Member Avatar for Jiggie

sup guys, i searched everywhere on the web for a solution to my problem.
i work for a company of over 1500 users and only 3 are experiencing this problem.

they can only receive e-mail(outlook) when they refresh the folder. i mean if i send them an e-mail they wont see the mail until the click another folder or the send and receive button. i checked the seetings to receive every 3 mins and notihng happens. i compared the options of outlook with others and are the same.
1 user has office 2000 and windows xp
2 user has office xp and windows xp

i know is a client side problem not on the server, cause i created their profiles on other machines and they work fine.

they are all updated to office sp3 and all the windows patches.
any suggestions

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Barry Taylor

Dani AI

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Given that only a handful of desktops are affected and, per , the same Outlook/profile works on other machines, this points to something on those specific PCs (installed software, services, drivers or per-machine settings) interfering with Outlook background refresh. The advice below focuses on fast, non-destructive isolation and on Outlook-specific diagnostics you can run right away.

  • Start Outlook in safe mode (outlook.exe /safe). If new mail arrives normally, suspect an add-in; disable COM add-ins one at a time (Tools -> Options -> Other -> Advanced Options -> COM Add-Ins) and remove any third-party Outlook integrations (AV mail-scanners, mobile sync tools, connectors).
  • Perform a clean boot (run msconfig, hide Microsoft services, disable remaining non-Microsoft services and startup items) and reboot. If the problem vanishes, re-enable groups of items to find the offending software.
  • Create a new local Windows user and a fresh Outlook profile on the problem PC (Control Panel -> Mail -> Show Profiles -> Add). If that profile behaves, the original user profile is likely corrupted.
  • Enable Outlook protocol logging (Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> enable logging), reproduce the issue, then inspect the log files in %TEMP%\Outlook Logging\ for IMAP/MAPI errors or repeated timeouts.
  • If the account is IMAP (as asked), confirm whether the server supports IDLE/push; if it does not, the client must poll and any local network/filtering software can block or delay those polls.
  • Gather network-level evidence if needed: brief packet capture during reproduce will show whether the client is sending polls and whether the server replies.

If safe mode or clean boot fixes the situation, reintroduce items one at a time until the culprit is found. If logs show repeated protocol errors or timeouts, include those log lines when escalating to the server admins. If all else fails, back up mailbox data and follow the mailbox rebuild path suggested earlier by .

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All 10 Replies

Member Avatar for kc0arf

Hello,

Not having Outlook here locally, I cannot search the menus out and see. Is there a menu setting within the program to poll the server every X amount of minutes, and update automatically?

I agree it is a client problem. If you logged into these machines using your Domain account, and you setup your profile on that machine, can you receive your email properly? If so, I would suggest that the problem is in the user's NT profile, and you may need to rebuild them. If your email does not work properly, then I would blame Outlook or the OS, and remove the Outlook client, and re-install.

If that is a lot of work, you may need to simply educate the users to hit F5 once in a while to update the folders.

Good Luck

Christian

Member Avatar for oalee

what kind of mail server do you have? Imap? POP3??

Member Avatar for aeinstein

export/back-up their msgs, address book(s) & contacts and any other pertinent info/data (like settings, templates, etc); delete & then re-create their client-side mailbox. prior to importing/restoring previous msgs/data test mailbox. if issues persist mail client is corrupted & needs to be reloaded.

Member Avatar for Jiggie

Hello,

Not having Outlook here locally, I cannot search the menus out and see. Is there a menu setting within the program to poll the server every X amount of minutes, and update automatically?

Christian

i checked the seetings to receive every 3 mins and notihng happens.
i did check and nothing. is just a random problem..trying to see what those 3 users have in commom

Member Avatar for Jiggie

what kind of mail server do you have? Imap? POP3??

i think is imap.

Member Avatar for Jiggie

export/back-up their msgs, address book(s) & contacts and any other pertinent info/data (like settings, templates, etc); delete & then re-create their client-side mailbox. prior to importing/restoring previous msgs/data test mailbox. if issues persist mail client is corrupted & needs to be reloaded.

their profiles work on other machines, made from the same image. with no problems, i'm thinking is something they installed, as they have admin rights.

Member Avatar for Jiggie

thank you guys for the support, i really appreciate it

Member Avatar for aeinstein

i think is imap.

if ur admining u should KNOW.

Member Avatar for aeinstein

thank you guys for the support, i really appreciate it

are ur ppl u/r?

Member Avatar for Barry Taylor

Jiggie make sure the Windows Firewall is turned off, it has produced the identical problem on my own network following a roll out of XP SP2.

Barry

PS you can control this through Group Policy :)

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