lost e-mail - overwritten due to same header?

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outlookhelpneeded

I was retrieving e-mail and I had 2 e-mails that were sent to me not more
than 30 seconds or so apart. When I was done with the retrieval, even though
outlook saw 13 messages on the server, I only had 12. When I looked through
them, I noticed I only had the second e-mail that had been sent. Both
e-mails would have had the same sender, subject, and send time except for
being only 20-30 seconds apart although I'm unsure whether outlook looks at
seconds. My thought is that possibly outlook has a key to its message
storage and that possibly since these messages has similar characteristics /
header (although the content was different), the second may have overwritten
the first.

Has anyone experienced this or know anything about this possibility? Is
there key being used in the PST message storage (possibly for performance /
indexing / etc.) that might have caused this?

ANy help would be appreciated. I am using Outlook 2000.

Thanks.....
 
Is it possible that they were the same message and just received twice?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact.
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375


After furious head scratching, outlookhelpneeded asked:

| I was retrieving e-mail and I had 2 e-mails that were sent to me not
| more than 30 seconds or so apart. When I was done with the
| retrieval, even though outlook saw 13 messages on the server, I only
| had 12. When I looked through them, I noticed I only had the second
| e-mail that had been sent. Both e-mails would have had the same
| sender, subject, and send time except for being only 20-30 seconds
| apart although I'm unsure whether outlook looks at seconds. My
| thought is that possibly outlook has a key to its message storage and
| that possibly since these messages has similar characteristics /
| header (although the content was different), the second may have
| overwritten the first.
|
| Has anyone experienced this or know anything about this possibility?
| Is there key being used in the PST message storage (possibly for
| performance / indexing / etc.) that might have caused this?
|
| ANy help would be appreciated. I am using Outlook 2000.
|
| Thanks.....
 
I was retrieving e-mail and I had 2 e-mails that were sent to me not more
than 30 seconds or so apart. When I was done with the retrieval, even though
outlook saw 13 messages on the server, I only had 12. When I looked through
them, I noticed I only had the second e-mail that had been sent. Both
e-mails would have had the same sender, subject, and send time except for
being only 20-30 seconds apart although I'm unsure whether outlook looks at
seconds. My thought is that possibly outlook has a key to its message
storage and that possibly since these messages has similar characteristics /
header (although the content was different), the second may have overwritten
the first.

Has anyone experienced this or know anything about this possibility? Is
there key being used in the PST message storage (possibly for performance /
indexing / etc.) that might have caused this?

ANy help would be appreciated. I am using Outlook 2000.
Click to expand...

If both messages had the exact same "Message-ID:" string, they were the
exact same message. Since you don't have the other, there is no way to tell,
now. But I've never heard of something like this, and can only assume that
they had the same "Message-ID:" string.
 
I actually sent myself the 2 e-mails from another e-mail account. Thus I
know they were 2 different e-mails. I forwarded 2 different versions that
were similar, but had slightly different text in the message body. Thus the
header would have been the same except for being 20-30 seconds apart,
although I don't know whether outlook looks at seconds. When I look at
received time, it only lists the hour and minute.
 
I actually sent myself the 2 e-mails from another e-mail account. Thus I
know they were 2 different e-mails. I forwarded 2 different versions that
were similar, but had slightly different text in the message body. Thus
the
header would have been the same except for being 20-30 seconds apart,
Click to expand...

More than just the time stamp would differ.
 
I actually sent myself the 2 e-mails from another e-mail account. Thus I
know they were 2 different e-mails. I forwarded 2 different versions that
were similar, but had slightly different text in the message body. Thus the
header would have been the same except for being 20-30 seconds apart,
although I don't know whether outlook looks at seconds. When I look at
received time, it only lists the hour and minute.
Click to expand...

Under that circumstance, even if the two messages were identical, they
should have had different "Message-ID:" strings. If Outlook can't
distinguish between different "Message-ID:" strings, then it is seriously
FUBAR.
 
Since only 1 was left after the mail retrieval was finished I do not know. I
could try the same thing more that a minute apart and see what happens. All
I know that the mails has the same sender, the same subject, the same sent
time except for the seconds, came through the same server, etc. They had
slightly different text in the body, but had the same named attachment.

They were sent through an e-mail forwarding service where I am unsure how
that would have changed the message ID string. Depending on that, would
outlook overwrite an e-mail with the same message ID string? Does it assume
all e-mails have an unique message ID and use that for storage? I would
think that would be more of an attribute on an e-mail. What kind of
algorythms are normally used in the population of a message ID? If enough
certain attributes of an e-mail were the same would it generate the same
message ID? Or is it generated more randomly?

Thanks for the help....
 
outlookhelpneeded said:
Since only 1 was left after the mail retrieval was finished I do not know. I
could try the same thing more that a minute apart and see what happens. All
I know that the mails has the same sender, the same subject, the same sent
time except for the seconds, came through the same server, etc. They had
slightly different text in the body, but had the same named attachment.

They were sent through an e-mail forwarding service where I am unsure how
that would have changed the message ID string. Depending on that, would
outlook overwrite an e-mail with the same message ID string? Does it assume
all e-mails have an unique message ID and use that for storage? I would
think that would be more of an attribute on an e-mail. What kind of
algorythms are normally used in the population of a message ID? If enough
certain attributes of an e-mail were the same would it generate the same
message ID? Or is it generated more randomly?

Thanks for the help....


"N. Miller" wrote:

> On Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:56:10 -0700, outlookhelpneeded wrote:
>
> > I was retrieving e-mail and I had 2 e-mails that were sent to me not more
> > than 30 seconds or so apart. When I was done with the retrieval, even though
> > outlook saw 13 messages on the server, I only had 12. When I looked through
> > them, I noticed I only had the second e-mail that had been sent. Both
> > e-mails would have had the same sender, subject, and send time except for
> > being only 20-30 seconds apart although I'm unsure whether outlook looks at
> > seconds. My thought is that possibly outlook has a key to its message
> > storage and that possibly since these messages has similar characteristics /
> > header (although the content was different), the second may have overwritten
> > the first.
> >
> > Has anyone experienced this or know anything about this possibility? Is
> > there key being used in the PST message storage (possibly for performance /
> > indexing / etc.) that might have caused this?
> >
> > ANy help would be appreciated. I am using Outlook 2000.
>
> If both messages had the exact same "Message-ID:" string, they were the
> exact same message. Since you don't have the other, there is no way to tell,
> now. But I've never heard of something like this, and can only assume that
> they had the same "Message-ID:" string.
>
> --
> Norman
> ~Oh Lord, why have you come
> ~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum
>
Click to expand...

It happened to me too. And I confirmed that outlook.com overwrites the message with the same header/subject. And from the same sender. This is a flaw that will prevent me from using outlook.com.....will continue to use yahoo.....I am surprised Microfoft has left such a basic flaw.....
 
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