"Outlook is retrieving data from exchange server"

[heckski]

I'm running exchange 5.5, for the last couple of days, each time a user attempts to open an email, particularly emails with attachements, the following box pops up "Outlook is retrieving data from the exchange server". Eventually outlook retrieves the email but in some cases it may take 30 seconds. Can anyone help me with this?

 

[potts007]

I would be interested in this also. I occasionally see this when I connect over a VPN connection.

Tim

 

[staboogie]

Microsoft has identified this as a problem with people using Outlook 2002. It constantly happens on my VPN but there has been no fix or solution for it yet.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290003

 

[Saya99]

Antivirus software could cause this also. Try opening the same email message (mostly having attachment) again after you receive "outlook is retrieving data from the...". If on second time the message opens without any problem then this is because of antivirus software scanning the attachment first time and remembers for subsequent opening till the new antivirus updates take place on the exchange server. Background scanning can help if antivirus updates are done frequently.

 

[RichardMoran]

I don't know if this helps but I used to get the same message come up on our server.

The problem was that it was an old server and couldn't keep up with the demands being placed on it. If a large attachment arrived for someone, the server would max out on CPU usage. Anyone trying to open an e-mail would get the "Outlook is retrieving data..." message. We replaced the server with a new one and everything is fine now.

I don't see this message as an error, just information that something is slow. For example it was our server, but I guess it could also be bandwidth limitations of a VPN connection.

As an addition it's worth noting that if you are using earlier versions of Outlook they just appear to hang, but are in fact waiting for the request to fulfilled.

Rik