Symptom: Outlook Integration Mail-Merge Emails Stuck in Drafts Folder
Product Details:
Product Family: Act!
Version: v18 and later
Environment:
Third Party: Microsoft Office 2016, Office 365
Solution:
From around September 9th 2020 there have been growing reports of mail-merge emails getting stuck in the Outlook draft folder.
This issue is caused by a Microsoft update that has been released to the Current and Semi-Annual (preview) channels for Microsoft Office. The issue has been verified in builds 2008 and 2009.
The recommended action at this stage is to set your Outlook update channel to Semi-Annual to prevent this issue from occurring. This is the channel that Microsoft recommends for any users that have add-ons.
Important Update 12th April 2021
In March 2021 we started to get reports of Mail-Merge working again with Outlook using the Monthly channel for updates. Using Act! v23 and Office 2019/365 we have verified the following;
Channels and Builds that Mail-Merge is working on
- Current Channel Preview Version 2103 (Build 13901.20336)
- Monthly Enterprise Version 2101 (Build 13628.20528)
- Semi-Annual Preview Version 2102 (Build 13801.20294)
- Semi Annual Version 2002 (Build 12527.21688)
Channels and Builds where Mail-Merge is getting stuck in drafts
- Semi-Annual Version 2008 (Build 13127.21348)
Note: Outlook Version 2008 is where the issue of Mail-Merge emails getting stuck in drafts, first originated. On March 9th, 2021 it was pushed out to the Semi-Annual update channel. Users that have Version 2008 (Build 13127.21348) will now experience Mail-Merge emails getting stuck in drafts.
More information about Microsoft update channels can be found here:
Recommended Microsoft Office update channel settings when using Act! with Office 2016 or Office 365
Note: This information is provided as a convenience. Swiftpage does not provide support for Microsoft products. For assistance switching your update channel, contact Microsoft or an IT Professional.