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PM stuck in the outbox and won't send

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:14 pm
by Geoffrey Ellis
I'm a bit new to this forum, but I've had a fair bit of experience with managing another forum over the last six years (www.fluteportal.com). Sadly, my experience as the administrator there has not helped me troubleshoot this latest problem...

I've been exchanging some PMs with a few members of this site, and so far without any trouble. However, a couple of days ago I tried to send a PM and instead of actually going out to the member and appearing in my "sent" folder, it just parked itself in the "outbox" and is still sitting there. I made a few attempts to send it again (all of which involved deleting it from the outbox and then recreating the message since there is not a "send" function within the outbox itself, strangely enough).
Despite a few attempts, the message remains in the outbox.

Anyone had this happen before? I assume it is not because the recipients PM folders are full, otherwise I'd expect some sort of message to that effect.

I can't seem to figure out a cause for the problem so I thought I might troll for some assistance.

Thanks!

Re: PM stuck in the outbox and won't send

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:30 pm
by Nanohedron
That's an odd one, and I don't think I've ever heard of a case before where it wasn't ultimately a matter of the PM simply not having been opened by the recipient yet.

If the recipient's inbox is full, this shouldn't prevent your message from being sent. Normally the PM setup here shoulders the housecleaning for the owner, and just deletes the oldest PM in the full inbox to make room for the new arrival.

Re: PM stuck in the outbox and won't send

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:33 pm
by benhall.1
A PM will stay in your Outbox until the recipient opens it, or until you delete it. I have one in my outbox which is several months old. It's only because the recipient couldn't be bothered to read what I wrote to them. That happens sometimes. But it's not stuck.

It is, I think, just possible that it hasn't been opened because you haven't got the name of the recipient exactly correct. But I think the first scenario is more likely.

[Cross-post]

Re: PM stuck in the outbox and won't send

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 5:08 pm
by MTGuru
Geoffrey Ellis wrote:I assume it is not because the recipients PM folders are full, otherwise I'd expect some sort of message to that effect.
Just adding ... No, no message. But when the Inbox is full, the oldest message is automatically pushed out in FIFO fashion. So new incoming PMs are always accepted.

Re: PM stuck in the outbox and won't send

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 6:25 pm
by kkrell
If it's not already been made clear - correct operation is that the message stays in your OUTBOX until the recipient reads it. It will stay there for years if not picked up. Once it is read, it will go to your SENT folder. I still have one from 2007, as the recipient has not returned to the board.