Date corruption - back to the future

R

RonL

I get email from a client's corporate server that Entourage incorrectly
reads dates and puts them out to the year 2018. This makes it
impossible to sort mail chronologically.

Email with the problematic date has the format:
Date: 15-Nov-2005 13:49:09 GMT

Emails with a "good" date have the format:
Date: Fri, 19 May 2006 11:23:52 +0100

So, the clue is the use of the "-" in the date format between the day,
month and year. This is what is causing the incompatibility between
their server and Entourage. Entourage must be trying to do a
"subtract" operation as it does with the time zone hours offset. I
notice in the problematic formats that time zones are named rather than
given a +/- reference.

I saw this once before from another company's server and it lasted for
about 3 months before it went away.

Of course, I have no influence over a large company's IT group to get
their attention - especially as a "lowly Mac user". I don't know their
OS or email software.

Has anyone else seen this or have any work-arounds?

Thanks for any help!

RonL
 
M

Mickey Stevens

You can try using Barry Wainwright's free "Correct the Date" script. It
includes a brief Read Me with instructions.
<http://www.scriptbuilders.net/search.php?search_str=Correct+the+Date>

Allen Watson's script allows you to change the date to one of your choice.
You can get it here:
<http://www.scriptbuilders.net/search.php?search_str=Modify+Date+Received>

I'm not sure exactly what the RFCs are for e-mail dates, but that format
does look suspect. Best would be to find out the e-mail client and let the
developer know about the issue.
 
R

RonL

Mickey,
Many thanks! Now I can at least fix my chron archives from that source
- even if it involves running that neat script. I'll try to find out
the client, but at least you have given me a way to preserve my sanity
:)

Ron
 
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