Outlook and Internet mail support

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OK, so this might be a bit off-topic from my regular blog posts, but since I am working on the Internet mail experience for the next release of Outlook, I wanted to hear from some of you about your experiences using our Internet mail account types (POP and IMAP).

In Outlook 2007, we did some improvements to make these account types work better.  For example, in IMAP we now allow you to configure your Sent Items folder to actually live on the IMAP server instead of in a local PST file.

Back to the questions however:

  • How could we improve your experience using Outlook for Internet mail?
  • What do other clients do that you'd like to see Outlook do?
  • Do you use Outlook on more than one computer with your Internet accounts?

Of course, if you have other suggestions or comments you'd like to add about our Internet mail support, then you can add those to the comments as well.  I'll make sure to read them all and reply as approriate.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    March 17, 2007
    I don't usually do this on weekends, but I found a lot going on in the past few days, so here's a special

  • Anonymous
    March 17, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    March 18, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    March 18, 2007
    I, for one, would like Outlook install to explicitly require the user to state where the default .PST should be installed, if Exchange is not detected. I have had users do a system reset and then start howling when the discovered the .pst was lost forever. Better search. With a nearly 1GB primary outlook store folder, I don't have speed problems with later-day systems, only on older (2.4GHz Pentium-based) rigs.

  • Anonymous
    March 18, 2007
    How about enabling Outlook (mainly POP) to work with a proxy server?  It is the only internet services program I have that can not do this (My University forces me to access the internet through a proxy server; though they provide both http and SOCKS). At the moment, I'm forced to use a program called SOCKSCap that intercepts all traffic from Outlook and diverts it through the SOCKS proxy, but it's a poor substitute for native support, and horribly unstable on Windows XP. I can't believe I'm the only person in the position of having to use a proxy server.  Please, give us somewhere to configure a proxy (or better still, how about having Outlook automatically inherit Internet Explorer's proxy settings?) Many thanks.

  • Anonymous
    March 18, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    March 19, 2007
    I use Exchange/Cached mode (OST file), and it is extremely annoying that it treats the POP mail as a different source (email server), even though it is the same mail database underneath.  A way to override this would be great.

  • Anonymous
    March 19, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    March 20, 2007
    My wife uses Outlook with 3 POP3 servers for her consulting business (her own personal account and two other consulting firms she consults with).  The number one problem she encounters is the POP authentication dialog.  It is quite common for one of the POP3 servers to fail (network issues normally) and then the id/password dialog appears.  Usually she is typing something else and this typing erases the password due to the focus switch.  She doesn't know the passwords for some of the POP3 servers since they are random strings.  This dialog should only appear if authentication fails not if the connection fails.

  • Anonymous
    March 22, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    March 25, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    March 26, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    March 29, 2007
    "Resend mail as new:" Open the copy in your Sent Items folder and click "Other Actions > Resend this item"

  • Anonymous
    March 29, 2007
    Presently Outlook 2003 and 2007 slow to a CRAWL when checking POP3 mail.  Clean up the background work so Outlook remains snappy!

  • Anonymous
    March 29, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    March 30, 2007
    POP3S and Certificates. I am trying to use pop3s to speak to dovcot on an OpenBSD system. Outlook does not like the certificate (and I am quite willing to believe that something is wrong with it). The message is "The target principal name is incorrect". I can continue to use this certificate, and pop3 works fine, but there seems to be no way to suppress the "Internet Security Warning" that pops up about every 15 minutes. In the previous version of out look, you only had to acknowledge the "Internet Security Warning" once per session. Please note the certificate is self signed.

  • Anonymous
    March 30, 2007
    During a send/retreive session, switch from the default folder set to the IMAP inbox then click "X" to delete an item.   That's guaranteed to lock things up here.

  • Anonymous
    March 30, 2007
    Do you use Outlook with a POP3 or IMAP account? Share your "Internet mail experience" with the man in...

  • Anonymous
    March 31, 2007
    Outlook 2007 in Vista will not send more than 1 item at a time. What a pain! I literally have to close Outlook and then re-open to send another item. How can I fix this?

  • Anonymous
    March 31, 2007
    It would be nice if it were easier to document profiles by printing them, and moving them to a place where they could be regularly backed up or easily pointed.

  • Anonymous
    March 31, 2007
    Mark Babb, what kind of account are you using POP or IMAP?  Do you know which ISP your mail account is configured with?  There are some occasional server issues that can cause problems with mail, but I haven't heard anyone else have issues with Outlook 2007 only sending one item at a time.

  • Anonymous
    April 01, 2007
    I have a number of long standing points that I would like to see modified (I use XP):

  1. The ability to attach a contact to a specific email account (with the choice of either only send with this account or use other accounts if available)
  2. Better control of send/receive when not in the office: in the office I have Broadband and when travelling I either use WiFi or 3G and these cost much more to use than the home connection. I would like to be able to restrict downloads and/or account activity on the basis of which connection I am using
  3. Better control of duplicate downloads: I use pop3/smtp and Outlook easily downloads multiple duplicates, which if the "remove from server when deleted" deletes emails that should be kept.
  4. I'd like some of the add-ins provided by Sperry to be built in to Outlook (auto bcc, remove duplicates)
  5. I would like to have more control over the save as and the "Display as" field of the email address eg I would like a rule: First Name Second Name (Company)
  6. (Possibly a bit off-topic) the ability to sync sent emails with Pocket Outlook as I want to know what I have sent.
  7. I'd like the ability to send an email account configuration (with pop/smtp details) file to another Computer so I can import account details easily.
  8. Associated with the point 2. above I'd like to have more powerful scheduling for send and receive: eg night vs day, account level settings

  • Anonymous
    April 01, 2007
    I use the AOL IMAP server so I can use OL 2003. Haven't seen the OL 2007 interface yet--apologize if this has been covered. The Views in the IMAP folders could be a little friendlier--some more flexibility to arrange deleted.

  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2007
    I used to use Eudora, which allowed selective deletion of messages from the (POP3) server.  I use my machine at home to check mail at work, leaving copies on the server; it would make handling Spam (in particular) much more efficient if I only had to handle it once.

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2007
    Please make Outlook more portable among computers. I tend to change my primary computer fairly often, and moving my setup, including Outlook, from one to the next is a pain. Thx.

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2007
    I'd like to second Adam's request about an ability to better manage sent messages in a way to track those we've sent but have received no reply. His idea was to create a rule that would enable us to mark some messages sent to some people who we deem may be likely not to follow-up. What I'd prefer is simply a means to be prompted on all ougtoing messages (if we enable such an option) to ask us if we want to track the message. Then we just need a way to track those which have not been replied to. I realize this isn't easy or it would have been done before. But if a way can be determined, it would be a great fature.

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 10, 2007
    I will describe 2 scenarios where Outlook IMAP and PST is, unfortunately, a nightmare to use and to support: (i) users have a Windows domain in office, but log on to different machines. (ii) users have a Windows domain in office but need to access their Outlook data while being on travel with their notebook (online and offline). POP:

  • To make pst files available offline, this can be done by putting them in the roaming profile of a user.
  • However, if the connection gets lost while the outlook file is being transmitted, the pst file is usually worth trash.
  • If a user logs off from computer A and logs on to computer B while his roaming profile with the pst file is not yet copied back to the server completely, a second pst file (copy of the first one) is being produced. Thus, the user may end up with a 4 GB instead of a 2 GB roaming profile...
  • Settings are stored in several different files and it is hard to find out which files need to be moved to roaming directories so that all settings remain intact. IMAP:
  • Overall, terrible user experience with a slow mail provider and virtually impossible to maintain consisting settings for an average user for scenarios (ii).
  • The local cache file is not available to the user (like in Exchange caching mode). Thus, a user cannot access his previous mail when the mail server is not available even though the cache file does have all the information in it and can, in principle, be opened and looked at (only advisable for experts).
  • the settings are spread over even more files than with POP: there is the personal pst file that contains the contacts, for example. Settings, rules, nk2 information are stored in several different files. As a consequence, as soon as a user logs on to another machine where no cache file is present, most but not all settings are lost. Altogether, this produces an inconsistent and tedious user experience
  • the steps necessary to view the recipient rather than the sender for an IMAP-based Sent Items mail folder are too complicated and obscure
  • the steps necessary to open Outlook with the IMAP inbox rather than with the personal folder inbox are too complicated an obscure
  • it is possible to move an imap-file to a roaming or server-based location (even though it is nowhere documented), but it ruins the Send/Receive settings.

  • Anonymous
    April 11, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2007
    I am having trouble finding any information on an issue I'm having with Outlook 2007 and IMAP accounts. It seems that maybe there is some type of limitation of how many imap connections you can have simultaneously? I have about 5 imap accounts at the same place and I can't seem to keep them all online at the same time? 3 or 4 of them but not all. IS THERE some limitation in Outlook 2007 that is causing this. Maybe some criss cross of authentication between Outlook and the IMAP server? Is there some way to authenticate one at a time instead of simultaneously? Very strange and somewhat frustrating. Thanks

  • Anonymous
    April 13, 2007
    I have a largish ie 6GB imap pst.  My c drive is slow, and I have a faster raid setup for e drive.  However, I have not been able to move the imap pst file, as Outlook automatically creates a new pst file if you try and move the old one, even using the control panel --> mail approach.  The slowness of outlook 2007 means that I am forced to use Thunderbird, as with the same amount of data even on the slow c drive, it is quite useable, whereas outlook can take minutes to change folders / check mail /etc.  I really like the UI, but the speed (on a Core 2 Duo 6600 with 2GB of RAM) makes it completely unworkable.

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
    Dear sirs, ladies: I use Panasonic Fax machine to send/ receiver fax. We can get fax in tif file in my PC. but PanaSonic fax software do not support email service. When I get a fax in tif file in a certain folder, Pls tell me how to activate my outlook2000, to attach that tif file and send email to me ? then even on weekend, I am 200kms away from fax machine, I can still check email to see my fax. How to do it with my outlook2000 ? Thanks for your teaching. li rongbao if possible, Pls end email to rongbao999@gmail.com thanks.

  • Anonymous
    April 23, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 03, 2007
    IMAP IDLE is broken in Outlook 2007.  The logs show that it sends an IDLE command, then it deliberately sends the LOGOUT command.  On the next connect I see my authentication go back to the server again.  This is not what I expect to see. MAP: 01:23:00 [tx] 5h10 IDLE IMAP: 01:23:00 [db] OnNotify: asOld = 5, asNew = 5, ae = 3 IMAP: 01:23:00 [rx] + entering idle mode IMAP: 01:23:49 [tx] Dropping connection, LOGOUT sent IMAP: 01:23:49 [db] Connection to 'mail.xyz.com' closed. I would like to see it behave more like FlexMail 2007 which is my PocketPC mail client. 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:49:33 S 7 IDLE 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:49:35 R + entering idle mode 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:49:35 Waiting for IDLE response 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:49:35 R :IDLEReceive:Step 1 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:49:35 R :IDLEReceive:Step 2 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:49:35 R :IDLEReceive:Step 3 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:49:35 R :IDLEReceive:Step 4 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:49:35 R :IDLEReceive:Step 5 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:52:35 R :IDLEReceive:Step 6 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:52:35 R :IDLEReceive:Step 7 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:52:35 IDLE waiting returned: hStatus = -2134900716 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:52:35 Timeout, reissuing IDLE 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:52:35 S DONE 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:52:36 R 7 OK IDLE completed 1322793198 - 2007.4.21 3:52:36 S 8 IDLE Notice that I have the IDLE set for 3 minutes and after the timeout a new IDLE command is sent to the server.  Unless my cellular connection drops I only see my UID and PWD being sent to the server once during the time I have Flexmail running.

  • Anonymous
    May 04, 2007
    Whenever I copy text/plain messages from a .pst to an IMAP folder, Outlook tacks on an HTML version of the message.  Boy, what I would give for a way to disable that...

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2007
    The most needed is speed improvements in imap. I have a few users who want to use outlook, but imap support is so slow that we have to use thunderbird instead. If imap would be good supported, then I would be able to migrate all my users to outlook. Indeed a good spam sollution as in thunderbird would be nice to.

  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2007
    Something is broken with my brand new Outlook 2007: as soon as I add an IMAP account Outlook can't be started anymore again. Example:

  • start OL without accounts defined: OK
  • add a POP account: works OK then exit
  • restart OL: OK
  • add a IMAP account: works OK then exit
  • restart OL: NOK, no chance. I have to remove the IMAP account in the "control panel => mail", then it works again.

  • Anonymous
    May 13, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 14, 2007
    Pip: You can download the Outlook Connector (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=aa0ad3b0-e1a4-4990-a2be-dde78fed0709&DisplayLang=en) and use it to connect to your Hotmail account from Outlook.  However, currently you need a Hotmail premium account for this to work. We are working on a solution so that all Hotmail users can access their e-mail through Outlook, and it should be available soon.

  • Anonymous
    May 15, 2007
    Other folders than simply "Sent" need to be allowed to live on the IMAP server like any other email client. (drafts, templates, etc.) Rules (or filtering) needs to work with IMAP folders. Shell integration: When sending an outlook email not launched through the client (for example right click on a word doc in the windows file explorer and "Send To->Mail Recipient") it goes into the Outlook sent mail folder instead of the configured IMAP sent folder. Same problem for the Salesforce.com Outlook Edition 3.0 plugin. Emails sent using the plugin go to the Outlook send mail instead of IMAP sent mail. Additionaly emails in the IMAP sent mail are not correctly identified to SF.com plugin as "sent" messages and therefor when attempting to associate and email with an account it searches the sender field (me) instead of the recipient. This works correctly if the email is in the Outlook sent mail folder. -Dave

  • Anonymous
    May 15, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2007
    Separate from what I miss in Outlook, you also ask what other clients do. I've recently this week been looking at other x86 email clients, so this is what I've found as it relates to "the Outlook experience": ** First, Outlook is a big package. A lot of users will use some of its features but not others. A configuration wizard (usable at any time rather than just at 1st install) that asks what features and subfeatures will be used, and hides/disables those which won't be used, would go a long way to simplifying Outlook in many cases. (And the config would obviously be changeable if the use of the program changed.) ** The filters are hopelessly limited. Look at something like "The Bat" for how email filters should work. ** Management of emails held on the server -- again The Bat handles this * really * nicely. Its buried under "Message Dispatcher" but it's well designed. ** Better handling of attachments, and more options on Data Export. For example... the Export function exports emails to Access, but although Access 2007 has an "attachment" data type for binary files, attachments help in Outlook are not exported. The Export function has no real options to choose what to export, either. ** Likewise there is no "attachment viewer" that allows one to review Windows-explorer-style the attachments in a PST file and delete some and move others to a separate folder with a link inserted in the original email to note that the attachment has been deleted or removed. ** With most of Office having moved to more open saved data standards, I think it's also time that I'd like to see an option for Outlook to use new data store formats that're more open too (JET or similar self-contained database???  XML???), or at least to import/export all its data and/or user settings to one. ** Settings and options are still quite scattered, often buried under buttons within "advanced" panels accessed by buttons shown within tabbed controls accessed within menus... this can probably be better managed. ** Views and view customization can probably be simplified. Hope these ideas help. Those (together with the previous post above) are the obvious ones to me, as an Outlook Internet Mail user.

  • Anonymous
    May 17, 2007
    I've found Outlook 2007 to be a complete disaster, and I can't find any way to fix it.  All of a a sudden, I can't view the details of any of my 5 mail addresses.  I have all of them coming into one account on my Outlook, and for some reason, none of them display under tools > Accounts.  If I hit repair or delete, the same account shows as active every time.  I hit the up or down arrow, and it doesn't change which account I'm working on.  I've got a problem with one, and I can't even get to it!  I've googled, and not found anyone else having this problem.  I've searched Microsoft, and can't find anything related to it.  Do I have to destroy everything and start over?  

  • Anonymous
    May 17, 2007
    Eugene, could you use the EMail button at the top of my blog to contact me?  I'd like to get some more information about your setup.

  • Anonymous
    May 17, 2007
    (Small addendum - OL 2007 is noticably slower to respond than 2000. Sluggish.)

  • Anonymous
    May 17, 2007
    I've also got the serious sluggishness when sending/receiving. O2007 takes 100% of processor resource and if you're writing and email at the time justs stops completely until the send/receive has finished. It's also noticeable in other apps too, but not fortunately to the same extent. There have been 100's if not thousands of posts about this and it's about time we had a fix. I'm seriously considering going back to O2003.

  • Anonymous
    May 20, 2007
    Bug report in OL2007 for you, with fix/workaround: My symptom was -- POP/SMTP individually would send/receive but the full send/receive automation didn't prrocess them, they sat on "processing" forever. Simultaneously a tray icon saying OL2007 was "synchronizing folders" came up and sat there forever. This has been reported by others; the fix/workaround is to go into folder properties and turn off "create outlook/exchange views". For example: http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=101&threadID=206501&messageID=2161945 (This thread references the same problem I had) http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=101&threadID=206501&messageID=2178299 (This reply posts the solution. It worked for me, too.) It looks like there may be a minor OL2007 Internet Mail lockup bug there. hence this post to draw it to your attention.

  • Anonymous
    May 22, 2007
    All I can say is give an IMAP account the same feeling as a local PST folder. I mean, when you press delete move it to a specific folder. Rules doesn't seem to work on IMAP folders. The only improvement I see since 2003 is the fact that you can now set your SENT folder. If you don't understand what I mean just install Thunderbird from Mozilla and you will know. If you want my honest opinion; I never saw such a disappointing support for IMAP in a commercial product. In our company the only reason to still use outlook is the fact that our sales people use a plugin for a certain CRM application to archive their mail. But if even sales people (read: users) start to say that they prefer Thunderbird there must be something seriously wrong. And no I am not going to buy an expensive Exchange server. I am really looking forward to a better support for IMAP in Outlook or at least a plugin that makes folders and rules work like they should.

  • Anonymous
    June 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    June 07, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2007
    One nice feature would be when opening a recurring appointment, to add a "open future occurrences" option.  A lot of people I work with will create recurring appointments with no start or stop date.  Eventually they'll change the appointment, and this will usually modify the previous appointments as well.