Outlook XP

[random621]

I support a small network of about 25 users using Outlook XP (POP3 - no Exchange server) and just ran across an issue I have never encountered before.

One of my users tried sending a bunch of pictures from a recent vacation, the message size was over 100MB. Obviously the message failed to send, but when he got an email back telling him the message failed to send, this "failure notice" email is now locking up his Outlook.

The "failure notice" email is 136MB and because Autopreview and preview pane are both turned on, as soon as I open Outlook it locks up.

I think if I could get auto preview turned off I might be in luck, but I can't do that - the system locks before I can do anything.

Does any one have any ideas?

 

[tfaust]

I don't know the exact protocol which govern e-mail admins, but it might be possible to have the admin delete the e-mail from the user's inbox.

The only reason I hedge here is that I had heard of an e-mail admin how had been asked to remove messages before and it put him in a bad position.

Since this is an incoming message which locks up the user, this might be a circumstance worth considering.

 

[joegz]

Try opening Outlook with the /safe switch and that will keep the preview pane from opening with Outlook.

joegz
"Sometimes you just need to find out what it's not first to figure out what it is."

 

[random621]

Sounds like opening Outlook with /safe would have been easier. But unfortunately I solved the problem a much more difficult way before reading the latest posts.

Here is how I fixed the problem:

What finally worked was I added the "locked" PST file as a secondary PST file for another email account. I then used the advanced find feature in Outlook to find files in the locked PST that were over 10MB in size. It found the bad email and I was able to delete that email in the advanced find window (which doesn't do any auto previewing). Then I copied the formerly locked PST file back to the users computer, made it the primary PST file and walaa - it worked. Kind of a pain, but in the end it worked.