Folders with "+" character dump some email to Inbox @ update

[MattStanford]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel Email Client: Exchange Just updated Entourage to 13.0.4, and was presented with about 400 emails (some read, some unread) in Inbox. I practice InBoxZero, so this was a surprise.
Turns out almost all the mail so re-positioned had come back out of mailboxes with a + character in their name (for example "PR + Advertising&quot.

Weird.

 

[Diane Ross]

Turns out almost all the mail so re-positioned had come back out of
mailboxes with a + character in their name (for example "PR +
Advertising").

View Amir Haque's post: E-mail Download Issue in Entourage With Exchange
2007 on Windows 2008

http://bit.ly/cNySqB

 

[MattStanford]

View Amir Haque's post: E-mail Download Issue in Entourage With Exchange

> 2007 on Windows 2008
> http://bit.ly/cNySqB
> --
> Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP

Diane, that seems to suggest there's something ...unique...about Exchange that means you'll never see emails with a + in the subject line: I saw all these messages, and had previously marked them as read, and stored them in folders in Entourage.

The folders had a + in the folder name; and the messages that were placed back in the InBox were a mixture of read and unread.

I would have thought if it were a known problem, Entourage would have prevented me making a folder in relation to my Exchange account that was less than perfectly compatible.

 

[Diane Ross]

I would have thought if it were a known problem, Entourage would have
prevented me making a folder in relation to my Exchange account that was
less than perfectly compatible.

We can only dream that the application would be that smart. <sigh>

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

Diane, that seems to suggest there's something ...unique...about
Exchange that means you'll never see emails with a + in the subject
line: I saw all these messages, and had previously marked them as read,
and stored them in folders in Entourage.

The folders had a + in the folder name; and the messages that were
placed back in the InBox were a mixture of read and unread.

I would have thought if it were a known problem, Entourage would have
prevented me making a folder in relation to my Exchange account that was
less than perfectly compatible.

The problem with a "+" in the subject is unique to Entourage 2008, which
uses WebDAV to talk with Exchange. I don't believe the problem extends
to creating folders with the symbol.

Once you switched to Entourage EWS, you started using Exchange Web
Services to talk with Exchange. Therefore, the mail messages appeared to
you.

I don't understand what you mean by "Entourage would have prevented me
making a folder in relation to my Exchange account".

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>

 

[MattStanford]

I don't understand what you mean by &quot;Entourage would have prevented me

> making a folder in relation to my Exchange account&quot;.
> --
> bill

Precisely as you say Bill: If it's a known issue with Entourage 2008, wouldn't it be great if Entourage 2008 contained some code to prevent you creating folders that it knew would be a problem (in the same way that Finder won't let me make folders or files with ; or / in the filename).

I think &quot;Oh yes, that's a known issue. You just have to not use the + symbol in a folder name&quot; is an unacceptable workaround. Why can't the application itself prevent me?

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

Precisely as you say Bill: If it's a known issue with Entourage 2008,
wouldn't it be great if Entourage 2008 contained some code to prevent
you creating folders that it knew would be a problem (in the same way
that Finder won't let me make folders or files with ; or / in the
filename).

I think "Oh yes, that's a known issue. You just have to not use the +
symbol in a folder name" is an unacceptable workaround. Why can't the
application itself prevent me?

Ah. Would have been simpler if you'd said, "Entourage shouldn't let me
make folders with the plus sign in their names."

Remember, the problem occurs between Exchange Server 2007 and Entourage
2008. If you have this setup then Microsoft encourages you to upgrade to
the Web Services Edition of Entourage, which doesn't have this problem.

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>

 

[David Marcovitz]

Ah. Would have been simpler if you'd said, "Entourage shouldn't let me
make folders with the plus sign in their names."

Remember, the problem occurs between Exchange Server 2007 and Entourage
2008. If you have this setup then Microsoft encourages you to upgrade to
the Web Services Edition of Entourage, which doesn't have this problem.

To paraphrase something Col. Blake said on MASH many years ago:

They are two rules of software. Rule number one is that Microsoft
products have bugs. Rule number two is that MVPs can't change rule
number one.

You are absolutely right that it would make sense for Microsoft to have
prevented you from making folders that it can't deal with. However,
there is not much we can do about it except suggest workarounds or make
suggestions to Microsoft. Note that MVPs don't work for Microsoft; we
are just users who like to answer questions. Many times, we are
frustrated with same issues that you are. For example, for a long time,
I wasn't getting my regular SPAM notification from our SPAM filter
because the subject had a + sign it. That was frustrating.

--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Associate Professor, Loyola University Maryland