After "Send Later" Didn't Work, email Sent Manually, Not Received by Recipient
Monday afternoon I received a work-related email. I crafted a reply, and wanted to have it sent in the morning, so I pressed "Ctrl-Shift-Enter" to Send Later, which used had worked in the past.
The Send Later dialogue box did not appear, and I saw that the message was moved to my Outbox. Without any Send Now indication, I figured I'd just send it at that time.
The Reply arrow/symbol was on it, and I saw it in my Sent folder, so I figured it was sent.
Two days later, my client had not replied. She's always replied within 24 hours.
Wondering if she received my reply, I replied again, to her same email, sending it normally. The Reply arrow was still there, and that one was in my Sent folder too.
Today, my client wrote, implying she did not receive either message. How can I know if my message is really being sent? Is this a known issue? If so, is there a fix?
All Replies (12)
You got no error message from the SMTP server you sent you mail to. If you did it would have occurred before the message sending dialog went away.
By implication that shows you mail provider got the mail. What they did with it is anybodies guess. They are the ones with the logs that show what they did with it.
One rather unfortunate side effect of some mail scanning anti virus products is they pretend to be the mail server, make a fist of it and send back no error messages about the accident they caused. So disabling any mail scanning of outgoing mail is a very good idea. (It does exactly nothing anyway. Your virus product says you do not have a virus, so it is looking for something it says you have not got.)
I just sent a mail using send later and as soon as I went online I was prompted to send the item.
Definitely did not work. Verified client did not receive.
Add On Manager shows:
I removed it, and searched for "send later" again.
Looks like all of them are not compatible with my version.
Aren't there any that are?
I checked the web site. Both the top add-ons are marked as compatible with V60.* https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/search/?q=later&appver=&platform=
So I looked in the add-ons manger, both show as compatible with 60.*
I also notice you have a URL dialog and the works with is not set to anything. So I am thinking you still have something broken in the add-on manager, be it an add-on or a theme.
Perhaps you could post the part of the troubleshooting information on the help menu that relates to Extensions (select with your mouse. Select Ctrl+C and then paste it into a reply on the forum.
Could you also please confirm you are using V60
The user's picture shows 'incompatible with TB 64', which is not surprising since virtually all add-ons besides Lightning don't work in TB 64:
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/64.0beta/releasenotes/
But the 'Send Later' add-on is not needed to send later; Outbox messages are only sent when you select File/Send Unsent Messages.
If the recipient also isn't receiving messages sent 'normally' and the sent message appears in the Sent folder, the problem lies at the recipient's end. Either the message is being moved out of their Inbox, or their mail provider is rejecting mail from the sending account.
I liked the Send Later add-on, as it allowed me to set a time I wanted to send messages.
I don't think the method you've described allows that.
Is there another way to set a time to send messages in TB ver.64, or is there no Send Later option or add-on available?
I'm not aware of any way, beside Send Later, to set a time to send mail with TB 60, so if you need that option, I suggest you use TB 60. Sending later manually via the Outbox is always possible in any version.
Thank you, I really like the functionality from it.
Seems I'd have to downgrade to get that one to work. Can I edit the add on to make it work, or, what would be involved to make my own?
pranaman said
Thank you, I really like the functionality from it. Seems I'd have to downgrade to get that one to work. Can I edit the add on to make it work, or, what would be involved to make my own?
What is wrong with using the release version with supported add-ons? You are using a bleeding edge version with minimal at best add-ons and now want to write an add-on simply because the add-on author does not support the version you are messing with.
OK, so, a few things...
When the Send Later add-on isn't installed or is installed but not working, then sending a message with Ctrl-Shift-Enter puts it in your Outbox BUT DOES NOT ACTUALLY SEND IT. That is how the built-in "Send Later" / Outbox functionality works in Thunderbird. As others have pointed out messages, don't actually send until you execute the File | Send Unsent Messages command, or restart Thunderbird or go from offline to online and it asks whether you want to send unsent messages and you say yes. This behavior is by design. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Outbox.
The Send Later add-on is not yet compatible with Thunderbird versions newer than 60.* because the landscape for add-on support after 60.* is in flux and I'm waiting to try to make it compatible until things settle down. See https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Add-ons_Guide_63. In particular, I'm waiting for the new overlay loader, whose issues are being tracked in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1476259, to settle down and becomes stable enough to use reliably.
As others have pointed out, Thunderbird versions newer than 60.* are in a lot of flux right now and lots of add-ons don't work yet. If you need them to work, your best bet is to stick with 60.* until things settle down and add-on maintainers have time to port them. Alternatively, you're welcome to take a stab at it yourself if you're into that sort of thing. The Send Later source code is at https://github.com/jikamens/send-later, and I'll gladly review any pull requests for post-Thunderbird-60.* support.
Modified by jikamens
Thanks, I'll add some reasons why this add-on is very helpful.
For times that:
1. I want to delay message sending, and I don't want to have to remember to send it manually from my outbox.
2. I might be away when I want the message to be sent.
There may be more, however, I hope the landscape settles down soon so this can be updated and added back shortly.