XFOR: Last Attachment May Be Lost When Forwarding from MS Mail to Exchange (180180)

SYMPTOMS

When a Microsoft Mail user forwards an unedited message that includes several attachments to an Exchange user via the Microsoft Mail Connector, it is possible that the last attachment may be lost. Also, if the forwarded message ends with text, it is possible that the Exchange recipient will receive the message with the last part of the text missing.

CAUSE

When an unedited Exchange message is forwarded to an Exchange user, it is possible that it does not end with a CRLF (carriage return, line feed). When such a message enters Exchange, the message transfer agent (MTA) truncates the last portion of the message data.

If the forwarded message includes several attachments, then the truncation action might remove the last attachment. In this case, the Exchange recipient will receive the message with the last attachment lost. If the the last object in the message is in a text format, then the Exchange user may receive the message with some missing text at the end.

WORKAROUND

Before forwarding such a message, edit it by adding some text after the attachments and after the important text in the body of the message. This will force the client to rewrite and reformat the message, which will then preserve the attachments. The extra text is added as a precaution to guarantee that there is no important text lost.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.0. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.