Mail stays in Exchange user's Outlook outbox

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Marceepoo - 20 Dec 2005 01:17 GMT

Problem: Mail stays in Exchange user's Outlook outbox

Background: I have set up Outlook 2003 on 3 workstations (which run
completely updated XP Pro) to have mail delivered to "Mailbox - Marc for XP"
(the user name is "Marc for XP"). I used the Office 2003 Save My Settings
Wizard to save all Outlook and other office settings from one of the
computers (Alpha), and copied the settings to the other 2 computers (Zappa
and Light).

Confession: I forgot (when I was copying the settings from Alpha to the
other computers) that Alpha's outgoing mail was not being sent out, and was
instead taking up permanent residence in the Outbox.

Questions:
1. What can I do to fix this?
2. Where can I find info explaining why the solution works?
3. Where can I find a url for info about how to create server-side mail
handling rules for Outlook?

Thanks, Marceepoo

Reply to this Message

Martin Qiu [MSFT] - 20 Dec 2005 03:40 GMT

Hello Marceepoo,

Thank you for posting here!

To delete the specific email which is stuck in Exchange mailbox, you can
follow the steps below:

1. Firstly, please double confirm whether the specific email is stuck in
mailbox even though you log the user account on 3 different computers. If
the issue only occurs on one specific computer, you may refer to the
following Knowledge Base article to try to delete it.

195922 How to troubleshoot mail stuck in the Outbox in Outlook 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=195922

2. Use OWA to try whether you can remove the specific email from the
Outbox. To do this, please browse http://exchangeserver/exchange/ in
Internet Explorer.

3. If the issue persists, we have to use the Mdbvu32.exe utility to remove
the problematic message. To do so, follow the steps below.

(1) Start the MDB Viewer (Mdbvu32.exe). This utility is located on your
Exchange Server CD in the <CD-ROM_Drive>\Server\Support\Utils\I386 folder.
Note: If you can not find it there, please visit the following link to
download it:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3D1C7482-4C6E-4EC5-
983E-127100D71376&displaylang=en

(2) At the MAPILogonEx(MAPI_LOGON_UI) dialog box, click OK.
(3) At the Profile dialog box, select the directory mailbox profile created.
(4) In the MDB Viewer Test Application dialog box, click MDB, then click
Open Message Store.
(5) Click the mailbox profile <servername DS>, click the Best Access option
(If it is not already selected), and then click Open.
(6) In the MDB Viewer Test Application dialog box, click MDB, and then
click Open IPM Subtree.
(7) In MDB Viewer, open the Outbox folder.
(8) Highlight the problematic message, and choose lpFld->DeleteMessages()
in the Operations Available box, and then click Call Function.
(9) Exist MDB Viewer, and then restart Outlook to test the issue again.

For the server-side rule question, if you have an e-mail account on a
Microsoft Exchange Server, the server can apply rules to your messages even
if you don't have Outlook running. These are called server-based rules. The
rules must be set to be applied to messages when you receive them in the
Inbox on the server, and the rules must be able to run to completion on the
server. Therefore, to create a server-side rule, you should also accomplish
it in Tools menu -> Rules and Alerts.

For more detailed information about the difference between server-side rule
and client-side rule, you can refer to the following articles:

222371 OL2000: (CW) Rules Act Differently After Converting to Rules Wizard
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=222371

About managing messages with rules
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP010524761033.aspx

Please don't hesitate to let me know in case you have any further concern.
Have a nice day!

Regards,

Martin Qiu
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
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=====================================================
Business-Critical Phone Support (BCPS) provides you with technical phone
support at no charge during critical LAN outages or "business down"
situations. This benefit is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to all
Microsoft technology partners in the United States and Canada.

This and other support options are available here:

BCPS:
https://partner.microsoft.com/US/technicalsupport/supportoverview/40010469
Others: https://partner.microsoft.com/US/technicalsupport/supportoverview/

If you are outside the United States, please visit our International
Support page:
http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx
=====================================================

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Marceepoo - 20 Dec 2005 05:44 GMT

Dear Martin:

1. Thank you for the prompt reply and abundance of useful info.
2. The Outboxes don't have emails that I can't delete. The problem is that
emails stay in the outbox and don't go out to the intended recipient. Even
after I delete all the emails that have piled up in the outbox, when I next
try to send an email, it will just sit in the outbox. Sorry for not being
clear about that.
3. The urls to which you referred me contain useful info about messaging
rules, but I am looking for:
A. info about how to create server-side rules, and
B. possibly a few examples to emulate.
C I heard that there's an API or SDK that's downloadable, but I
haven't been able to ascertain where it is.

Thanks again for your courtesy and assistance.

Marceepoo

> Hello Marceepoo,
>
[quoted text clipped - 85 lines]
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Reply to this Message

Martin Qiu [MSFT] - 21 Dec 2005 11:07 GMT

Hi Marceepoo,

Thank you for your response.

According to your update, I understand that the email is never sent out
from Outbox folder whenever you log this specific user account Marc for XP
on three different computers. In this case, the mailbox for "Marc for XP"
may be corrupted. Please follow the steps below to recreate a new mailbox
to test the issue again. Your efforts are appreciated!

(1) Open Outlook, click File-> Import and Export-> Export to a file->
Next-> Personal Folder File, and follow the prompt to backup your mailbox.
For more information, please refer to:

287070 OL2002: How to Back Up, Restore, or Move Outlook Data
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=287070

(2) On the Exchange Server, open Active Directory Users and Computers.
(3) Click View, and select "Advanced Features".
(4) Right click the problematic user account, click "Exchange Tasks".
(5) Select "Delete Mailbox" and follow the prompt to delete it.
(6) Go to Exchange System Manager
(7) Click Organization -> Administrative Groups -> First Administrative
Group -> Mailbox Store -> Mailboxes.
(8) Right click Mailboxes and choose "Run Cleanup Agent".
(9) Right-click the deleted mailbox, and then click Purge to permanently
delete the mailbox. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
(10) Go back to the Active Directory Users and Computers.
(11) Repeat step (4) and select "Create Mailbox" to recreate the mailbox.

NOTE: You will not see the newly created mailbox in the Mailboxes container
until the user has successfully logged on the mailbox at least once.

(12) Open Outlook to connect to the Exchange Server again, and see if the
issue still exists.
(13) Restore the backup to the new mailbox.

For the example of server-side rule, you can refer to the following article:

291956 How to create a server-side rule to automatically reply with a
specific
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=291956

In the meantime, for the basic concepts about Outlook rule programming, you
can refer to the following Knowledge Base article:

324568 Description of programming with Outlook rules
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=324568

However, please understand that the partner newsgroups are provided for
specific break/fix issues. For further assistance with the API/SDK coding
issue, please consider these resources:

(1) MSDN newsgroups for peer experiences and recommendations:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.asp.

(2) ISV Advisory Services: If you have the MSPP-ISV Competency or are a
member of the Empower-ISV initiative, you are eligible to receive the
advisory services for assistance with issues such as consultative
assistance for design, development and deployment issues, code samples for
no-charge. For further assistance, you may send your question and your
partner-id to isvreg@microsoft.com. For US and Canada, you may also call
the following toll-free number to access the benefit by phone:
1-800-426-9400, option 4, your partner level member services, and follow
the instructions for ISV Advisory services.

I hope the information above is useful. Have a nice day!

Regards,

Martin Qiu
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=====================================================
Business-Critical Phone Support (BCPS) provides you with technical phone
support at no charge during critical LAN outages or "business down"
situations. This benefit is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to all
Microsoft technology partners in the United States and Canada.

This and other support options are available here:

BCPS:
https://partner.microsoft.com/US/technicalsupport/supportoverview/40010469
Others: https://partner.microsoft.com/US/technicalsupport/supportoverview/

If you are outside the United States, please visit our International
Support page:
http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx
=====================================================

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Reply to this Message