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Email problem - strange

(9 posts)

  1. Pelica
    Member

    We are receiving the emails when Alerts are initially set and when Approval Workflows are started. However, the subsequent Alerts are not being received, nor are the approval task emails. I've been testing and testing using web parts that used to send the alert emails and workflow task emails and I've created new library and lists to do new testing with. Nothing works. It's not going into spam; not going into junk mail; our server guy says there are no errors on the back-end and he says it's probably a setting on the front-end side within SharePoint. I don't see how this is possible - I haven't found any settings that would turn off certain emails from being received.

    Any thoughts out there?

    Posted 3 days ago #

  2. Eric Truchon
    Member

    Hi,

    Is the user that sent the first on is the same that sent the second one?

    Have you limitation over email account that send mail?
    Have you a policy that limit outgoing mail to 5 kb or something like that the second one is reaching?

    Eric

    Posted 3 days ago #

  3. Pelica
    Member

    Thank you for the response! :)

    Sometimes the user is the same one, and sometimes not.

    I even set up an immediate Alert for "any changes" and then uploaded a test doc. I then added one word to that doc and saved it again. I never received an alert.

    We have size policies in place, but I know I've emailed a 2meg spreasheet before with no problems, so I can't imaging a simple alert email causing a problem.

    Posted 3 days ago #

  4. ewnash
    Member

    You're probably going to need your farm administrator for this one. Alert failures like you describe here have a variety of root causes but there's a good blog posting at http://weblogs.asp.net/mellota/archive/2007/10/11/sharepoint-2007-task-notification-alert-emails-not-working.aspx that will start you down the road toward a solution.

    If it's not an issue with one of the tables in the content database then you may want a closer look at permissions. For example, if your permissions on the site in question come via your membership in an AD group then you may find that giving yourself explicit permissions as a named user on the site will yield a different result. There are several areas in which SharePoint has trouble enumerating the membership of AD groups, including alerts and audience targeting.

    Posted 3 days ago #

  5. Pelica
    Member

    I'll have our server/db guy take a look at everything on the back-end. I'm sure the problem is there since the people involved have full priviledges as Site Collection Admins.

    However, you've raised a scary question. All of our access, 100% of it, is done thru AD groups. We have no instances on SharePoint where an individual is added directly. Can you go into a bit more detail about your last sentence (There are several areas in which SharePoint has trouble enumerating the membership of AD groups, including alerts and audience targeting.)?

    Posted 2 days ago #

  6. ewnash
    Member

    OK, we're testing my memory here as I've moved recently to a company that barely uses AD groups at all (don't ask). If I recall correctly there were two specific instances that I observed firsthand in which AD groups proved problematic but again, we're relying on my memory for this.

    1) I am a member of the AD group Team_A. That AD group has Contributor permissions on Site A. If I set an alert on a list on Site A then I'll get the initial confirmation e-mail that the alert was created, but I will never receive an alert from this list.

    2) I am a member of the AD group Team_B. A web part or navigation link on Site B has audience targeting applied so that only members of the Team_B AD group are in the audience. I will not be able to see the targeted object.

    If I understand the problem correctly then it's basically this; SharePoint cannot enumerate the members of the AD group in order to send the alert or to verify that the current user is a member of the target audience. I've not seen any cure for this other than to grant the users in question explicit permissions on the sites, lists or libraries where this occurs. This is obviously an unacceptable solution in large enterprises but if there's a hotfix then I'm unaware of it. I remember finding oblique references to these issues in the MSDN forums but very little discussion and no solutions.

    Wish I had more to offer!

    Posted 2 days ago #

  7. Pelica
    Member

    QUOTED:

    "1) I am a member of the AD group Team_A. That AD group has Contributor permissions on Site A. If I set an alert on a list on Site A then I'll get the initial confirmation e-mail that the alert was created, but I will never receive an alert from this list."

    and

    If I understand the problem correctly then it's basically this; SharePoint cannot enumerate the members of the AD group in order to send the alert or to verify that the current user is a member of the target audience. I've not seen any cure for this other than to grant the users in question explicit permissions on the sites, lists or libraries where this occurs. This is obviously an unacceptable solution in large enterprises but if there's a hotfix then I'm unaware of it. I remember finding oblique references to these issues in the MSDN forums but very little discussion and no solutions.

    Then what's the point of even having the ability to use AD groups in SharePoint? We have a huge amount of compliance 'stuff' at stake here involving the Alerts.

    I am really not understanding this because at one point, I DID receive alert emails itemizing things that had been done on a library.

    Posted 1 day ago #

  8. ewnash
    Member

    I'm going to have to direct you to the MSDN forums (or to one of the more knowledgeable moderators here) as I don't have the resources to test issues related to AD groups in my current implementation.

    Let's hope that I don't have my facts straight, but I'm afraid that (at least in the specific implementations that I worked on in the past) my recollections are correct.

    Posted 1 day ago #

  9. Pelica
    Member

    On my way over to the MSDN forum!

    I truly appreciate your time and help!

    Posted 1 day ago #

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