When replying to a message in Outlook 2013/365 the divider line between the new text and the previous message frequently disappears on send. It show normally before sending but the sent message no longer shows the fine gray line. Here are two images of what I'm talking about:

The above image shows the divider line before sending.

The above image shows the missing divider line after sending.

This happens frequently although intermittently and therefore I haven't been able to figure out what triggers it. I can say that it never happened with Outlook 2010, only with Outlook 2013/365.

Has anyone else experienced this strange and annoying phenomenon?

I've resorted to manually adding a second divider line before sending, just in case the original one disappears. In many cases this results in double lines appearing in the sent message but sometimes only divider line one remains.

Dexter

Hi,

Are these all HTML format messages? One scenario that can cause the line missing is that it is a plain text format email. Before sending it, click FORMAT TEXT tab -> Format, check whether it is an HTML, Plain Text or Rich Text format email.

Please also check the following option:

FILE -> Options -> Trust Center -> Trust Center Settings -> E-mail Security -> Read as Plain Text. Check if "Read all standard mail in plain text" is checked. Untick it and click OK to check the result.

If the problem persists, may I know how many users are affected by this? If there is only a particular one, please try starting Outlook in Safe Mode:

Press Win + R, type "outlook.exe /safe" in the blank box, press Enter.

Then test the issue in safe mode, if the issue is gone, we may suspect it's probably caused by some 3rd-party add-ins, disable the suspicious add-ins to check which one caused the problem.

Regards,

Melon Chen
TechNet Community Su

Hi Melon,

All of my emails are set to use HTML format, including the reply to rich text messages setting.

As I stated in my question, the thin gray divider line shows when composing the reply message; this would not be the case if the format was plain text. The divider line disappears only after I hit send. And if I add a second divider line, using paragraph top border settings, only the original divider line disappears. None of this would be possible if the message being replied to was in plain text format.

I checked the Trust Center setting you mentioned and found "Read all standard mail in plain text" to be unchecked.

Disabling add-ins sounds like a good idea. I use Dragon Naturally Speaking for dictation and it may be interfering. I will do some test with all add-ins disabled and let you know what I discover.

Thanks for you help and suggestions.

Dexter

I just tried it with Outlook in safe mode and it makes no difference.

One thing I noticed, however, is that the messages which retain the divider line have the "Border and Shading" "Apply to" drop down set to "Border level 2 (innermost)" after the send, whereas the ones that lose the divider line have it set to "Paragraph" after the send. Before sending, all messages display "Border level 2 (innermost)" as the "Apply to" location of the divider line, which is actually a custom top border.

This is surely a bug in Outlook 2013/365 as it never happened with Outlook 2010.

• Edited by DexterG 6 hours 50 minutes ago

I just tried it with Outlook in safe mode and it makes no difference.

One thing I noticed, however, is that the messages which retain the divider line have the "Border and Shading" "Apply to" drop down set to "Border level 2 (innermost)" after the send, whereas the ones that lose the divider line have it set to "Paragraph" after the send. Before sending, all messages display "Border level 2 (innermost)" as the "Apply to" location of the divider line, which is actually a custom top border.

This is surely a bug in Outlook 2013/365 as it never happened with Outlook 2010.

• Edited by DexterG Tuesday, April 21, 2015 12:37 AM

I just tried it with Outlook in safe mode and it makes no difference.

One thing I noticed, however, is that the messages which retain the divider line have the "Border and Shading" "Apply to" drop down set to "Border level 2 (innermost)" after the send, whereas the ones that lose the divider line have it set to "Paragraph" after the send. Before sending, all messages display "Border level 2 (innermost)" as the "Apply to" location of the divider line, which is actually a custom top border.

This is surely a bug in Outlook 2013/365 as it never happened with Outlook 2010.

• Edited by DexterG Tuesday, April 21, 2015 12:37 AM

Hi,

i have the same Problem, on some mails the reply separator missing after sending. Thats bad, because our central disclaimer solution is looking for that to put it on the right place.

With the specific mail i can repeat the problem, but i dont know what is causing this. This is happening with Outlook 2013 and 2010, the same mail dont cause the problem on an Outlook 2007.

So why is this happening and is there any soloution for this?

Hi,

I'm back here.. i've try to get support from Exchange Forum, but it seems to be an Outlook Bug.

In short: the reply separator isn't disappear after send, it's already missing when you click on reply! (before sending) Only visualy you can see the line in the editor, but when you safe this draft as html and look in the source code it's missing already.

So how can we find out what is in these mails Outlook dont like?

Hi,

we have the same problem.

We use Exchange 2010, outlook 2010 and 2013, Exclaimer Signature exchange.

Have you find any solutions ?

• Proposed as answer by FittIT 16 hours 50 minutes ago
• Unproposed as answer by FittIT 16 hours 50 minutes ago

Hi,

we have find an workaround for the problem.

In the support site of exclaimer search "topic 647049" "signature-is-appended-in-the-wrong-location-signature-manager-exchange-edition"

The problem in Outlook client remain, but the signature software work fine.

• Proposed as answer by FittIT 16 hours 43 minutes ago