Hello, we have one small problem at our customer.

We use Outlook 2010 and Google Docs. Google Docs sending e-mails about changes in documents. This e-mails are made primary for Gmail which is online site.

In the HTML e-mail is included A HREF link which is point to location such "//i.microsoft.com/global/ImageStore/PublishingImages/logos/ms-mark/microsoft_logo_90x16.png".

This is right URI scheme based on RFC. If it is embedded to website and webbrowser access this link via HTTP protocol it automatically load image from http://i.microsoft.com/. When is accessed via HTTPS protocol, browser download from https://i.microsoft.com/. Internet Explorer 9 and Google Chrome handle this right.

But Outlook and Word as his HTML editor/viewer handle this differently. After saving message this link became local path, because Word is not accessing via protocol (HTTP/HTTPS) to this message. So it doesnt know, where download images and his AutoCorrect function change this URI to UNC path.

So Outlook downloading images from address "\\i.microsoft.com/global/ImageStore/PublishingImages/logos/ms-mark/microsoft_logo_90x16.png". On this address it not find anything and still trying in foreground. After some time it hangs at stop responding state.

Some other user with same problem: http://superuser.com/questions/444175/outlook-hangs-on-emails-that-have-youtube-thumbnails-images-from-img-youtube-co

If is message displayed in Outlook Web Access it works fine because it is access via classic HTTP/HTTPS protocol.

So I ask, can Outlook team do some improvents in this, or have Word some option to disable this automatic UNC mappings? Thanks!

Hi,

Maybe the behavior is related to the following registry key:

Please Note: Since the following web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.

http://www.msoutlook.info/question/72

Sincerely
Rex

Hello Rex Zhang, thanks for reply but after test it's not related to our problem. We only receive such emails from Google and Outlook try to load inserted images from them and then fail. We have only one workaround, delete such email with rules (we miss information which emails contains) or add Google to blocked senders. But this is not systematic solution.

That sounds like the "paypal bug" - if they all use the same source, you can set up a hosts to point back to your machines. This will allow outlook to load the messages faster. http://www.outlook-tips.net/tips/outlook-web-bugs-paypal-messages-hang/

Thanks for reply, yes this is exactly same situation. We have try block access throught HOST file and it works and solve Outlook problem. But make problem with classic web Google Apps which we use, because base server url is the same. But if we dont find any other option, we will use it.

So I look to solution in Google Forums and also here, because I have no option to provide this feedback to Outlook team. And personally I mean that this behaviour is bad for end users. Outlook maybe switch image loading to another thred, so it was no hang as whole program.

Yeah, it's not good - we discussed it with them at the time of the paypal bug. I'll remind them.

Hello Diane, thanks for help. I hope that Outlook team hear our (your) words. Please, let me know, if I can help with fast solving this problem or how situation going on other side. Thanks!

It's supposed to be fixed in Outlook 2013, I'll check it.  The fix is being considered for Outlook 2010, but nothing is for sure yet. If it's back-ported, it won't be before SP2.

Hi,

Thanks for the detailed explanation of the issue.  It is currently a known issue in Outlook 2010 which is scheduled to be fixed in Outlook 2013. I am currently researching on this and will get back to you with an update to the issue.

Best Regards,

Nitish Karmakar [MSFT]

Thanks but I believe users need something more immediate for Outlook 2010. This is now a YouTube bug and EVERYONE getting a comment reply is getting e-mails with this malformatted e-mail template, which is causing Outlook 2010 to freeze up. Basically all active YouTubers who use Outlook 2010 are suffering from frozen Outlook for 5 minutes!

Due to the high load of dimwit rant posts, I'm sure, Google offers no bug tracker for such things outside of their forums. Here is where I posted on the matter:

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/youtube/report-a-technical-issue/GFniYNEKarA

Driving many of us absolutely bonkers!!

Jon

Thanks Nitish Karmakar for information. But I must agree with Jon Davis. We (our customer) using Google Docs for document storing and colaborating.

Users getting often e-mails with status updates which occurs in documents and every such e-mail is causing Outlook 2010 freeze up (which we are currently install to about 700 PC in company).

In this situation is every other Microsoft product (and sale for this company) in FUD... :(

Thanks Jon.

Hello,

Thanks for your patience I passed on your feedback over to our developers and have the following update. The bug is fixed in Outlook 2013 and will be considered for fixing in Office 2010 SP 2.  At this time we do not have a published date for SP 2 release.

I will mark this as an answer at this point of time until there is an update to this issue. I will update the thread when further information is available.

Best Regards,

Nitish Karmakar [MSFT]

• Marked as answer by Microsoft Outlook Forum SupportMicrosoft employee, Editor Monday, October 01, 2012 11:35 AM

Hello,

Thanks for your patience I passed on your feedback over to our developers and have the following update. The bug is fixed in Outlook 2013 and will be considered for fixing in Office 2010 SP 2.  At this time we do not have a published date for SP 2 release.

I will mark this as an answer at this point of time until there is an update to this issue. I will update the thread when further information is available.

Best Regards,

Nitish Karmakar [MSFT]

• Marked as answer by Microsoft Outlook Forum SupportMicrosoft employee, Editor Monday, October 01, 2012 11:35 AM

Hello,

Thanks for your patience I passed on your feedback over to our developers and have the following update. The bug is fixed in Outlook 2013 and will be considered for fixing in Office 2010 SP 2.  At this time we do not have a published date for SP 2 release.

I will mark this as an answer at this point of time until there is an update to this issue. I will update the thread when further information is available.

Best Regards,

Nitish Karmakar [MSFT]

• Marked as answer by Microsoft Outlook Forum SupportMicrosoft employee, Editor Monday, October 01, 2012 11:35 AM

FYI it took this long but YouTube finally fixed the problem on their end, replacing image references having \\host\file with http://host/file.

Jon

• Proposed as answer by Diane Poremsky [MVP]MVP Sunday, October 14, 2012 2:01 AM

FYI it took this long but YouTube finally fixed the problem on their end, replacing image references having \\host\file with http://host/file.

Jon

• Proposed as answer by Diane Poremsky [MVP]MVP Sunday, October 14, 2012 2:01 AM

FYI it took this long but YouTube finally fixed the problem on their end, replacing image references having \\host\file with http://host/file.

Jon

• Proposed as answer by Diane Poremsky [MVP]MVP Sunday, October 14, 2012 2:01 AM

Cool. Thanks for the update. 

Thanks for info. On Google Drive is still not fixed. So I look to work from Outlook dev team :(

Hi Nitish

Do you have any knowledge if this will be back ported to 2010 yet?

Regards

Nick

Currently Office 2010 Service Pack 2 is released, so we can check if.

We have all the automatic patches installed and it still happens.

I wondered if there are any optional patches for this?

We have Office Pro 14.0.7015.1000

This problem has _not_ been fixed in Outlook 2013. When I receive e-mails with malformed URLs like "//server/path/image.jpg" where the protocol prefix is missing, Outlook tries to open this as an UNC path and freezes for minutes. This really sucks as it almost enables a kind of DOS attack - when a user gets lots of these mails, the Outlook client will become inoperable.

Thanks Pixel42 for letting me know.

 

Microsoft can you give us any further info?

But at least it resolve right variant. We check, that some e-mails Outlook handle and add http prefix. But we did not manage to find, how it is resolving this.

Some update on this bug on Outlook 2010 ?

I have found a hotfix which should resolve this bug.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2881058

But I have an error when I try to download this Hotfix...

What is the error message? That hotfix should be rolled into later updates and not needed if you are fully updated.

I have followed the process to download the hotfix.

But when I click on the link in the email, I have got a 500 Error instead.

I don't know if the hotfix is working or not as I wasn't able to download it.

But the bug reported on this topic (about img with src=\\...) is still effective on my Outlook 2010. And my Outlook installation is Uptodate !

August 2015 and the problem is still not fixed in Outlook 2013. I received an e-mail and the same thing happens to me. If I delete all of the linked images, my e-mail will deliver instantly. If not, it will hang for approximately 5 minutes before being sent. Is there any hotfix for Outlook 2013 ? If so, can someone point out to the hotfix ?

What should we do about this to solve it once and forever ?

Thanks!

We can try this in newest Outlook 2016 which is currently in Technical Preview phase and accept bug and feature requests.

My recommendation is to open support cases if you can.

It's kinda fixed in outlook 2016 - still takes too long (20 seconds - 1 minute) to find and load the external content. There is a bug report on this problem for 2016 and at least one support case for 2013.