Easy-Email

Before you set up Easy-Email synchronization for Outlook, there is one issue that we want to be sure you know about.

We refer to it as “Naughty Outlook” because Outlook sends emails on your behalf without asking your permission and quite frankly we think that's a bit naughty! And it is something Microsoft has known about since 2007 and hasn't fixed which makes it a Double Naughty...

It's not in all versions of Outlook and it only affects emails requesting read receipts so it may not ever be an issue for you. A full discussion of this issue - and the potential solutions – is outlined below.

Fortunately it looks as if Outlook 2010 does not suffer from this problem.

You can download a PDF version of this article here.

In this article:

• The bug

• When does this happen?

• Which versions of Outlook are affected?

• Your choices

• Links to related articles

• How can I tell if I have a Naughty Outlook?

  • Testing Outlook 2003

  • Testing Outlook 2007

  • Testing Outlook 2010

• Sample emails

The bug

When someone sends an email they can ask for a 'Read Receipt'. This is an email which is sent back to the sender of the email, so this person can see that their email has been read.

By default Outlook will ask you for permission before it sends the 'Read Receipt' so you can choose not to send it. However there is a bug in Outlook so sometimes it sends the 'Read Receipt' without asking you.

Microsoft has acknowledged this problem and opened a bug report on 28 December 2007, but a fix has not been provided yet.

When does this happen?

The bug is triggered when you work with your email using the IMAP protocol (which Easy-Email does) and you manage your email from more than one computer, for instance Outlook on your home computer and on your office computer.

An example:

You download an email on your office computer and then go home without reading it. At home you download the same email to your home computer, read it and move it from the inbox to another folder.

When you get back to the office and start up Outlook on your office computer it gets confused because the email is no longer in the inbox, and it will send an email to the sender saying the email has been deleted without being read.

This only happens for emails where a 'Read Receipt' has been requested.

Which versions of Outlook are affected?

Some versions of Outlook 2003 and 2007 are affected and some are not (yes, there are different build versions), so you will have to test to know for sure.

Initial tests with Outlook 2010 show that it is not affected by this problem, but we do recommend that you test to make sure the problem does not come back in later releases.

We have not tested Outlook XP and Outlook 2000.

Your choices

First you need to test your Outlook.

• If you do not have a Naughty Outlook: Go ahead and set up Easy-Email.

• If you do have a Naughty Outlook but nobody sends you emails with read receipts: Go ahead with Easy-Email.

  • In this case we recommend that you turn off the Outlook Junk Mail handling and hide the Gmail Spam folder from IMAP using the Gmail lab feature “Advanced IMAP Controls”.

• If you have a Naughty Outlook and do not want any Read Receipts to go out your options are:

  • Upgrade to Outlook 2010 (test first with the trial version).

  • Change to Thunderbird.

  • Don't synchronize your email using Easy-Email.
    If you have already bought the guide you can use our Money Back Guarantee to get a refund.

Links to related articles

We have gathered a few resources on the internet which discuss this problem.

Microsoft Developer Network posting with the bug report:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/innovateonoffice/thread/82024df4-d5ec-4f89-b268-f824dc26c370/

A thread on EmailDiscussions.com:

http://www.emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=51114

A thread on slipstick.com:

http://www.slipstick.com/problems/rr_ndr.asp

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