Outlook 2016 - chinese characters appearing in messages when replying/forwarding

Anonymous
2017-04-24T13:29:42+00:00

Hello,

I am investigating an issue with Outlook 2016 and seemingly random appearances of chinese characters in email messages when replying or forwarding. I have a Exchange 365 hybrid environment and O365 pro plus office installed on workstations.

I have not been able to pinpoint a common factor why or when this happens. It is possible to reproduce the issue by sending a plain text message to a O365 group and then reply/forward the same message > header information is transformed into "chinese" (I have no idea what they actually are) characters. This does not happen with all groups or senders which is why I am looking into Outlook at the moment.

I`ve tried to change Outlook settings: use UTF8 with mailto protocol, change the encoding settings to different options etc. without success. 

I`d like to hear how would you start to troubleshoot this issue?

BR,

Sam

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-07-01T03:01:12+00:00

    Vanessa - 

    Perhaps a coder at Microsoft left it in by accident.  It should be pretty easy for them to find it in the source code

    https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/comments/5pp9pf/chinese\_english\_weird\_text\_found\_in\_outlook\_email/:

    <DIV lang=en-us class=OutlookMessageHeader align="left" DIR="LTR"> <FONT Face="C" Size=2>-<BR> <B>F</B> B <BR> <B>S</B> M<BR> <B>T</B> H<BR> <B>S</B> R<BR> </FONT> </DIV><DIV></DIV>

    I think the fact that the text is arbitrary and the same for many people on the internet is a pretty clear indication that this was accidentally included in the product.  

    Please escalate to engineering.  I just found the same thing in Outlook at our organization.  To my knowledge I am the first person to experience it.

    It does appear to be at least 14 years old though, as I find an occurance of this text in a 2004 email from:

    ****Personal Information Removed*******:

    ****Personal Information Removed*******

    It crops up every now and again.  The source seems to have something to do with Exchange.  Someone somewhere probably knows the answer...  Good luck with the regression tests!  :-)

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-06-27T09:36:56+00:00

    Hi K.E.G.G,

    If you need any related assistance, please post a new thread in our forum. We will provide assistance first timing.

    Thanks for your understanding and time.

    Vanessa

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-06-27T05:51:11+00:00

    Hello Vanessa!

    Thank you for responding. You are right about that it may be caused by different reason. There's a common denominator regarding this case*, "emails are being sent through*Office 365 Groups". I haven't seen any UserVoice regarding this issue.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-06-25T11:57:08+00:00

    Hi K.E.G.G,

    I know you encounter same problem now. Since same issue may be caused by different reasons. For more dedicated assistance for you, can you post a new thread in our forum? Our engineers will help you at first time. 

    You understanding and time will be appreciated.

    Vanessa

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