Only SUBJECT HEADER sent-no text

[rodhudson]

Hi. I have a problem with a couple of emails that I sent out, and the recipient only received the SUBJECT HEADER, but no text below.

Because I’m not sure of the technicalities as to how ‘Outgoing’ messages created in T-Bird proceed, I’m not sure how to resolve this, in order to make sure it isn’t an ‘on-going problem’ !

Nothing I ever send from T-Bird ever shows up in my ISP’s Webmail account……. So are they involved, or not ?

From MY side, I did include a small pic in the body of the text, but have subsequently sent the same email to another account, with no problem.

When I tried to 'Re-send' by FORWARDING the original message again, the same thing happened. Subject header only, but no text beneath.

I’d be grateful for any thoughts !

[tanstaafl]

If you sent a HTML message with no text in the message body, but just a image with no ALT TEXT (a attribute that specifies some text that is displayed if the image is not visible) that will look like a empty message if you interpret the message as plain text. You will only see the image if you if you interpret the message as HTML.

When you forward a HTML message it will automatically convert it to a plain text message if you are configured to compose plain text messages. The workaround for that is to hold down the Shift key when clicking on the forward command.

"Nothing I ever send from T-Bird ever shows up in my ISP’s Webmail account……. So are they involved, or not ?"
If you are using a POP account it only "knows" about the inbox on the mail server. It has no idea the other webmail folders exists, and can't use them. You use a local Sent folder to save a copy of your sent messages. It may have the same name as the webmail Sent folder but the contents are not synch'd.

If you want to share folders with webmail use a IMAP account instead.

[rodhudson]

OK. Thanks for that. So I imagine that it is including the image in with the text that has caused the problem.
Perhaps I should have added it as an 'attachment'.

Would that be OK then ?

Not showing up on the webmail is not a problem, as I do like to use POP3 and keep all my own copies. I was merely asking for 'confirmation' that is correct !!

[rodhudson]

One further point. I do accept what you have told me, but still don't understand why it did NOT go [ or only the SUBJECT HEADER ] to the one Address, yet when I sent it elsewhere [to test] it was OK.
So hard to understand that !

My ISP found no problem either.

Can the way the 'Recipient' has their email set up make a difference ?

I'm just trying to understand what happened to avoid it happening at another time.

[tanstaafl]

"So I imagine that it is including the image in with the text that has caused the problem."

No. I was talking about how that problem could occur with a message with no text, because I wasn't 100% sure you had both a image and text in the message body. I suggest you have the recipient forward the message back to you as an attachment and you use view -> message source or control-U to look at the raw message. See if your text was included, even if it wasn't visible for some reason.

You said this problem doesn't occur with another account. That implies your problem is either due to the settings for the ISP account in Thunderbird, or their is something flaky with the ISPs smtp server. Other than different mail servers, email addresses, login credentials, account names and local directories, whats different between the two accounts?

Does the same type of problem occur if you send the same message using your ISP's webmail via a browser?

"still don't understand why it did NOT go [ or only the SUBJECT HEADER ] to the one Address, yet when I sent it elsewhere [to test] it was OK."

That is a different problem. If you used your ISP as the email provider perhaps the recipients email provider thought you sent them spam. Both the content/layout of the message and the senders email providers reputation matter when deciding if a message is spam. Email providers reputation frequently fluctuate, but ISPs frequently have a marginal reputation because of too many zombies (PC's infected by malware/trojans).

[rodhudson]

Hi. Thanks for your input on this, but I’m still at a loss to understand it.

The original file [ of which only the HEADER went]is still sitting in my T-Bird ‘SENT’ folder, and seems to be able to be ‘FORWARDED’ to anywhere, including my own YAHOO MAIL ACCOUNT, [ WHICH I KEEP AS A SPARE], and also to the ISP’s TEST account at GMAIL.

I’m sure if I forwarded it to you, it would go.

The person I was sending to and myself exchange emails weekly since 2014, with never a problem. She has a HOTMAIL account.
I am thinking that there will be no logical answer to this, and will have to be filed under the ‘JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS’ folder !
I haven’t been all that happy with this ISP [INMOTIONHOSTING] for some time, but stupidly took out a 3 year contract, which does expire at the end of the year.

If I can find a good alternative I will change immediately.

Even though this may not be their fault.

I did try SITEGROUND for a year, who were excellent. But at the end of the year I was told that was an ‘INTRODUCTORY PRICE’, and subsequent years would be about 5 times more expensive !! So they weren’t for me !

But thanks for your help.

UPDATE: My ISP have finally admitted that all of the problems were from the same one of their SERVER POOL [173.231.241.28]
They have told me they are 'INVESTIGATING' [!!] and will get back to me 'SHORTLY'!
This was 12 hours ago !

As I said earlier, I WILL be changing !
R.

[makaiguy]

Check your recipient's record in your TBird Addressbook. At the bottom of the Contact tab, what is set for "Prefers to have messages formatted as" ?

[rodhudson]

I will check that.

But I've been emailing and receiving from this this person weekly for 10 years now, so I'm sure nothing has been changed !

[makaiguy]

We're all sort of grasping at straws here. Your recipient's addressbook record is the only thing I could think of in your setup that would be unique to that person.

[rodhudson]

My ISP has just emailed me to say that this is all due to a faulty server in their 'POOL', which has now been withdrawn and replaced !!

We'll see !!

I will post future results ! [ Or Problems !]
R.