I am using and have been using "Postbox", a desktop email client, to send and receive all my emails through my Live account on "Outlook.com" using IMAP. Everything has worked perfectly between "Postbox" and "Outlook.com" for several years and I haven't changed anything on my end. About two weeks ago, I started having problems. Now, when I put a single name or a group list into the Bcc field on my "Postbox" desktop email client and send that email through my outgoing SMTP server at "Outlook.com", the email goes through "Outlook.com" and "Outlook.com" moves all the names from the Bcc field to the TO field. I am assuming this has something to do with the new changes associated with the updated "Outlook.com/Outlook Mail" web mail process. Notes: When I do the same thing using "Gmail" for my outgoing SMTP server, my names stay in the Bcc field as they should. My Outlook.com web page now shows Outlook Mail in the top left corner. I am using imap-mail.outlook.com Port 993 and smtp-mail.outlook.com Port 587 for my servers. I tried switching to imap-mail.live.com and smtp-mail.live.com as one MS web site suggested regarding the new changes to Outlook Mail but those new setting would not connect. I tried using Mozilla Thunderbird instead of Postbox as my desktop email client and the same problem occurred in that the name in my outgoing Bcc field was put into the To field after the email was processed through Outlook.com. Based on all of the above, I believe the problem has something to do with the way the new Outlook Mail is trying to process names from the Bcc field in emails sent from my desktop email clients. I hope someone from MS can look into this problem and get back to us.

I just tested sending emails with an address in To and addresses in Bcc. All emails were received. What are you using for the server address? Is the account setup using pop3 or IMAP?

Ron: After receiving your latest reply, I once again tested and sent an email to see if the SMTP Outllook.com server was fixed and would send emails to a Bcc address using a desktop email program with addresses in the TO, Cc, and Bcc fields. The email never gets to the Bcc address. Your reply to me above on May 30th confirmed what I have been and continue to experience as a problem. If I use a web browser, everything works. If I use a desktop email program using an outgoing SMTP server other than Outlook.com, everything works. If I use a desktop email program using the outgoing SMTP server at Outlook.com (see below), the address in the Bcc field never receives the email. Here is a quick summary: I am using incoming imap-mail.outlook.com Port 993 and outgoing smtp-mail.outlook.com Port 587 for my Outlook.com server settings in my desktop email program. I am accessing my email via IMAP according to the specifications shown under "Settings/Options/Account/POP and IMAP" on the Outlook Mail web page. I am using the desktop email client program “Postbox” and have tried it using "Thunderbird". 4. Using “Postbox” desktop email program to send an email via the Outlook.com SMTP server. The fields and results were: From field used a “Live” email account going through the Outlook.com SMTP server . To field had a “Live” email address. The email was received. Cc field had a “Yahoo” email address. The email was received. Bcc field had a “Gmail” email address. The email was NOT received. If you need more, please let me know.

I would like to thank Laurel for having done some pretty thorough testing. I have the same issues and initially assumed my mail client, Thunderbird, which has served me brilliantly for some years, had made a change over which I had no control. NOT SO! My experience, and also my wife's, on a different PC, matches Laurel's exactly - using live.com, gmail and another mail account for various test messages, it is the Microsoft server which is now misbehaving. Looking a bit further I find at http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/668443/Windows-10-Hotmail-Live-Mail-2012-Upgrade-Outlook that whilst the newspaper apparently knows "Microsoft is about to retire its Windows Live Mail service and has warned Hotmail and Outlook.com users to move to the web or choose a modern desktop app......". I (plus wife) have 4 regularly used Live/Hotmail accounts and whilst some Current Affairs type stuff has arrived from Microsoft, absolutely no advice on the mail services changing significantly has appeared!! By my reckoning Thunderbird is an up to date piece of software (I had it's latest update today) and it is completely inexcusable for Microsoft to hide behind Javier Soltero's "enhanced performance, security and reliability" in screwing up a fundamental e-mail privacy facility, the BCC. Surely there are common standards for all e-mail servers and my conclusion has to be that MS has unilaterally decided to change something..... otherwise they would work as they have for years and still should work. I've just tried using the Web access on a couple of the accounts and discover that the new interface is useless for me (all messages in one long list and abysmal response time to open one, lists of contacts have lost their names when opened, so are listed in alphabetical order of e-mail address) - and on one account finding mail itself was impossible though I could see all the account info. Next step: "Choose a modern desktop app" - I suppose Office 365 is recommended? - but the post from Ron 31 May suggests that also fails to communicate as it should. Does anybody know one which does? Thunderbird was great and still should be. Is Microsoft really trying to drive users like me towards Linux and steer clear of Microsoft anything as far as is possible? Thanks also for some relevant correspondence at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show\_bug.cgi?id=1279558 - which guided me here.

Ron or anyone else: Please help us. The two Bcc problems I mentioned on June 23^rd^ still exist for me and others when we use a non-Microsoft desktop email program (eM Client, Mailbird, Postbox, Thunderbird) to send emails through the outgoing IMAP SMTP server connected to Outlook.com. However, those same Bcc problems do not exist if I use the Microsoft desktop Windows 10 Mail App. That tells me the IMAP settings we use in the non-Microsoft desktop email programs (incoming imap-mail.outlook.com Port 993 and outgoing smtp-mail.outlook.com Port 587) must be different from the setting used by the Microsoft Windows 10 Mail App. And, I can’t find anything on the internet that tells me what those Windows 10 Mail App settings are to connect to the Outlook.com server because the Mail App has all that stored internally. Would anyone who has communications access to Microsoft technical support please find out the following for us as it relates to the Microsoft Windows 10 Mail App connecting to the server at Outlook.com? Type of access – IMAP or something else Incoming server name – Incoming server port – Outgoing server name – Outgoing server port – That way, we might be able to correct our problems by changing to different setting in our non-Microsoft desktop email programs. I understand that these problems only impact a small number of people who use a desktop email program going through Outlook.com. But, we really need to be able to send out our emails properly to our Bcc addresses. We just need a little more help.

Outlook.com Moving Addresses From Bcc Field to the TO Field When Email is Sent via Desktop Email Client

Anonymous

I am using and have been using "Postbox", a desktop email client, to send and receive all my emails through my Live account on "Outlook.com" using IMAP. Everything has worked perfectly between "Postbox" and "Outlook.com" for several years and I haven't changed anything on my end. About two weeks ago, I started having problems. Now, when I put a single name or a group list into the Bcc field on my "Postbox" desktop email client and send that email through my outgoing SMTP server at "Outlook.com", the email goes through "Outlook.com" and "Outlook.com" moves all the names from the Bcc field to the TO field. I am assuming this has something to do with the new changes associated with the updated "Outlook.com/Outlook Mail" web mail process.

Notes:

When I do the same thing using "Gmail" for my outgoing SMTP server, my names stay in the Bcc field as they should.
My Outlook.com web page now shows Outlook Mail in the top left corner.
I am using imap-mail.outlook.com Port 993 and smtp-mail.outlook.com Port 587 for my servers. I tried switching to imap-mail.live.com and smtp-mail.live.com as one MS web site suggested regarding the new changes to Outlook Mail but those new setting would not connect.
I tried using Mozilla Thunderbird instead of Postbox as my desktop email client and the same problem occurred in that the name in my outgoing Bcc field was put into the To field after the email was processed through Outlook.com.
Based on all of the above, I believe the problem has something to do with the way the new Outlook Mail is trying to process names from the Bcc field in emails sent from my desktop email clients.

I hope someone from MS can look into this problem and get back to us.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Thank you for the thorough feedback Laurel. The post-mortem investigation (as we call it) into the support escalation is underway.

Glad that the fix has reached you. For John and everyone else, the fix has reached about 75% of servers now. There will be a long tail of stragglers but we are working to reach 100% by the end of next week.

Regards,

Sean

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50 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-07-03T18:32:44+00:00

I just tested sending emails with an address in To and addresses in Bcc.

All emails were received.

What are you using for the server address?

Is the account setup using pop3 or IMAP?
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Anonymous

2016-07-03T19:11:33+00:00
Ron:

After receiving your latest reply, I once again tested and sent an email to see if the SMTP Outllook.com server was fixed and would send emails to a Bcc address using a desktop email program with addresses in the TO, Cc, and Bcc fields. The email never gets to the Bcc address.

Your reply to me above on May 30th confirmed what I have been and continue to experience as a problem. If I use a web browser, everything works. If I use a desktop email program using an outgoing SMTP server other than Outlook.com, everything works. If I use a desktop email program using the outgoing SMTP server at Outlook.com (see below), the address in the Bcc field never receives the email.

Here is a quick summary:
1. I am using incoming imap-mail.outlook.com Port 993 and outgoing smtp-mail.outlook.com Port 587 for my Outlook.com server settings in my desktop email program.
2. I am accessing my email via IMAP according to the specifications shown under "Settings/Options/Account/POP and IMAP" on the Outlook Mail web page.
3. I am using the desktop email client program “Postbox” and have tried it using "Thunderbird".
4. Using “Postbox” desktop email program to send an email via the Outlook.com SMTP server. The fields and results were:
- From field used a “Live” email account going through the Outlook.com SMTP server.
- To field had a “Live” email address. The email was received.
- Cc field had a “Yahoo” email address. The email was received.
- Bcc field had a “Gmail” email address. The email was NOT received.
If you need more, please let me know.
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Anonymous

2016-07-09T18:12:18+00:00

I would like to thank Laurel for having done some pretty thorough testing. I have the same issues and initially assumed my mail client, Thunderbird, which has served me brilliantly for some years, had made a change over which I had no control. NOT SO!

My experience, and also my wife's, on a different PC, matches Laurel's exactly - using live.com, gmail and another mail account for various test messages, it is the Microsoft server which is now misbehaving.

Looking a bit further I find at http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/668443/Windows-10-Hotmail-Live-Mail-2012-Upgrade-Outlook that whilst the newspaper apparently knows "Microsoft is about to retire its Windows Live Mail service and has warned Hotmail and Outlook.com users to move to the web or choose a modern desktop app......". I (plus wife) have 4 regularly used Live/Hotmail accounts and whilst some Current Affairs type stuff has arrived from Microsoft, absolutely no advice on the mail services changing significantly has appeared!!

By my reckoning Thunderbird is an up to date piece of software (I had it's latest update today) and it is completely inexcusable for Microsoft to hide behind Javier Soltero's "enhanced performance, security and reliability" in screwing up a fundamental e-mail privacy facility, the BCC. Surely there are common standards for all e-mail servers and my conclusion has to be that MS has unilaterally decided to change something..... otherwise they would work as they have for years and still should work.

I've just tried using the Web access on a couple of the accounts and discover that the new interface is useless for me (all messages in one long list and abysmal response time to open one, lists of contacts have lost their names when opened, so are listed in alphabetical order of e-mail address) - and on one account finding mail itself was impossible though I could see all the account info. Next step: "Choose a modern desktop app" - I suppose Office 365 is recommended? - but the post from Ron 31 May suggests that also fails to communicate as it should. Does anybody know one which does? Thunderbird was great and still should be.

Is Microsoft really trying to drive users like me towards Linux and steer clear of Microsoft anything as far as is possible?

Thanks also for some relevant correspondence at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show\_bug.cgi?id=1279558 - which guided me here.
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Anonymous

2016-07-12T15:21:48+00:00

Ron or anyone else:

Please help us.

The two Bcc problems I mentioned on June 23^rd^ still exist for me and others when we use a non-Microsoft desktop email program (eM Client, Mailbird, Postbox, Thunderbird) to send emails through the outgoing IMAP SMTP server connected to Outlook.com. However, those same Bcc problems do not exist if I use the Microsoft desktop Windows 10 Mail App. That tells me the IMAP settings we use in the non-Microsoft desktop email programs (incoming imap-mail.outlook.com Port 993 and outgoing smtp-mail.outlook.com Port 587) must be different from the setting used by the Microsoft Windows 10 Mail App. And, I can’t find anything on the internet that tells me what those Windows 10 Mail App settings are to connect to the Outlook.com server because the Mail App has all that stored internally.

Would anyone who has communications access to Microsoft technical support please find out the following for us as it relates to the Microsoft Windows 10 Mail App connecting to the server at Outlook.com?

Type of access – IMAP or something else

Incoming server name –

Incoming server port –

Outgoing server name –

Outgoing server port –

That way, we might be able to correct our problems by changing to different setting in our non-Microsoft desktop email programs.

I understand that these problems only impact a small number of people who use a desktop email program going through Outlook.com. But, we really need to be able to send out our emails properly to our Bcc addresses. We just need a little more help.
Was this answer helpful?

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