months ago – before that I used Outlook 95, 97, 2000 with no problems – at least not just me – you’ll see above Paul has same problem. It’s frustrating because if I forget to hit send/receive, emails stay in Outbox but even more frustrating when they won’t go at all and have to reopen them from outbox to send them. Odd thing as I said before, is when send refuses to work, can still ‘receive’.

As for Word crashing when I maximise/minimise – happens a lot. When I reopen it, recovered documents are there but no error message to give a clue as to ‘why!!’ I don’t use Word as email editor, and Outlook’s always open. Probably one of those ‘unfixables’.

Katie

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I don’t have pocket pc or palm thingies. The not sending issue has happened since upgrade to XP few months ago – before that I used Outlook 95, 97, 2000 with no problems – at least not just me – you’ll see above Paul has same problem. It’s frustrating because if I forget to hit send/receive, emails stay in Outbox but even more frustrating when they won’t go at all and have to reopen them from outbox to send them. Odd thing as I said before, is when send refuses to work, can still ‘receive’.

As for Word crashing when I maximise/minimise – happens a lot. When I reopen it, recovered documents are there but no error message to give a clue as to ‘why!!’ I don’t use Word as email editor, and Outlook’s always open. Probably one of those ‘unfixables’.

Katie

Reply | Quote

“Not sending” is NOT the norm, I have not ever seen this problem and have been using Outlook since Version 97. I send all kinds of files with words not spelled correctly or not in my dictionary and do not have this problem

There is some setting that is NOT allowing for a “Send Now”

Some times when Outlook is kept open by some other program such as “Pocket PC or Palm” Outlook will not close, and the icon is in the system tray, Outlook in NOT fully open and can NOT send.

As for Word closing, are you using Word as your email editor, if so, if Outlook is closed and no Word file is open then there is no need of it being open, so it closes.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Katie
Those symptoms I described are not common, and Word certainly doesn’t keel over either.

I’m hearing “corruption” in you install of Office. At times like this, I tend to reload everything just to be on the safe side. Its possible something else is making message windows vanish do you run other things like Macros, or Tweakui?

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Hi Andrew
I’m getting confused – what do you mean by ‘message windows’ vanishing…mustn’t be explaining myself properly. It’s Word (whole program) that shuts down when I maximise it from the task bar. I might have said minimise before. Doesn’t happen all the time but enough to be a pain – at least a few times a week, probably daily. When I reopen Word, any documents that were open appear as ‘recovered’ but I never get error messages. I don’t run macros (that I know of) and don’t know what Tweakui is so guess I don’t have that either. I think I ran repair Office a while ago but didn’t make a difference…could always try that again I guess before I think about removing/reinstalling Office.
Thanks for perservering…Katie

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Sorry about the Gobbleydegook – I understood that your Word crashes on minimise / maximise. Normally, when word crashes it displays informative messages in a messagebox e.g. “Word has encountered an unknown error and will close” (well, Microsoft thinks that messages like that are helpful). SImilarly with Outlook if it’s refusing to send.

The only ways I know to make such messages invisible is to tinker with windows, or, have serious corruption in Office.
The fact that both products are giving you trouble and you don’t tinker tends to make me think it is general to Office, rather than specific to Outlook or Word.

My personal experience with Repair is that it doesn’t help real-world problems. I find a full uninstall / reinstall a bare minimum – and even then, Office tends to want to preserve a lot of corruption in the registry.

To solve Word problems there was a star post from Phil Rabichow on systematic approach to handling behavioural problems in Word, post 197827 – it may be worth a try first. If you had follow-up questions on that then the Word board is probably the right place.

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Sorry about the Gobbleydegook – I understood that your Word crashes on minimise / maximise. Normally, when word crashes it displays informative messages in a messagebox e.g. “Word has encountered an unknown error and will close” (well, Microsoft thinks that messages like that are helpful). SImilarly with Outlook if it’s refusing to send.

The only ways I know to make such messages invisible is to tinker with windows, or, have serious corruption in Office.
The fact that both products are giving you trouble and you don’t tinker tends to make me think it is general to Office, rather than specific to Outlook or Word.

My personal experience with Repair is that it doesn’t help real-world problems. I find a full uninstall / reinstall a bare minimum – and even then, Office tends to want to preserve a lot of corruption in the registry.

To solve Word problems there was a star post from Phil Rabichow on systematic approach to handling behavioural problems in Word, post 197827 – it may be worth a try first. If you had follow-up questions on that then the Word board is probably the right place.

Reply | Quote

Hi Andrew
I’m getting confused – what do you mean by ‘message windows’ vanishing…mustn’t be explaining myself properly. It’s Word (whole program) that shuts down when I maximise it from the task bar. I might have said minimise before. Doesn’t happen all the time but enough to be a pain – at least a few times a week, probably daily. When I reopen Word, any documents that were open appear as ‘recovered’ but I never get error messages. I don’t run macros (that I know of) and don’t know what Tweakui is so guess I don’t have that either. I think I ran repair Office a while ago but didn’t make a difference…could always try that again I guess before I think about removing/reinstalling Office.
Thanks for perservering…Katie

Reply | Quote

Katie
Those symptoms I described are not common, and Word certainly doesn’t keel over either.

I’m hearing “corruption” in you install of Office. At times like this, I tend to reload everything just to be on the safe side. Its possible something else is making message windows vanish do you run other things like Macros, or Tweakui?

Reply | Quote

Thanks Andrew…are you’re saying if there’s a typo in the email, the Outbox won’t let it go? What chance have us Aussies/New Zealanders got – every 2nd word is probably considered a typo. As for having to hit send/receive before emails will go or worse, reopen the email from Outbox, then hit send again, it’s a worry…I’m fast coming to the conclusion I don’t like Office XP – another problem is with Word – often when I minimise or maximise the application it just closes – when I reopen it, it does the recovery thing, but no error messages – painful plus!!!!!

Katie

Reply | Quote

Katie
This may be totally irrelevant, but I’m suspicious of my 2002 version’s automated spelling checker. It is set to check spelling, and seems to ‘hold’ messages that have spelling errors (and not tell me about them). The lack of date is simply that it doesn’t think its been sent. Click on the “Send” button on the message in the Outbox (when its open) to send it.

Reply | Quote

Hi – thanks for quick reply. I’ve checked the things you suggested & everything as it should be. As for Outlook thinking it’s offline – I’m not ‘technical’ so forgive me if a stupid question, why would it think it’s offline when I hit ‘send’ but then realise it is online when I hit ‘send/receive’ (for the times when emails will depart the Outbox). The strange thing is even when they won’t go I can still receive – one of those most odd scenarios or maybe it’s just the user…smiles…Katie

Reply | Quote

Please check the following:

1. Connection tab set to Local Area Network (LAN). Tools>Email Accounts>View or change existing accounts>Select account>Change…>More Settings…
2. Verify relevant account is in the main Send/Receive group. Tools>Send and Receive Settings>Define Send/Receive Groups>All Accounts>Edit… (focus on receiving here)
3. Verify that your main Send/Receive group is on a regular schedule. Tools>Send and Receive Settings>Define Send/Receive Groups>All Accounts, review the second checkbox under “Online” and “Offline”
4. Verify that “send immediately” is enabled. Tools>Options…>Mail Setup

If all of that is set up properly, I wonder whether your Internet connection is somehow timing out so that Outlook doesn’t realize it’s online??

Reply | Quote

I have same problem with messages sitting in Outbox with a ‘none’ sent date so here’s hoping for a solution. Only happened since upgrading to Office XP. Automatic receive NEVER works – even though set for 10 minutes always have to hit send/receive to check mail.

When I type an email and ‘send’ it goes to outbox but have to remember to hit send/receive or they stay there. Quite often even after hitting send/receive still won’t send – sometimes closing/reopening Outlook and then trying send/receive again will work, but other times have to open every email in outbox and hit ‘send’ again – usually after that they’re in outbox with a ‘sent date’ then when I hit send/receive they’ll go. Look forward to suggestions…thanks…Katie

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I have experienced this problem also with Outlook 2000 a number of times. Typically one email is hung in the Outbox and all following emails are also backed up and not sent. I have always found that there are a number of send address on the To: line and one of the sending addresses is corrupted. Usually I recompose the email with the same content and send out to each address until I find the problem address.
I do not understand why this happens as I thought that the Internet would determine if the address in invalid and return the appropriate message back to me.
Hope this might help.

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I’ve had this problem for ages. It seems to me that it happens if I look at the Outbox folder. Then the last email liated loses its date and is not sent. I don’t know how to prevent this, but I have a simple workaround for when it does happen.

Open your Navigation Pane so Inbox is visible. In Outbox, drag the email with no date to Inbox. Go to Inbox, open the offending email, click SEND, and then Send/Receive All.

That usually does it.

Best,
Michael

Reply | Quote

I’ve had this problem for ages. It seems to me that it happens if I look at the Outbox folder. Then the last email liated loses its date and is not sent. I don’t know how to prevent this, but I have a simple workaround for when it does happen.

Open your Navigation Pane so Inbox is visible. In Outbox, drag the email with no date to Inbox. Go to Inbox, open the offending email, click SEND, and then Send/Receive All.

That usually does it.

Best,
Michael

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My outbox refusing to send emails isn’t because of errors – oddly enough (crossed fingers) any group emails I send are usually fine. I mostly send from my address book so know they’re correct. Probably one of those things we just have to put up with but as Michael said some days it seems you just have to look at the Outbox for it to decide it wants to keep things.

Thanks for the suggestion – Katie

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My outbox refusing to send emails isn’t because of errors – oddly enough (crossed fingers) any group emails I send are usually fine. I mostly send from my address book so know they’re correct. Probably one of those things we just have to put up with but as Michael said some days it seems you just have to look at the Outbox for it to decide it wants to keep things.

Thanks for the suggestion – Katie

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Thanks for your post.

I first noticed it with a single email address in the recipient list (one of my other PC’s).

It was choosing the address from autocompleting the email address. I tried writing the address manually but that didnt seem to help.

any other ideas?

Reply | Quote

Thanks for your post.

I first noticed it with a single email address in the recipient list (one of my other PC’s).

It was choosing the address from autocompleting the email address. I tried writing the address manually but that didnt seem to help.

any other ideas?

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