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emails with attachments not received, but if forwarded, are!

Stuart22
Grafter
Posts: 42
Registered: ‎10-10-2007

emails with attachments not received, but if forwarded, are!

Recent problem sending from one plusnet mailbox to another, if I send an attachment the message is not received, but if I then re-forward the message it is received! OL2003 at both ends but can't see why any security settings would only affect original emails. Huh
6 REPLIES 6
Peter_Vaughan
Grafter
Posts: 14,469
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: emails with attachments not received, but if forwarded, are!

Before downloading the email and forwarding, does the attachment show up in webmail - i.e. its is there but perhaps Outlook has a problem showing it.
Also is outlook updated with all the latest patches on both copies. There were some fixes in Office 2003 SP2 related to attachments.
spraxyt
Resting Legend
Posts: 10,063
Thanks: 674
Fixes: 75
Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: emails with attachments not received, but if forwarded, are!

FWIW I've just sent a message with Word attachment to myself using OL2003 (up to date patches, including yesterday's junk mail filter update).  Windows is XP.
No problems, arrived in 40 seconds.
David
Stuart22
Grafter
Posts: 42
Registered: ‎10-10-2007

Re: emails with attachments not received, but if forwarded, are!

No sign in Webmail. The original message was sent to a work address and my alternate Plusnet address (which I use on mobile internet). It arrived at my work address, but not my alt Plusnet one. Going back to the original mail and forwarding to my alt address worked.
I have replicated this with fresh emails (with attachments but haven't tested without attachments) sent only to my alt address, the originals do not appear in Webmail or the alt Inbox but the forwarded versions (forwarded from the Sent Items in my main PC) do arrive.
Either a problem with Outlook or with mail handling - the message is clearly reaching the mail server as the work address receives the mail, but something is deciding that sending to an address on the same mailserver shouldn't happen but its OK forwarding it later.

EDIT this is getting weird.
OK Lots of testing. In order.
1. Plain Mail from main to alt address - not received
2. Above, reforwarded from main Sent Items - received in 3 mins.
3. Mail with attachment - received in 1 min.
4. Above, forwarded - received in 12 mins.
5. Plain mail from main to alt and additional address - received in 1 min.
6. Above, forwarded received in 1 min.
7. Mail with attachment, to alt and additional, received in 11 mins.
8. Above, forwarded, received in 2 mins.
Can't really see a pattern in that. First mail to be sent never arrived.
Peter_Vaughan
Grafter
Posts: 14,469
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: emails with attachments not received, but if forwarded, are!

What kind of attachment is it. You could try with different types like a simple text one, a zipped file, maybe a word doc to see if its just that particular attachment type it is having issues with.
It sounds more like a mime formatting issue within the email that does not detect the message as having an attachment but the forwarded one does.
If you look at the headers of the mail not showing as having the attachment, do you see something similar to the following:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="US-ASCII"

or to go with the pdf attachment example below
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C7FF62.6977F7BA"

The Content-Type will change depending on the type of attachment.
Further down do you see any section like the following:
------_=_NextPart_001_01C7FF62.6977F7BA
Content-Type: application/octet-stream;
name="VIG Full Serv Schedule.pdf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="VIG Full Serv Schedule.pdf"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<snip>
MDAwMDQyNzg3IDAwMDAwIG4gCjAwMDAwNDM3NTMgMDAwMDAgbiAKdHJhaWxlcgo8PCAvU2l6ZSAy
OCAvUm9vdCAxIDAgUiAvSW5mbyAyIDAgUgovSUQgWyh48O8DM3l/f+3gOcFyMlxcIykoePDvAzN5
f3/t4DnBcjJcXCMpXQo+PgpzdGFydHhyZWYKNDUxODMKJSVFT0YK
------_=_NextPart_001_01C7FF62.6977F7BA--

The above is an example of a pdf attachment where the long lines of garbled text is the pdf file uuencoded.
The important bit will be the content-type and
a large section at the end of the email of all letters and numbers with exact line lengths (for binary type attachments) or the text of the actual attachment (for text type attachments). You may also see somewhere where there is a filename you recognise (name=.....).
Then look at the forwarded one to see if you see the same thing. If you see it in both then see where the differences are.
Stuart22
Grafter
Posts: 42
Registered: ‎10-10-2007

Re: emails with attachments not received, but if forwarded, are!

I edited my post. Think it may be part of the general email problem, as you can see I have tested further and eliminated the fact it is an attachment.
bobpullen
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 16,869
Thanks: 4,950
Fixes: 315
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: emails with attachments not received, but if forwarded, are!

Quote from: Stuart22
I edited my post. Think it may be part of the general email problem.

What general email problem? We completed the mail upgrades this morning and to be honest, email shouldn't be getting delayed (and certainly shouldn't be going missing!)
If you suspect this is still happening then make a note of the following details the next time you send an email between accounts and it fails to arrive.

  • The address you sent /from/
  • The address you sent /to/
  • The mail client or application you used to send the message
  • The address of the outgoing mail server you used (e.g. relay.plus.net)
  • The approximate time the message was sent
  • Any error messages (although doesn't sound like you get any)

With the above information we can check our Exim logs to try and see what happened. Feel free to PM me the details if you'd like me to take a look into things for you.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵