Garbled Emails

[idratherbeinthewoods]

I just received 3 new cache notification emails that were "garbled".
Never had a problem before.
Several forum topic notification emails I received earler today were fine.

[idratherbeinthewoods]

From: Opencaching US <notify@opencaching.us>
Reply-To: noreply@opencaching.us
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: BASE64
Message-Id: <20101119010001.E766EC21A@opencaching.us>
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 01:00:01 +0000 (UTC)
Return-Path: www-data@opencaching.us
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 19 Nov 2010 01:00:01.0927 (UTC) FILETIME=[185BF170:01CB8785]
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[RVRoadTrip]

This baffles me. I have no idea why people at random receive garbled emails. I certainly wish I knew, though.

[therapaint]

I used to receive garbled emails on my droid only, now they're garbled on the desktop as well. I don't have this issue with any other sender, and I receice email from a LOT of senders. I know one other cacher in my area who has experienced this problem - looks like it's becoming widespread - not good for business!

[DudleyGrunt]

Some searching I've done indicated that Outlook 2003 (at least), especially with Vista, is more sensitive than other clients in dealing with e-mails when you are listed on the BCC (blind carbon copy).

If you are using Outlook 2003, you might want to try the following...

Check if “Read all standard mail in plain text” option in Outlook 2003is turned on. You need to uncheck this option which will not show HTML contents:-

1. Start Outlook 2003.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. On the Preferences tab, in the E-mail area, click E-mail Options.
4. In the Message handling area, check if “Read all standard mail in plain text” box is checked.
5. Uncheck if it is checked and see if you are able to see the message content.

You may also want to test viewing the e-mails in your providers webmail client. They should show fine there.

[RVRoadTrip]

OK, I found out the problem but have yet to find out WHERE along the email's journey that it occurs. The email is being changed from plain text and encoded using BASE64. If you get a garbled email, you can visit http://www.opinionatedgeek.com/dotnet/tools/base64decode/ and decode it to see what it looked like when it left our server. I will send a bulletin letting users know this until we can track down the root cause. I have been pouring over the code all morning looking for anything that might be an issue on our end.

Thanks for your understanding.

[RVRoadTrip]

Another Update:

Based on some research, I have found out that some email clients/servers will not properly display messages unless a MIME-Version header is specified. Since there is only one MIME-Version (1.0), not everyone includes it since it is assumed. I added this specific header to our code and if anyone receives a garbled email from today forward, please post your message headers in this thread. Thanks!

[DudleyGrunt]

Very cool. Hopefully, that will do it.

[TermiteHunter]

Since we only have this problem with mail sent from OCTeam could you send out another message so that we can verify that the possible fix did indeed work?
The Bulletin sent was also recieved garbled but this may be a good candidate to re-send.

I recieved 2 messages today, both garbled and both before the fix.
The notification of a new hide in my area (thanks Therapaint)
and the bulletin.
I have never had a problem with logs. They arrive fine.

Outlook 2007 Win Xp sp3

[RVRoadTrip]

Since we only have this problem with mail sent from OCTeam could you send out another message so that we can verify that the possible fix did indeed work?
The Bulletin sent was also recieved garbled but this may be a good candidate to re-send.

I recieved 2 messages today, both garbled and both before the fix.
The notification of a new hide in my area (thanks Therapaint)
and the bulletin.
I have never had a problem with logs. They arrive fine.

Outlook 2007 Win Xp sp3

I'd rather not send out another bulletin as that goes to everyone. I'll send you a PM about what we can do for you.