Weird Outlook problem - email is stuck in Outbox (not the one you are expecting)

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peterh337

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If you invoke Outlook using the Send To context e.g.

2016-07-12_170048.jpg


then the email is never sent - even if you have configured Outlook to send the email immediately, which works correctly when Outlook is invoked as a standalone app.

To make the email send I have to invoke Outlook standalone and click on Send/Receive.

In winXP I used Outlook Express for this job and that worked.

I realise Outlook is a piece of rubbish but right now I just need a very simple Send To function :)

I see somebody is selling an Outlook Express lookalike, for a fair bit of money!

Any suggestions much appreciated... as always.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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When you click on "Mail Recipient", what happens? Anything?
On mine, the email shows up with the file attached. But with (obviously) nothing in the To: block.

Maybe that email is opening behind a current window and you don't see it.
 
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peterh337

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If I click on Mail Recipient, Outlook pops up as it should. Then I enter the To: field, and click Send. Outlook then disappears and the email doesn't get sent.

I don't think that there is a dialog hidden behind something.

I think the OS terminates Outlook before it can send the email.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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I just tried exactly that, and it worked.
No error messages or anything?
 
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peterh337

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When you click on the Send button, does Outlook disappear?

2016-07-12_192155.jpg


It does on my system.

I am running Office 2007, BTW, on win7 64 bit.

The behaviour is exactly the same as with Outlook Express on winXP, except that OE does send the email immediately (as configured) before closing itself down, whereas Outlook closes immediately without sending the email.

The usual culprit is this checkbox, but I have that set correctly

2016-07-12_192431.jpg
 
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peterh337

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An the email gets sent immediately?

Let's say you are emailing a 10MB attachment. Do you see the Outlook program open (actually in that case it is just the send progress bar window) until the whole attachment is sent?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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I just sent a 15MB file, from Outlook, between 2 gmail addresses.
With Outlook not open at all:

The email message appears
Address it
Send
That email message closes
About 30-45 secs, it arrives at the other email box (of course, this depends on your ISP speed)

Outlook itself never opens. Just the outgoing email message.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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In Task Manager, that Outlook process only shows while the outgoing email window is open.
It is sending it in the background, via some other process.
 
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peterh337

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Hmmm... debugging this could be very complicated. Also I have no desire to use Outlook for anything else (it's frankly rubbish IMHO).

I better look for another program which can connect itself into the Send To context menu.

Any suggestions?

AFAIK the object being emailed gets transferred to the email app by means of a temporary file, passed on the command line which is used to invoke the email app. I have seen this documented somewhere. Any proper email program should work OK.
 
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peterh337

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I never solved it with Outlook, so I uninstalled that POS and installed Thunderbird. An hour or so later (TB does have some weird config features, especially when you just want SMTP Send, and want to config an invalid POP3 account so it never grabs incoming emails) I am up and running and emails are going out.

Thank you all for your help to narrow it down.
 
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