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

Anonymous

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

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.

0 comments

132 answers

Anonymous

2017-05-09T09:18:45+00:00

Hi Sam,

Is there any update?

Best Regards,

Vanessa
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2017-05-15T06:30:09+00:00
Hello,

We have been able to reproduce the issue with a group of test users and a O365 group. It seems to be happening in the following fashion:
1. Plain text email is sent to O365 Group.
2. Group member is subscribing for emails sent to Groups.
3. Recipient of plain text email to Group replies to the email from user's personal inbox, i.e. replies to email that is sent as copy to group member's personal inbox based on "Subscribe" functionality.
4. Replies to Group emails from personal inbox creates Chinese character set, that replaces the previous sender's header details in the email chain.
The Chinese character issue does NOT repeat if a user replies to the email sent to the Group from the Groups view in Outlook, or from the O365 Group Conversation view in browser, or from OWA or from phone. Only when replies are sent from personal inboxes based on the O365 Group's "Subscribe" functionality.

BR,

Sam
Was this answer helpful?

4 people found this answer helpful.

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2017-05-15T15:46:28+00:00

Hi Sam,

Thanks for your updates. From your description, I speculate this issue should be likely caused by some special settings.

Can you share some information as I mentioned in the previous reply? Especially create a new user in pure cloud in Office 365 portal rather than sync s/he from on-premises and test this account.

Additionally, for more timely assistance, could you please reply to me once you get any update?

Best Regards,

Vanessa
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2017-05-17T05:31:28+00:00

Hello,

We found a resolution of sorts to this issue from the Office 365 backend team. This issue is known to them and it is a feature at the moment:

Solution

The behaviour you've noticed is a characteristic of the product that, at this moment, cannot be changed.

Workaround

The Chinese character issue does NOT repeat if a user replies to the email sent to the Group from the Groups view in Outlook, or from the O365 Group Conversation view in browser, or from OWA or from phone. Only when replies are sent from personal inboxes based on the O365 Group's "Subscribe" functionality.

They said the issue could be found somewhere in here: https://office365.uservoice.com/forums/286611-office-365-groups. We will go vote on issue to be resolved hopefully soon.

BR,

Sam
Was this answer helpful?

1 person found this answer helpful.

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2017-05-17T11:42:47+00:00

Hi Sam,

Thanks for your updates. Anyway, it is glad to hear that we find the reason about this scenario. If any related assistance is needed in future, please feel free to post a new thread in our forum. We are happy to provide any assistance there.

Best Regards,

Vanessa
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments