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Issues with Various Microsoft Email Clients - Mobile Outlook, Windows Mail
Announcement by Derek Curtis - 2/18/2021 at 4:51 PM
Employee Post
ISSUE: Mobile Outlook

We have been working with Microsoft on an issue that's affecting customers across various mail services who are trying to send email using mobile Outlook when setting up their accounts using IMAP. We've been able to replicate it with our in-house version of Exchange, for example. 

So, please understand that this is NOT a SmarterMail issue -- it's an Outlook issue that occurs regardless of the mail server being used. 

When you compose a message in mobile Outlook and hit the send button, it goes from the Drafts folder to the Outbox, but it's never actually sent. After a sync with the server, the message in the Outbox will display a Drafts flag. When looking in webmail, the message sits in the Drafts folder. 

As mentioned, we've been working with Microsoft on the issue, and here's their most recent response:

 "It appears that a small subset of users is also experiencing the same issue. This issue is now being tracking [sic]. Unfortunately, we don’t have an ETA when will a fix be available [sic]. The fix will be rolled out via an update so make sure that you always have the latest version of the app installed."
Our theory is that something within the routing of email through Microsoft's cloud is causing the issue -- the communication between Outlook and the cloud is somehow being disrupted or otherwise interrupted. (If you're unsure how Microsoft servers are involved, take a look at our most recent blog post: Outlook's Outlook - the Future of Outlook, Exchange and Microsoft)

Regardless, if you're using mobile Outlook, be sure to run any updates as soon as they're available. Once we've been able to confirm the issue is resolved, we'll post a reply letting everyone know. 


Derek Curtis
COO
SmarterTools Inc.

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Derek Curtis Replied
Employee Post
NEW ISSUE - Mobile Outlook

So, we've identified another issue with Mobile Outlook. Interestingly, we've gotten almost the same response from Microsoft about this on as we did for the previous issue...

The issue is this: When a draft of a message is saved in mobile Outlook, it creates the message in the Drafts folder but it's not flagging the message as a draft. This results in the draft being uneditable in the web interface or when using SmarterMail with other protocols. In addition, later syncs sometimes cause mobile Outlook to forget that the message is a draft, meaning that the message can't be edited in ANY client. We've also replicated this with our in-house version of Exchange.

Microsoft is aware of it, and, as before, they're tracking it and will have a fix out in a future update. As with the above, once we've been able to confirm a fix from Microsoft, we'll post a reply letting everyone know. 
Derek Curtis COO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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Yesterday we sent a test message from Outlook Mobile (Android) via ActiveSync to another account in the same domain.   It took 11 minutes to arrive.   I moved the user to Nine (www.9folders.com), which works beautifully and connects directly, not through a man-in-the-middle server.     Inexpensive ($15 after free trial) rather than free.   But in this case, the adages are true:
1) When the product is free to you, you are the product.
2) Expect to get what you pay for. 
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Derek Curtis Replied
Employee Post
NEW ISSUE - Windows Mail

We've identified an issue with Windows Mail that occurs regardless of mail service being used. We've been able to replicate this with our in-house Exchange installation as well as SmarterMail. This is NOT a SmarterMail issue, but an issue with the Windows Mail client. 

The issue is this: When searching for emails in Windows Mail, the search results appear just fine: searching produces full results based on the timeframe for email you have synced. (E.g., 3 months.) When clicking on "Search online" to pull additional messages from the server that are outside of that timeframe, those results are returned just fine as well. The problem is that when you click on a message returned from an online search, all of the messages disappear from your list. THEY ARE NOT DELETED -- they simply are removed from your search results. 

Just as with the Mobile Outlook issues mentioned, Microsoft is "tracking" the issue and will have a fix out in a future update for Windows. Once we've been able to confirm a fix from Microsoft, we will post a reply letting everyone know. 
Derek Curtis COO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com

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