5
"Draft in process of saving, try again later" is back?
Problem reported by webmaster - 11/24/2020 at 11:47 AM
Being Fixed
I've been reading posts from back in July/August about this issue. Curtis had noted it was resolved in a custom build back then. We recently upgraded the software to 7619, until this update, we had never seen this issue before. Now getting reports from multiple customers about this issue. Here is a client report:

"This happened last week as a one off but has now happened several times today....I'm typing an email, autosave seems to happen, I go to send said email and it gives the warning as shown on the attached....I can't save it or send it - I have to copy the text and close out the email, open a new one, paste then send. Also, although it says it is saving as a draft - it does not :)"

Is this once again a known issue? Is there a way to fix or is another custom build in the works? Thank you.

76 Replies

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Andrew Barker Replied
Employee Post
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Unfortunately, we have not had any luck trying to reproduce this issue. I understand that this issue is being reported by your customers, but would it be possible to get some more information about what is going on? I've listed some questions below that might help us figure out what is going on.

  • What browser and OS are they using?
  • About how long was the message being composed?
  • Was the window left inactive for any amount of time?
Andrew Barker Software Developer SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
0
Webio Replied
You can add also my ticket to this group:

12E-2700A2A0-0B21

it is very hard to reproduce but it occurs from time to time.

MacOSX - Latest Safari - message was composed quite quickly (2 lines of  text) and not being opened too long. Message was also part of long message conversation with non english characters.
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webmaster Replied
Thanks for the reply. I have spoken to a client and this is the information I was given.

Browser: Firefox
Length of message: a short reply to a message received in ongoing thread. Happens as new message as well, long or short.
Browser inactivity: Customer reports this happens if window is left inactive or not. Sometimes happens soon after starting a new message.
1
Cary Gouge Replied

the same this is happening to me. The red message pops up sometimes, blue "Saving draft" is more frequent. 

SEND with no results has also been frequent today. 

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Ionel Aurelian Rau Replied
Hmm, this is worrisome, I really do hope this is not coming back.
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echoDreamz Replied
We have a user reporting this as well.
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Nathan McKAy Replied
I don't know if this helps, but the users I have that are reporting it primarily use Firefox. I have only has 2 claims from users using Chrome/Edge and 10+ from those using Firefox.
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echoDreamz Replied
Ditto, same issue here, user is using Firefox.
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Andrea Free Replied
Employee Post
Hi everyone, 

I'm sorry to hear your users are having this issue while composing emails in the interface. Unfortunately, this has been a tricky one to pin down since we haven't been able to replicate the behavior locally. If you have users currently experiencing this problem, please submit a support ticket for further review. In your support ticket, please provide as many of these details as possible: 

  • Are there any other patterns you've seen or that your users have reported?
  • Which browser is the user using?
  • Does this happen when using a private/incognito browser? If it does not, please provide a list of the plugins/extensions the user has installed. 
  • How many users on your server have reported this? Are they on the same domain?    
  • Does this happen with new messages, replies and forwards?
    how long do they have the compose window open before it occurs?
  • Do you have any user who can replicate this behavior on-demand, even it it's only after 10-15 minutes of trying? If so, we'd like to request they send some browser information using the Developer Tools window. If they open the dev tools for the compose window, they can choose to Preserve/Persist Logs for the Network and Console tabs. If they can then replicate the issue, we can review those logs to see what information can be found. 

Thank you,
Andrea Free SmarterTools Inc. 877-357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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JerseyConnect Team Replied
We are also getting reports of this issue. Multiple users are affected and they are all on different domains. I'll try and get the additional details you're looking for.
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echoDreamz Replied
Our user reporting the issue said it just stopped happening. No changes have been done on our end, they said nothing changed on their end. Weird for sure.
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William Leaver Replied
I had a dickens of a time with this one as well on 7642 (which I'm still on). It seemed to mysteriously stop for no known reason.
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SmarterUser Replied
This continues to happen on the latest build.  It happens to several of our users, and it happens to me.  It's not possible to force it to happen, but it is frequent.  Some resolution needed.
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Linda Pagillo Replied
I also have users with the same issue even after upgrading to the latest build this past weekend (SmarterMail Enterprise 100.0.7719.31036 (Feb 18, 2021).
Linda Pagillo Mail's Best Friend Email: linda.pagillo@mailsbestfriend.com Web: www.mailsbestfriend.com Authorized SmarterTools Reseller Authorized Message Sniffer Reseller
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Kyle Kerst Replied
Employee Post
Just posting here to give everyone a quick update. I've been testing against these scenarios for the better part of a month now or so, but have had zero luck in getting it reproduced in house, which as you're all aware is half the battle! 

I have tested this under Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and the Internet Explorer/Microsoft Edge combination without luck, though it seems from these comments here that the majority of issues are affecting Firefox. 

If you could all post extensions/addons installed in Firefox and an outline of the Firefox version this might help narrow down the root cause or at least point us in the right direction in getting the problem replicated for our development team. Thanks everyone, we hope to get to the bottom of this ASAP!
Kyle Kerst System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
1
Linda Pagillo Replied
Firefox 86.0.1 on Windows 10.   
Only extension is LastPass.  
Only plugins are OpenH264 and Widevine
Linda Pagillo Mail's Best Friend Email: linda.pagillo@mailsbestfriend.com Web: www.mailsbestfriend.com Authorized SmarterTools Reseller Authorized Message Sniffer Reseller
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William Leaver Replied
Had it happen today after not having seen it for several months. I'm going to chalk it up to the change to standard time, as it seems it wasn't an issue during daylight savings, sort of the opposite of the mysterious 1 hour MAPI appointment problem that SmarterTools is also having a hard time finding and fixing.

SM Build 7719, Safari 14.0.2 on macOS Big Sur 11.1.


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JerseyConnect Team Replied
All of our users who reported the issue either never followed-up with additional info or responded that the issue stopped occurring.
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CTL Replied
Hello All

  1. Firefox issue long pending issue.  I have requested my customer work with EDGE or Chrome for a better result. Some of the old builds work fine, the same issue reappears again latest few release 
Cary Gouge & webmaster  your user info is correct 
Please have a look at my earlier post
 

FYI My current SM 7719 & up to latest firefox


        

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Karl Jones Replied
One of my clients has just reported this happening as of the most recent update.
Another client reported it in a previous build around the same time this thread was started but another update seemed to have stopped it happening.
I am collecting further info for now.
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echoDreamz Replied
Same, we had 2 clients report it today, we went to ask for more info and we were informed the issue has gone... Seems it is fully random.

All 3 of our user reports have been Firefox-based though.
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Mike Mulhern Replied
Having same issue with Firefox and build = 7776
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Elle Spark Replied
How to cope this issue in Firefox, its really terrible.
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
Elle, can you reproduce it?  If we can see it, we can fix it but we can reproduce it and it seems to happen very infrequently for people.  
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Karl Jones Replied
One of my users today reported this problem had returned. He is using Firefox. I asked him to use another browser and report back, not heard anything yet but he had not had the problem since i reported it on 26 Apr and i cleared the cache.
1
Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
Karl, common denominator does seem to be FireFox but we haven't been able to replicate it.  Firefox has been a mess lately and this could be an issue with the browser itself.  In the meantime, we keep trying to reproduce it and / or waiting for a customers that can replicate it.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Karl Jones Replied
Tim, I will check in with the user who is having the trouble to see if chrome or opera give him the same problem. He is the only user of nearly 50 that has reported this, He is also the only one connected via a sophos RED (Remote Ethernet Device) so not sure if this hardware might be causing it.
Just reiterating that i cleared the cache last time and it all started working... I have updated Smartermail since then too, now on the current version.
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echoDreamz Replied
Had a Firefox user report this today, we went to get remote access and the bug went away, so random. I have Firefox locally and keep trying to get this to reproduce and nothing...

This user had no addons installed, no special security software (Windows Defender). Also running the latest SM.
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William Leaver Replied
The problem shows up sporadically for me on Safari. Doesn't seem to be limited to only Firefox.
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
Interesting, we haven't seen anyone report the issue other than on Firefox.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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SmarterUser Replied
The third message in this thread was also a report on Safari.
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William Leaver Replied
FWIW this has started happening again for me lately (using Safari.)
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1
Sébastien Riccio Replied
Hi. Some customers recently reported this issue. Any idea what could be the source of the problem ?
Sébastien Riccio System & Network Admin https://swisscenter.com
1
John Calhoun Replied
I had a user report this today. Any updates on this issue? My user is on Firefox...
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William Leaver Replied
I continue to experience this as well across multiple browsers.
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Ron Raley Replied
This has been reported to us as of today.
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
Do you ever have your phone on silent, and then you feel a vibration in your pocket, only to pull out your phone and it didn't actually vibrate? There aren't any notifications. Then it keeps happening -- those phantom notifications. It's annoying, and perplexing. 

Well, we're at the same point with this issue. Every month a couple of customers report it. The other millions and milllions worldwide don't have the issue. Honestly, we can't replicate it in house, so if anyone can help, please let us know. We have done everything possible.Heck, it may not even be a SmarterMail issue, but something outside of SmarterMail but nobody seems to be able to replicate.  
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Webio Replied
This is happening quite often on my wifes account. She even stopped reporting this to me. When this is happening she must copy her message to clipboard, close window with reply message, open reply message again and paste message from clipboard. I had here and there some similar reports but no one is complaining right now or they just stopped reporting it just like my wife :-). She is working on MacBook Pro M1 and Safari browser. How quickly after message is being started to be composed saving draft is occuring? As far as I remember when I experienced this kind of problem JS error came up quite fast which stripped whole new message window of any functionality (and thats why it must to be closed and opened again).

EDIT: Maybe we could have some kind of mechanism which will allow to disable draft saving as an admin or two fields how often draft is being saved and second one after how many minutes first draft should be saved. This could help narrowing problem to draft saving or excluding draft saving and maybe pointing it to editor or something else.
2
Sébastien Riccio Replied
We had a few reports of this. Most of them were using firefox. We checked if they had some extensions installed that could cause the issue but most of them had no extensions installed.

Some of these affected customers asked us to disable the automatic draft save function to avoid the issue as they find it very annoying as it completly defeat the purpose of automatic saves.
They often have to start over redacting their e-mail, if they don't paste it somewhere first as a backup.

I personally wasn't able to reproduce the issue and we got no real solution for the affected customers except asking them to try with another browser, which in some case helped.

Still it could be useful to allow the users to disable automatic drafts savings for this reason and some other reasons.
Sébastien Riccio System & Network Admin https://swisscenter.com
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Ron Raley Replied
6
Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
I've had Firefox running for 36 hours with a compose window open and didn't make any changes in the window for hours, added attachments, changed text and more.  I found a small bug that could orphan a draft, but could not duplicate this issue. We have a lot of hours into trying to find this so PLEASE let us know if you can reproduce. We are also adding a setting for people who do not want auto-saves.... which can also be used to see if it helps this situation.

With Firefox having less than 4% of the market share and every complaint being Firefox with a handful of (I think they also tried another browser) which has been said maybe a half dozen times, this looks like its all Firefox and where we are spending our time.  Trying to find a "maybe" in the 96% of the market doesn't seem like time well spent.

The setting will be in our next major BETA coming in about a month. Lot of cool stuff.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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William Leaver Replied
Happens on Safari very regular for me so it's not just Firefox. I'll see if I can get it to happen with new newly created account and will raise a ticket if so. 

I have other users reporting it as well. 
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Kyle Kerst Replied
Employee Post
@William: I just completed a round of testing on this using Safari on MacOS (latest update) and was not able to reproduce. If you can provide me a rough outline of what steps you see this under usually I can try to do some more testing. Thanks!
Kyle Kerst System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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echoDreamz Replied
We had a random ticket today about this too, also Firefox. User said they were typing an email, stepped about for about 90 seconds to help a co-worker, came back and the notice was there. No plugins installed, no adblockers, no security software aside from Defender.

As far as reproducing, he said he was just typing the body of the message (with the subject and recipient (2x) filled in), stepped away, came back and the notice was there.
2
William Leaver Replied
I haven't yet put enough troubleshooting into this just yet, and this may not be an issue, but...

I have yet to duplicate the issue on a non-EAS test mailbox I've set up, whereas an EAS mailbox on the same domain seems to have it happen at least weekly.

Anyone else notice whether it has ever happened on a non-EAS mailbox?
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Kyle Kerst Replied
Employee Post
That is an interesting observation William, hopefully this is something the other affected users can take a look for us as well. I've done all of my testing on newly created (non-EAS accounts) and my own (EAS and MAPI enabled) but have been unable to reproduce thus far. Personally I believe there is likely a client-side component to it that we're missing in our testing here. That would explain why most people don't have issues with it but the ones who do; really do!
Kyle Kerst System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Sébastien Riccio Replied
I checked the configuration of the users having this issue. They do not have EAS activated. One is having EAS/MAPI enabled but I don't think they use it as there is no "synchronized device".
Sébastien Riccio System & Network Admin https://swisscenter.com
1
Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
We haven't seen that correlation with end users and it would be a real stretch on the backend.

We continue to test and try to duplicate on live accounts with tons of clients and simple accounts etc.  
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Schroeder Robert Replied
Hi, on latest build 8251 my father told me that he receive this error quite often , around 2 out of 10 mails he write a day. He is using Firefox (mainly), Win 10. No special tools, as internet security we use AVG. But I'm also usinge firefox at home + work, win11 and win10, at home also AVG and I got this issue but this was the case 1 perhaps all 3 month, and i'm using webmail a lot. I'll check this closer
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Kyle Kerst Replied
Employee Post
Hi Robert, sorry to hear your father is having trouble with this! 9 times out of 10 the issue is time related on the affected device, so I'd check the Windows or MacOS time settings to confirm they are up to date, within alignment with a network time server, and have been set to automatically update first and foremost. 
Kyle Kerst System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Patrick Jeski Replied
This has been happening for me very seldom for a long time. Twice today for me and once for a coworker. Just updated to 8496 and using the latest firefox.
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Patrick Jeski Replied
And twice so far this morning.

Make that three  four times. It starts with an unresponsive send button. Way more frequent than before I updated SmarterMail.
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Ben Rowland Replied
I get this all the time, and have for a long time.
2
Ben Rowland Replied
Here's my second email of the day, with the error in the console, in case that is helpful.

I get this so often that I'm used to the workaround, which is to copy the email, close the window, and rewrite the email.

I haven't reported this because I've been hoping the new webmail does not exhibit the same behavior.

0
Patrick Jeski Replied
It is happening with every single email that I keep open for more than a few seconds before hitting send.
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Mike Mulhern Replied
I hit is all the time.  Using updated firefox.
0
Ben Rowland Replied
I upgraded to the new major version of SM today. I'm having a difficult time sending email. Now not only do I get errors saving drafts, but the send button usually doesn't work. I'm also using Firefox.
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Kyle Kerst Replied
Employee Post
Hey there Ben, sorry to hear you're running into that! Can you check your system time on the server please? That is the number one cause of these types of issues. If you're set up with automatic time updates try setting it manually (Windows NTP has issues from time to time) and then do a restart of the server and you should be in good shape!
Kyle Kerst System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Ben Rowland Replied
Thanks Kyle. The time is set automatically and the timezone is UTC. When I compare it to my desktop clock, it looks to be correct.
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Kyle Kerst Replied
Employee Post
You're very welcome Ben! That is good news at least! You might try setting it manually, but the last thing I'd suggest here is making sure you are on the latest version of SmarterMail (we're at build 8510 as of April 20th) and beyond that let's get a ticket started so we can help get to the bottom of it. 
Kyle Kerst System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
1
Ben Rowland Replied
Thanks, Kyle, I am running that latest version. I finally upgraded on Monday to the latest build. I experienced this issue on the last version as well. I was hoping that issue would be resolved in the new one, but I think I should have opened a ticket about this sooner!
0
Patrick Jeski Replied
In the past when this has happened, I've copied what I wrote, closed out the email, opened a new one, pasted and it sends. Yesterday I discovered that I don't have to close out the old email and start a new one. If I cut the message I've typed and paste it back into the same email that wouldn't send, I can then send it. I've tried other modifications to no avail, but cutting my message out and pasting it right back always seems to work.
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Zach Sylvester Replied
Employee Post
Patrick,

This is good news this means that you have possible repo steps. I've been trying to repo this to no avail. Can you please tell me step by step how you got this to happen to start with what browser you have, and if you have any extensions? 
Please also paste in the text you typed that causes this issue but try to get rid of any sensitive info. Are you using a signature? If you cannot then we can open a ticket and I can get this info from you. 

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Thank you,  

Zach Sylvester System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Brian Bjerring-Jensen Replied
Question: Has any opne tried to press CTRL+F5 before they start an email reply?
To see if it browsersession dependant??
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Patrick Jeski Replied
I'll try that on the next one that happens. I've done a regular F5 and end up where I started, either a blank email or a fresh reply with any text I've typed gone and any added attachments lost.
0
Patrick Jeski Replied
Zach,
If I try to make it happen, it absolutely won't. 
In general, it's more likely to happen on my first emails of the day.
It's more likely to happen if I spend a while typing, adding attachments, and whatnot. Especially if I get distracted and leave the window open a while before I hit send.
It doesn't seem to make a difference if it is a new email, a reply or a forward.

I am not using a signature,
Auto Save Drafts is OFF
I am using the latest FireFox

I already have a ticket open on this, so feel free to contact me that way.
0
Ben Rowland Replied
Zach, I use Firefox on a Mac. It happens all the time, practically every email. I have the LastPass extension installed.
0
Karl Jones Replied
Is this bug still active as I have a client who is using just the trial version and is getting this every email.


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Zach Sylvester Replied
Employee Post
Hey Karl, 

Are you guys by chance on a VPN or is there anything out of the ordinary with any of your setups?

Thanks, 
Zach Sylvester System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Karl Jones Replied
Hey Zack. Nothing special, they are using under server 2016, windows 10 workstations in a very small AD domain, split DNS and they use firefox, chrome, brave and even opera. there is one user that accesses via IMAP on their phone as well as webmail. The other affected user is using webmail logged in on several computers as that email is monitored by multiple users.
The users affected have multiple connections to the same account all the other users access via a single webmail login.
There is no POP, MAPI, EWS or EAS Webmail and IMAP only is enabled.
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Kyle Kerst Replied
Employee Post
Hey Karl, thanks for following up with us on Zach's queries. Can I have you first check the items outlined here in this KB article from one of the affected workstations?


Some of the same causes on that one can lead to session issues that cause draft saving problems in the long run! In the meantime I'm going to get some testing set up with Zach to see if we can reproduce this under a single account with multiple points of access. 

On that note; do you know if all of the users accessing these mailboxes might be across different timezones? I suspect the session issue date/timing might be to blame there, so that is where I'm going to do a bit of focused testing as well. 
Kyle Kerst System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
I want to be very upfront about this issue... We just can't reproduce it!

I personally spent and hour today in Firefox (latest version) on Mac and created 30+ emails testing sending, drafts, signatures, attachments, deleting drafts in clients and still trying to send and so on.  I could not produce one error of any kind.  

What Kyle has sent has solved the issue for some and could help your situation.  Otherwise, we have no idea how to reproduce and would appreciate any help in doing so. 
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
0
Karl Jones Replied
Thanks for the KB article Kyle. The only thing i haven't got the users to try is the deleting cookies and or the cache for their webmail address. The computers are all setup with the correct timezone, the only other thing i need to check with them is whether the regional settings are all set to Canada and not a mix of Canada and US.

Tim, thanks for the heads up... Is there anything that you think we should be paying attention to? in other words what is most likely to be causing this error?
1
David O'Leary Replied
I've had this issue for several years now. Happens maybe once for every 10 emails I send. I use Firefox with LastPass. I've had it happen on multiple different computers over the years and many different versions of SmarterMail.

Today, when it happened, I brought up developer tools and I noticed there was no activity in the Network tab or Error Console when I hit Send. I was very surprised by that. I expected an attempted POST but there was none. But then I noticed there was no network activity when I type in different names in the TO field and I, as a web developer, am confused by that. How is it loading the suggestions without pulling from the server?

Time zone and time on my server and laptop are the same. 
To me, time doesn't seem to matter. I've noticed the Saving Draft will get stuck on the first attempt and then it is blocked for all time from then on. 

I just tried to replicate it 8 times with no luck but I did see there was consistently an error in the Error Console for all those messages where it did work fine:

Content Security Policy: The page’s settings blocked the loading of a resource at eval (“script-src”). angular-v-100.0.8552.30682.8db62ec08a6a500.js:1295:6


Owner of Efficion Consulting
3
Zach Sylvester Replied
Employee Post
Hello Everyone, 

It looks like we found a potential fix for this issue. Working together with the developers we found that it seems Firefox loads a little bit slower than other browsers. So if you start typing as soon as the window appears the draft may fail to send or save the draft. We found that this happens more often on long reply chains. This is because the text is in the wrong place which can cause the HTML parser to throw an exception. I will let you know when we have a fix in place.

Thanks, 
Zach Sylvester System/Network Administrator SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
1
Patrick Jeski Replied
Build 8594 (Jul 13, 2023) does not fix this. The symptom is unchanged.

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