Offline messaging problem

[ciaraxx]

Hey Guys!!

Need help big time... ive never had this problem before until i got MSN Live and also change my email address from hotmail.com to hotmail.co.uk.. dont know whether thats contributed to the problem but anywys.. when i appear offline and a friend of mine speaks to me.. sometimes i dont recieve them and when i next log in they are in my Email inbox.... not only that but when friends send me offline messages they go straight to my email and its really annoying. I have tried to change the settings and then put them back... even unistalled messenger but again nowt seems to change. Would appreciate it if someone could get back if they can solve the problem or have a problem like mine. Cheers

Ciara

[patndoris]

Hello and welcome to BBB! I'm a bit confused. Here's why:

If you are truly not online in WLM, the 2 choices are to either show your offlines immediately upon logging in, or to show them as a link on the main screen of WLM. They should not go to email.

If you are appearing offline, what someone believes is an offline they are sending you will come thru like any other IM. You can then choose to respond or not, but if you do they obviously know you are online. These do not go to email if you choose not to answer them.

The only way I'm aware of to get an IM to go to email would be if your contact is choosing to send you an email instead of instant message because they can't see you online (whether you are or not is irrelevant). Instead of choosing send an Instant Message, they are probably choosing Send Other, and selecting email as the choice.

I'd verify with your contacts how they are sending the messages. You don't mention that when you are online any messages are being dropped. I don't think it's anything wrong on your end, more likely it's a misunderstanding of how offlines work on the part of your contact. You could test this by having an online conversation with someone and then changing to appear offline and seeing if the messages continue to come thru.

Please let me know what turns up from this information. In all my dealings with WLM I've never even heard this one before and it has me quite perplexed if it's not what I've stated above. I'd really like to know the outcome.

[ciaraxx]

Thanks for the reply. I have tried everything.. ive even had my bf try different settings with his and to send me messages biut its all of my contacts that i have this problem with. If i decide to go offline and speak to the odd contact then i get the odd message through but most of them go straight to my email inbox so i have to appear online to have a normal conversation. Trust me i have tried different settings.. by goin to tools - options - messages and changing the settings to see if they work but nothing seems to happen. Its really frustrating coz im used to getting my offline messages when i log on to msn =(. Could it be a Bug?

[patndoris]

Are you running any third party add-ons to WLM such as Plus! or Stuffplug? If so, please try disabling them. What version of WLM are you using? Are you on XP or Vista?

I've not heard of this behavior due to spyware or a virus, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. It can't hurt to do a complete virus scan with up to date definitions, and 2 separate spyware scans with different programs, also with up to date definitions (I like SuperAnti Spyware and Ad-Aware which you can get from Filehippo.

I'd be curious to know if you use a different login on your machine, does it behave the same? Or is it JUST for your new hotmail.co.uk login that it does this. If it does the same on any login on your machine, I'd be far more likely to suspect a plug-in or malware.

Also, if you login on another machine, does it behave the same for you there? If your login behaves that way on any machine, it's more likely a WLM server issue of some odd sort and will likely sort itself out...eventually.

I'll wait to hear back, but this one has my poor little brain boggled. Perhaps the answers to the above questions can help us narrow it down.

[ciaraxx]

ive recently had a new laptop and its still acting the same and also on mates computers too. =(. on my old computer i disabled all plug ins and everything.. its mainly on hotmail.co.uk that i noticed i had this problem and cant remember having it with hotmail.com. There really is nothing else i can possible do. I typed in google and tried different links to see if anyone has had this sort of problem but i cant seem to find anyone who has.. strange ay?

[ciaraxx]

I dont know whether this may have something do with it but... i have just created a dummy account and tested my offline messages with my dummy account which is live.co.uk... and i recieve offline messages with the dummy account.. BUT i noticed when i was registering that there was a question.. i had to give a alternative email account incase i cant remember my new account. Now. when i registered my hotmail.co.uk i gave my ol alternative address hotmail.com.. do you think that these seem to have been linked some how? I have checked my account settings on hotmail and they dont appear to have any links to either so not sure how i would go about it.. PLUS.. when i go to delete my hotmail.com account i get a message saying that i can delete it because theres a microsoft account linked? i followed the link and continued to close the account but again nothing has changed. ARGH!

[patndoris]

It's hard to know if there's an internal problem going on with the migration of your account. How long ago did you switch the account over?

Also, are you on Vista or XP? What version of WLM are you using? If you had plugins you've disabled, just in case anything got messed up in the program itself, I'd suggest going to add/remove programs (XP) and doing a repair of WLM. It should not be necessary to uninstall - if it should happen to work, a repair should be sufficient.

Please let me know XP or Vista and the version of WLM. Also, have you dont the virus and spyware scans? Hijackers can do all kinds of odd things to programs and it's defitiely worth doing these.

[ciaraxx]

i have the most recent WLM.. 8.5 something? i am using windows vista but on my old computer i was using windows xp. Removed all addons and also tried repairing WLM. Done spyware and virus check.. but do that on a regular basis anyways. my account is about 7 / 8 months old.

[patndoris]

Since the behavior occurs on more than one machine, it's got to be account related but I'm struggling to figure out why it would EVER email your offines. It makes no logical sense.

I need to mull this one over and will post back if I can come up with anything.

[ciaraxx]

Yeah is a bit of a funny one ay? Thanks for your help though. Appreciated xxx