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At work my computer in on a server and we use Microsoft Outlook for our emails system.
On Friday I set up my Out of Office message due to me going on holiday for a week. I went into “Tools” “Out of office assistant”. I typed my message in the box and clicked the circle for “I am currently out of the office” and autoreply only once to each sender with the following text. I then closed the email system and switched my computer off totally. The computer was left switched off all week.
When I got back to work yesterday I switched the computer on and went into Outlook and a box appeared asking me if I would like to switch OFF my out of office message to which I clicked yes.
However apparantly none of the senders received my out of office message and I had several urgent emails that had been sat there unanswered all week, needless to say my boss is not happy.
So any ideas what I did wrong??? The only other information which might be applicable is that I have three email addresses that all come to my computer on the one outlook system but apparantly NONE of the senders using any of the three email addresses had an out of office reply????
I’ve been told that it doesnt matter that the computer was switched off as the emails would be coming in daily and waiting for me when i opened Outlook, but each morning I clear my Inbox and as soon as I open Outlook each morning my Inbox is empty and then they start coming through immediately even if they are dated the night before?? Would they sit on the server until I opened Outlook????
I’m due to have the day off on Friday but the boss says I can’t unless I get this sorted so any help would be appreciated…… in simple terms please ty
The Out of Office Assistant (OOA) is part of the server programme NOT a part of MS Office Outlook that is installed on your computer. I have Outlook (2007 version) and unfortunately as I am directly connected (not through a central server) I don’t have an OOA – more’s the pity.
I suspect that the lack of OOA functionality is due to the server having issues NOT your own computer. As long as you set it up correctly (and your description seems to be spot on) then you have done all you can. As it asked you to switch it off when you opened your computer AFTER your holiday, it MUST have been set up in the first place.
Tell your boss that you cannot personally test or check your own OOA – and getting somebody else to send you a mail simply to verify if the server is functioning correctly would be a misuse of valuable company resource.
All incoming e-mails to your computer sit in a ‘holding’ area on the server awaiting your Outlook to fire up. As soon as you are correctly logged in to the server, Outlook ‘polls’ the server and retrieves all e-mails waiting for you. They cannot be ‘lost’ as such.
Maybe you should set up your Outlook to send a ‘read receipt’ every time you open an e-mail. That way the sender knows that you have received their mail. If you want to know how to do this – post a message and tell me which version of Outlook you have (2000, 2003 or 2007).
Thanks PB, I have already set up for “read receipts” on both sent and received emails.
I have tested the out of office again by turning it back on and sending three emails to each of my three work email addresses from my hotmail account and I received only one “out of office” reply so it appears that the computer will only accept one main email address not three.
I dont know how it is set up to accept three email addresses on one account, when i send outgoing mail i click on an “accounts” button to select which address i want the email to be sent from. I am now wondering if i can somehow default the other two email addresses to the main one if you know what I mean tis doing my head in tut.
Thanks for helping xxx
Basically you can’t do what you want to do with the current setting. This is because it is the server that initiates the OOA not your own PC and the server will only recognise you as one user – not three users, when you are logged on.
If you change the OOA setting from “Autoreply only once to each sender” to whatever the Autoreply every time a mail is received setting is called (I can’t remember the exact wording) then you CAN achieve what you want.
Current setting means that the “Autoreply” function recognises the first time it sends a response to your user login and refrains from sending any more …. irrespective of the e-mail address from which the incoming mails originate. As they all originate from your private Hotmail account in this instance – only one OOA Autoreply message will be sent … which is quite correct.
Try it and see.
Hi came accorss this while looking for a fix for my own fault.
Just to let you know having multipul addresses is done in a few ways you can have different accoutns all opened at once (you will see down left hand side more than one mail box and need to go to each inbox to see there mail) or you can have multipull address set up to the same account. All emails will come into your standered inbox.
If what you have set up is different accounts then you will only activate out of office on your main account as technicaly all your doing is veiwing the other accounts not editing them.
If you have the second option (multipul addresses to one account) then i know why you only got back one response.
Out of office only replys to each person on the first email sent so if you sent from your hotmail accoutn the first time you woudl get an out of office response the second time you sent from that account to any of the other addresses the server will see you are already aware of the out of office and will not resend it. This provents too much trafic and is the default configuration on the server.However with either option some form of out of office should have gone out at some stage and your notes on what you did to set it up are 100% correct! your IT team there should be aware its correct and inform your boss this was a system fault not yours!
There is always the possibility that the sender has it set up to bar these responses (as they can be classed by some filters as spam) and most companys these days ban the received receipt emails so this may also not work for you.
Think this is a fault for your IT team and you should not be punished for it.
Thanks for the posts, seems the system can not accommodate three email addresses so I have resorted to switching it on as usual and creating a distribution list of email addresses to send a manual out of office email out prior to switching the computer off.
p.s. I also have managed to delete a folder i created losing over four years of saved work emails and even though I back my computer up daily to the server apparantly the email system was not backed up :roll: The folder is definately deleted and no restore programme can find it :roll: :evil:
@catmanblue wrote:
Thanks for the posts, seems the system can not accommodate three email addresses so I have resorted to switching it on as usual and creating a distribution list of email addresses to send a manual out of office email out prior to switching the computer off.
p.s. I also have managed to delete a folder i created losing over four years of saved work emails and even though I back my computer up daily to the server apparantly the email system was not backed up :roll: The folder is definately deleted and no restore programme can find it :roll: :evil:
That bloody Cat has nearly done it again…….. :lol: (letting all the outlook secrets out of the bag LOL)
Do you know how difficult it was for me to set the following up!
Like your workplace we use outlook and I have a reporting mailbox that gets sent to my roaming profile and a static box straight through to my desk, So I did the following…..
Send as you say a manual out of office reply upon shutdown, To all those that might need to contact me in an emergency, Under options ask for delivery and read receipts, set the time of sending to one hour after you have left for the day (but remember to leave machine on)
At the desired hour all the mails go out……..then you get a receipt saying it’s been delivered then they get an ack back saying your not around, then you get there auto reply because they have done the same, The most I have ever done is nearly 3meg of auto reply’s and read and delivered reciepts in a single weeks leave.
As a back up I have an e-mail with attachments which is hidden on our new projects server (never looked at by the bosses) which is about 6 meg under both my mail box limits and I find it amusing to drop this little gem back into both my mail in-boxes on a friday night which seals them both as being full up and everyone who mails me gets a return saying my mail box is full and there system and server repeats it’s attempt to re-send for about the next three days.
I know technically it’s wrong, But It’s just like diverting your works mobile which has the ansaphone switched off to your personal mobile on the same network so that when my employer goes online to look for my phone they see it is located where-ever I left it (in the locker at work on silent mode) and I am with my personal phone somewhere else but technically remain in the office working……….
Technology works both ways I’d like to think,
As for lost documents I know you would have checked your ”auto archive” and then tried to find if it’s stored on your C drive as well as the server (pray whoever set it up did so)
If the auto archive was set and told to store on C drive they should be floating around as a PSD file somewhere I’m being told.
Don’t ask me I know nothing!!!
regards
Dibb’s.
:roll:Go annoy my other half when you can (sshh I didn’t say that!)
@Dibb’s wrote:
@catmanblue wrote:
Thanks for the posts, seems the system can not accommodate three email addresses so I have resorted to switching it on as usual and creating a distribution list of email addresses to send a manual out of office email out prior to switching the computer off.
p.s. I also have managed to delete a folder i created losing over four years of saved work emails and even though I back my computer up daily to the server apparantly the email system was not backed up :roll: The folder is definately deleted and no restore programme can find it :roll: :evil:
That bloody Cat has nearly done it again…….. :lol: (letting all the outlook secrets out of the bag LOL)
Do you know how difficult it was for me to set the following up!
Like your workplace we use outlook and I have a reporting mailbox that gets sent to my roaming profile and a static box straight through to my desk, So I did the following…..
Send as you say a manual out of office reply upon shutdown, To all those that might need to contact me in an emergency, Under options ask for delivery and read receipts, set the time of sending to one hour after you have left for the day (but remember to leave machine on)
At the desired hour all the mails go out……..then you get a receipt saying it’s been delivered then they get an ack back saying your not around, then you get there auto reply because they have done the same, The most I have ever done is nearly 3meg of auto reply’s and read and delivered reciepts in a single weeks leave.
As a back up I have an e-mail with attachments which is hidden on our new projects server (never looked at by the bosses) which is about 6 meg under both my mail box limits and I find it amusing to drop this little gem back into both my mail in-boxes on a friday night which seals them both as being full up and everyone who mails me gets a return saying my mail box is full and there system and server repeats it’s attempt to re-send for about the next three days.
I know technically it’s wrong, But It’s just like diverting your works mobile which has the ansaphone switched off to your personal mobile on the same network so that when my employer goes online to look for my phone they see it is located where-ever I left it (in the locker at work on silent mode) and I am with my personal phone somewhere else but technically remain in the office working……….
Technology works both ways I’d like to think,
As for lost documents I know you would have checked your ”auto archive” and then tried to find if it’s stored on your C drive as well as the server (pray whoever set it up did so)
If the auto archive was set and told to store on C drive they should be floating around as a PSD file somewhere I’m being told.
Don’t ask me I know nothing!!!
regards
Dibb’s.
:roll:Go annoy my other half when you can (sshh I didn’t say that!)
Hi S.S. xx ty for the reply I got a tad lost on part of it (sorry :lol: but I got the general gist of it ) my file that I have lost is lost for ever as apparently when the computer does the backup from “c” drive or “g” drive the share drive and then onto the server if your programme or file is in use then the backup skips it. So even though i do an automatic backup from “c” to “g” at 3pm each working day my Outlook is never backed up (cos its on) so I have no backup copy to restore… plus I never knew about the achive bit
I’m fed up of technology even my head trimmers have broke :roll:p.s would I ever torment your better half :shock: xx
Check out your outlook auto archve settings……see where the file ”if it is” stored…..location wise, I understand some of what I said going over your head………..Lifes not all kitchen sinks you know! 8)
WHOS better half!!!!!! ruddy cheek……..
She’s the boss (she’ll have you know!)
#-o :-#
@catmanblue wrote:
Hi S.S. xx ty for the reply I got a tad lost on part of it (sorry :lol: but I got the general gist of it ) my file that I have lost is lost for ever as apparently when the computer does the backup from “c” drive or “g” drive the share drive and then onto the server if your programme or file is in use then the backup skips it. So even though i do an automatic backup from “c” to “g” at 3pm each working day my Outlook is never backed up (cos its on) so I have no backup copy to restore… plus I never knew about the achive bit
I’m fed up of technology even my head trimmers have broke :roll:p.s would I ever torment your better half :shock: xx
and you broke them :lol:
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