back to article Microsoft says Outlook hit by 'email visibility issues' – as in, they're blank

Microsoft says its Outlook desktop client is suffering serious “email visibility issues” today, with a fix yet to be rolled out. Users have reported either whole emails missing, chunks of data gone, or just seeing the first line of messages. Folks can use the web or mobile client of Outlook, or the Windows desktop client in " …

  1. sanmigueelbeer
    Facepalm

    Been there, done that ...

    Let me hazard a guess, a "latent defect"?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    So?

    So I don't get all the drivel that fills up my inbox? Plus managers and other morons users won't be able to click through clickbait?

    I don't see a bug,I see a feature.

  3. Alumoi Silver badge

    2021

    and people still allow automatic updates?

    1. Is It Me

      Re: 2021

      This is for the Office 365 versions of the desktop software, they are designed to constantly update themselves and are the software option that MS is pushing.

      For example if you work somewhere that has the Office 365 E3 or above (or Education equivalent) each user gets 5 licenses to install the desktop suite, but only of the automatically updating version.

    2. wolfetone Silver badge

      Re: 2021

      Amazingly it's 2021 and people still don't update their software, then wonder why they've been hacked.

      1. Alumoi Silver badge

        Re: 2021

        Amazing, it's 2021 and I update my software afer at least 30 days after it's been published in order to let the beta testers tell if it's bug free.

        1. Korev Silver badge
          Joke

          Re: 2021

          Yeah the Malware attacking the patched defects should have moved from beta to production in that timeframe...

        2. Wade Burchette

          Re: 2021

          Amazing, it is 2021 and Microsoft still does not properly test their updates.

      2. martyn.hare
        Facepalm

        It’s 2021...updates aren’t the real issue

        Windows still doesn’t have proper per-process privilege confinement, meaning a compromise of Exchange is often a compromise of the whole OS and eventually the domain, because once an attacker has gotten that far, they can use the bloated bloated privilege set (rights) they’ve obtained to do almost anything.

        Microsoft won’t fix this dumpster fire because they have cloud solutions to push. Businesses won’t dump Exchange because the alternatives aren’t seamless enough and folks like me will never be able to apply proper proactive security fixes for these environments to prevent compromises in the first place.... because the necessary tools don’t exist.

        Linux has seccomp-bpf, namespaces, TOMOYO/SELinux/AppArmor and a whole ton of nice per-process ways to limit what an attacker can do. Windows has a handful of exploit mitigation flags which they don’t even apply to key services by default even when there’s no negative impact in doing so... not to mention way too many processes running as SYSTEM...

        Seriously... Windows is fantastic on the desktop but terrible for servers!

    3. hoola Silver badge

      Re: 2021

      With Microsoft 365 as it is now, you get what you get. It is a service and updates will be sent out when MS sees fit.

      The alternative is not to use it, somewhat of an issue in most corporate situations.

  4. vtcodger Silver badge

    Need for testing

    "Users have reported either whole emails missing, chunks of data gone, or just seeing the first line of messages."

    Getting rid of most email content. One small step for mankind. This seems a good first step, but the implementation seems to need a bit of refinement. MS probably should have done a bit of beta-testing before rolling it out to everyone.

    1. simonlb Silver badge

      Re: Need for testing

      "chunks of data gone" - Is that all the unnecessary HTML crap, just leaving them in plain text? Asking for a friend.

      1. JetSetJim

        Re: Need for testing

        Oddly, there was no data "gone" - you just couldn't see it (or you might just see the first line). Click in the preview pane, CTRL+A, CTRL+C, and you could paste the content into an external text editor to see it.

        1. vtcodger Silver badge

          Re: Need for testing

          You're suggesting that Microsoft has added an <INV>isible tag to HTML? Might be useful for something I suppose. But might it not work better if it were inserted by the creator of the email rather than the mailserver?

          1. JetSetJim

            Re: Need for testing

            No idea about <INV> tags - but frantic googling around found similar issues with having an AVG plugin installed (I didn't) and disabling graphics accelleration both producing similar effects (at least from text descriptions).

            As to this instance actuallly being about INV tags, unless their initial patch inserted it into every single email both in POP3 emails in local PST files and in IMAP emails still on a Google server (which didn't present and unsupported tags when viewed in a web interface), and then their backout stripped them all out again. If such things were inserted, it was by the client software, not the mail server

  5. MrDamage Silver badge

    Full Online Reinstall fixes it.

    As per title, a full online reinstall will fix the issue, but it banjaxes the user account, forcing them to sign back in to reactivate it. Not the best solution, but par for the course for Microsoft.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    SaaS

    That's Software as a Service for you.

    Release now fix later.

  7. PeterT63

    Outlook App broken

    Email visibility issue continues, and is compounded by awful search function.

    Who broke outlook? I used it ten years ago and it was wonderful. Handled multiple email accounts including my gmail one and linked beautifully with my business and personal calendars.

    Now if I search for Mike it only shows me messages containing Mike, not email addresses. In fact I've lost / can't see most emails from Mike (example only).

    So some context, I'm a reliever (substitute teacher in NZ) working with two schools who run different account settings but both use .school.nz addresses & Microsoft exchange with Google docs in the mix, and my own outlook and gmail accounts all on the one Outlook app. Which l also run on school laptop (it works better there) and my tablet (where I first setup outlook and it works best).

    I note most teachers just work emails from a browser, but I prefer not to as used to be less flexible. Is that the answer though, Outlook app so broken I should give up and embrace working via browser?

    Sad, not least because seriously limits working offline. Hoping for a solution

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