Software

Ask something
Question Locked

Microsoft Outlook 2003 does not send email immediately

0 helpful
18 replies

by healer

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
I have set the Microsoft Outlook 2003 to send email immediately, that is as soon as I finish writing and click on the Send button, but it doesn't until I click on Send/Receive button. Is this a bug?

18 replies

by 911foryourpc

In Outlook, go to Tools, Options, Mail Format, and remove the check mark next to "Use Microsoft Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages." The next time you send a link from a web page or compose an email, when you click send, Outlook will immediately send the e-mail. The bug or "problem" is that Word's editor looks like Outlook, but is not Outlook, and send means send it to Outlook's out-box and not the recipient. I have found no method to change that feature within MS Word, so you are stuck either choosing Word as your default editor and sending e-mail twice, or turning it off as your default editor and sending e-mail once. (What jokers those guys at Microsoft are who left this nagging problem.)

by healer

I have tried all combinations. I have even removed as well the tick beside Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to read Rich Text e-mail messages. I have changed HTML to plain text. None whatsoever works.

Moreover, it is supposed to get mail when the program just starts, but it doesn't either.

by 911foryourpc

I have had Outlook 2003 do the same thing again, as before (not sending the email instantly) The fix by removing Word as the editor apparently was only temporary??? I am upset at Microsoft for having this annoyance. Anyway, this time I tried the account fix and it works, so far. I went to tools, options, mail setup, send/receive, made a copy of All Accounts, and named it after my ISP. I made no settings to it. No extra folders appear in Outlook. This fix was posted elsewhere on the internet, but to me it made no sense so I never did it. Now when I send links, the go out right away. I'll look into registry tweaks and see if the send/receive upon closing Outlook can be changed to do so on opening.

by healer

Thanks! I don't quite follow your fix. Could you please elaborate a bit more! What do you mean by "account fix" and "named it after my ISP" I don't really know what you actually did.

By the way, does your Microsoft Outlook automatically retrieve email when it starts? Mine doesn't, I have supposed it should.

by 911foryourpc

Open Outlook. Go to Tools, Options, Mail setup, click the Send/Receive button on the right. Assuming the only group name that is listed is All Accounts, highlight that and click copy. It asks for a Send/Receive group name, use your ISP name. That's all there is to it, no other settings changed. Click close in lower right corner, then make sure the send immediately box is checked. Click apply in lower right corner. (I un-check the box, then check it, then click apply.) It's been working since I first tried it.

by healer

I followed your advice to the letter, so I have an extra Send/Receive Groups. I couldn't remove the old group. I do not know the significance of having the ISP name to be the name of the group but I did exactly as you told me. Nevertheless, it doesn't make any difference. This problem seems to happen only on my laptop which is running XP Home on wireless network. I have another computer which is a desktop running XPPro with cabled network exhibiting no problem at all. I change the Microsoft Outlook on the desktop to point to the database on the laptop. So they both access the same outlook file.

by healer

What happens to the message that has been edited by the moderator?

by 911foryourpc

I am sorry the solutions working for me are not working for you. As a last measure, you might check account settings. Additionally, you might try setting up a new desktop user account with the settings I suggested here and see if they work on the new user desktop; if so you'd have to transfer all your stuff to that desktop account, but it might be worth it. I have corrected other strange windows problems by creating a new user account and using that account; for example once the search function disappeared from my start menu, and I could not make it go on.

by 911foryourpc

I was merely stating to the letter what had worked for me. I chose the ISP name because I expected something more from outlook, like questions about the account user profile etc. If it made folders, I wanted them named for my ISP.

by healer

Is that what you mean, another user account? If so, I shall try it later on. There will be a lot of other settings that I shall have to transfer too. Thanks I shall let you know the result.

by 911foryourpc

Yes, and to some it's too much bother. I have cloned my desktop "user account" a number of times over the years on different machines going back to Win98 in 1999. It only takes an half an hour or less, most times, to transfer. I always try the troublesome program first (in this case Outlook) to see if the fresh OOBE settings correct the issue. Also, if you have never done it, you'll want to know that a third user account with Administrator privledges will need to be created if you have problems transferring files in use. {If you old account is A and you are logged in on B and want to transfer files from A that works, but sometimes account B files are in use and cannot be overwritten, and a similar issue if you login to A and try to copy and paste or move files in use. When this happens, I create a 3rd account [C] That way nobody's files are busy except C's.

However, if you're simply moving your documents from the "My Documents" folder and stuff on your desktop, and not moving the hidden Applications folder from c:\documents and settings\healer folder tree, then creating a third account is totally not necessary.

by healer

First of all, I have about 6 accounts from where I use Outlook to retrieve email. I have set up so that I can read email from any computer on the network provided the computer where I store the mail files is turned on. Every time I set up another computer to access emails or restart Microsoft Outlook afresh I have to manually enter setup info of all accounts. It is very tedious and annoying. So far I still cannot retrieve or work out where all this info is. Perhaps you can help me in this respect.

Also I have a lot of programs installed, if I simply copy the application data from one account to the other, will they all work as usual? I can never copy the setup data for Microsoft Outlook because I don't know where. I did try C:\Documents and Settings\healer\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook, but it doesn't work. It seems to me there is some data stored in the registry needed to be initialised.

By the way, what is OOBE setting? Is it Out-Of-Box Experience? How am I supposed to check it?

by 911foryourpc

Yes, OOBE is the out of box experience. I got used to transferring folders from the Applications folder a while ago. I've used thunderbird and firefox and when you want to copy those files and account settings(including all emails and bookmarks, etc.) It is easy to

1. Setup Firefox on the new computer, or use it on the new desktop.

2. That once having used firefox, close it.

3. Go to old machine or desktop and go to C:\Documents and Settings\[name of user]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[defaultstring numbers].default (yours would say healer for name of user and a series of alphanumeric characters for default string number.

4. Copy all the files. Past all the files into the new computer or desktop.

These same steps work for a myriad of folders. I have actually merely copied all the folders, hidden and system as well, saved them on a thumbdrive and on the other computer pasted them into the applications folder--this ONLY AFTER HAVING INSTALLED ALL THE APPLICATIONS THAT WERE ON THE OLD COMPUTER.

by sandwich11

Look in the lower right hand corner of the Outlook window. If it says "offline," click on this and uncheck "work offline." Outlook should now send and receive immediately, if that is how you have it configured.

by grazuncle

Wow. .after trying all of the above and complicated avenues.. all it was was 'offline'!!!!!

Thanks for the heads up.

by c_robertson

By default outlook waits until you hit send and receive. To send immediately after composing (if you are online)
Open outlook, Select tools>Options>Mail setup tab>send/receive button>then check the Schedule an automatic send/receive every (5) minutes for offline and the online options.
I have this in my checklist when I set up new computers for several companies.

This discussion is closed to new replies.