# Need Help with Hotmail Problem **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 29, 2007, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407 "2007-10-29T03:24:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/1 "2007-10-29T03:24:15Z")
Suddenly last night (Sunday night), the text in every Hotmail message I send out disappears. Entirely. I can receive incoming messages; there’s no problem with the text in those. But people who receive my messages receive a total blank, except for the Subject Line. It happened very suddenly, as the first message with no text happened three minutes after the last message I sent with text. It is still happening today. Is this something wrong with Hotmail or have I inadvertently changed some sort of setting? Although I cannot imagine why there would be such a setting. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/2 "2007-10-29T03:36:32Z")
I have no idea why this might happen. What are you using as a web browser (IE, Firefox, etc)? ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/3 "2007-10-29T03:37:36Z")
Are you really in Bangkok? Could the government be doing something? Am I an idiot for asking this? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/4 "2007-10-29T03:40:42Z")
Yes I’m in Bangkok but no, you’re not an idiot for asking, seeing as how the government does block some websites. It actually dID block Hotmail for a day or two one time in the past. But they block entire websites, not text going out but not incoming test. For browser, I’m using IE. Will try from another computer later today. This is very strange. ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/5 "2007-10-29T06:58:01Z")
Try using a Google address and see if the same thing happens with that. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/6 "2007-10-29T16:04:41Z")
[QUOTE=Myglaren] Try using a Google address and see if the same thing happens with that. [/QUOTE] My Hotmail account worked today from a computer at a different location, but tonight it’s the same at home: Text in Sent messages completely disappears, while messages received no problem. I have a Gmail account but prefer Hotmail. Will try sending something from my Gmail account and see what happens, but this is very strange. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/7 "2007-10-29T16:17:25Z")
I just tried my Gmail account. No problem. I send messages, and the text remains. I use Hotmail from THIS computer, and the text in the Send messages absolutely disappears. This does not happen with my Hotmail account on other computers. Has ANYONE heard of such a thing before??? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2007, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/8 "2007-10-30T04:39:51Z")
I tried a System Restore to last Thursday (the problem started on Sunday), but that did not work. I may reinstall MSN or IE and see what happens. This is completely bizarre. Text in Send messages disappears completely, so that anyone receiving my messages sees only a blank message box, but I can read incoming messages with no problem. This happens only on my home PC; on any other computer, I can send Hotmail messages just fine. So far, I’ve not found anyone who has ever heard of this happening. It was suggested that I may have inadvertently changed the Hotmail controls, but I can’t find any Hotmail controls. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2007, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/9 "2007-10-30T05:07:40Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] …So far, I’ve not found anyone who has ever heard of this happening. It was suggested that I may have inadvertently changed the Hotmail controls, but I can’t find any Hotmail controls. ☹ [/QUOTE] This will be little to no help to you, but last week, ONE email I sent to my wife had the exact same thing happen. It was with the computer at home, and I haven’t sent one from here since (Just from my work computer), so I will send one right now to my work email and check it in the morning. I have no clue as to the cause, sorry, but I will do my bit to help out a fellow Doper. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2007, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/10 "2007-10-30T16:45:51Z")
Reinstalled IE – new version, it looks like – the problem remains. I give up. No more Hotmail from home for me, I guess. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2007, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/11 "2007-10-30T18:00:55Z")
Try using an alternative browser - Firefox, Netscape, Opera, Maxthon, Slimbrowser etc. Reinstalling IE may not work as you can only roll it back to EI v 4 so anything causing the underlying problem may well be retained. I very rarely use my Hotmail account but NEVER ues Internet Explorer ( Haven’t got it on a couple of machines anyway) Normally access Hotmail using Firefox, Galeon, Kazahakase or Epiphany, works fine. [Firefox 2.0.0.8](http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/) [Opera 9](http://www.opera.com/) [Maxthon 2](http://www.maxthon.com/) [Slimbrowser](http://www.flashpeak.com/sbrowser/) The last two are derived from IE. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/12 "2007-10-30T18:07:37Z")
Thanks. Will try that. I’ve tried everything else. ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/13 "2007-10-31T04:46:14Z")
[QUOTE=LiveOnAPlane] This will be little to no help to you, but last week, ONE email I sent to my wife had the exact same thing happen. It was with the computer at home, and I haven’t sent one from here since (Just from my work computer), so I will send one right now to my work email and check it in the morning. I have no clue as to the cause, sorry, but I will do my bit to help out a fellow Doper. [/QUOTE] OK, guess what, the email I sent from my home computer to my work email showed up blank! So, whatever it is, I have the same problem. Might be time for me to try another browser than IE, but I’ll poke around a little first. Dang peculiar. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/14 "2007-10-31T04:50:03Z")
[QUOTE=LiveOnAPlane] OK, guess what, the email I sent from my home computer to my work email showed up blank! So, whatever it is, I have the same problem. Might be time for me to try another browser than IE, but I’ll poke around a little first. Dang peculiar. [/QUOTE] Sorry to hear that, but finally someone esle knows what I’m talking about. Have not downloaded another browser yet but will try that this week. For me, it’s only from my home PC. Other computers handle it okay. Is that the same for you? ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/15 "2007-11-01T01:24:26Z")
Do the messages appear OK in your ‘sent’ folder? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/16 "2007-11-01T03:59:49Z")
No, the text is gone in the Sent folder, too. I type the message in, it is there on screen, but when I hit Send, the text jumps ship while sailing through the ether. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/17 "2007-11-02T05:30:29Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Sorry to hear that, but finally someone esle knows what I’m talking about. Have not downloaded another browser yet but will try that this week. For me, it’s only from my home PC. Other computers handle it okay. Is that the same for you? [/QUOTE] Yes, it is only from my home PC. I emailed Hotmail support and got a reply this morning. They want me to install and run something called Fiddler. The procedure is rather involved., so I will do this this weekend. I’m really curious as to what happened. Just FYI, here is most of the text of Microsoft’s message: [Quote=] For investigation purposes, please provide us a fiddler trace of your account. A fiddler is a diagnostic tool, which will tell us exactly what is generating the issue you have experienced. This will take a few minutes to do, and it requires extra steps on your part. Your privacy is very important to us. I assure you that no personal or account information will be passed in the Fiddler trace. If you feel comfortable downloading and installing Fiddler, please follow the steps below: 1. Go to [http://www.fiddlertool.com/](http://www.fiddlertool.com/) 2. Click on “Get Fiddler!” 3. Click on “Install Fiddler v1.3” 4. This should open a window requesting you to download a file. Click “Save” and save it to the desktop 5. After the file is downloaded, navigate to the desktop and double click on “FiddlerSetup.exe” 6. Read the License Agreement and click “I Agree” 7. Click “Install” 8. After installation is complete click “Close” 9. Open the Fiddler program by going to Start -\> All Programs -\> Fiddler. Fiddler is now logging. Please open up Internet Explorer and recreate the problem you contacted support for. Once you have reproduced the problem follow the below steps. 1. Return to the Fiddler program (it should still be running). 2. Click on Edit -\> Select All 3. Click on File -\> Save -\> Session(s) -\> As Zip 4. Name the file “fiddlerlog.zip” and save it to your desktop. Once you have collected the data using the Fiddler tool, you may uninstall it if you please. In order to uninstall the program please follow the steps given below: 1. Click the Start menu 2. Click Control Panel and choose Add or Remove Programs 3. Select Fiddler and click on ‘Change/Remove’ and then click Uninstall. Please send the file to our [windowsLM@msn.com](mailto:windowsLM@msn.com) and put the SRXID found in the subject line of this e-mail for tracking purposes. In addition, we would also need you to provide us access to your account so we could try and simulate the issue in our end. When we have access to your account, we can see everything in your account just as you do when you use it. After we diagnose the problem, we will reset your password and then send you an e-mail message that explains what we have discovered. To give us your permission to access your Windows Live Hotmail account, please reply to this e-mail message and include the following text in your message: “I grant you my permission to access my Windows Live Hotmail account.” Note: Once you have granted us permission, you may not be able to use any services that require your e-mail address to sign in while we are trying to fix the problem. LiveOnAPlane, before we sign in to your account, please make sure that you have your secret question and answer ready so that you can reset your password and access your account again. You should also have an alternative e-mail address available so that we can contact you if we experience any problems when we try to access your account. For the steps on How to add or change the alternate e-mail address, please visit: [http://emailsupport.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5D6F5A79A79B6708!340.entry](http://emailsupport.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5D6F5A79A79B6708!340.entry) [/Quote] I’ll be back in a few days with a report on how it went. Yes, easier to go to Firefox or something, but this is weird, and I do have a curious mind, or I wouldn’t be here! ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/18 "2007-11-02T05:40:00Z")
Holy cow. I just tried something, **Siam Sam,** and my text messgae appeared! When you compose a message, is it in rich text, with the “Show plain text” option just under the Subject block? I just clicked on that so as to use plain text, and sent it to myself and it worked. Now, I just sent it Hotmail-Hotmail (i.e., from me to me), not to my work, so I can’t say this is 100% working, but when I sent a rich text message from Hotmail to Hotmail, it did NOT work, so maybe this is hopeful. I’m sending one in plain text to my work email and we’ll see tomorrow morning. I’ll let you all know. Yes, it is a workaround and all that; and I’m still curious as to why the difficulty, and why it just started ahppening, but you might want to try this yourself. ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2007, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/19 "2007-11-03T05:29:00Z")
Last update for a while: It came across to my work email just fine, all of the text was there. So for me, anyway, the solution for now is to use plain text and not rich text. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2007, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407/20 "2007-11-03T05:37:54Z")
I downloaded Mozilla, and my Hotmail works fine from that. I also just tried your suggestion about Plain Text from Hotmail in IE, but that still does not work. As long as I use Mozilla for Hotmail, looks like it will be fine. Is this some sort of virus?? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-hotmail-problem/424407.md?page=2)