When you send tasks to someone, the recipients needs to use Outlook to accept or decline the task. If the recipient receives a plain text message, your mail server is removing the TNEF data that tells Outlook it's a task. If you are using Exchange server, the Administrator may have the server configured to remove the data when messages are sent to the Internet, as non-Outlook users will see a winmail.dat attachment.
Outlook 2010
We're seeing reports from users that sending Task invitations through an IMAP account is "breaking" the accept and decline buttons.
The workaround: Switch to a POP3 account, if supported.
Outlook 2003
If you discover you are unable to accept or decline tasks, the probable cause is a failed update.
The Security Update for Outlook 2003, released on January 10, 2006 and described in Knowledge Base article 892843, is reported to cause problems when accepting assigned tasks or updating completed tasks on the sender's tasks list. This security update may also cause some VBA and scripts to fail.
Not everyone who installs this update is affected and later updates may fix it, so go ahead and install it, but if you experience problems opening or accepting tasks, with tasks updates, you'll need to uninstall the update. You can do this through Control Panel, Add and Remove Programs.
Those who have problems have two or more copies of this update installed for some reason and there doesn't seem to be a problem if only one copy of the patch is installed so it only affects a small percentage of Outlook users. Keep in mind that removing the update will not fix tasks that were affected, but all new tasks should work correctly in the future.
To uninstall the update(s), go to Add/Remove Programs and click the "show updates" checkbox. The update should be listed under the entry for Microsoft Office 2003. Click Remove to uninstall. If tasks work correctly, you can reinstall the update along with the hotfix found in KB 913695, if you desire. As long as only one copy is installed it should work as expected.
Hi - it seems we are experiencing this issue with Office 365 + Outlook 2016 whereby the Accept / Decline options are not visible and the formatting of the email only displays 1/3 of the email. Has anyone had any success in resolving this ?
Please note : No auto enabled signature applications are running for this particular account.
Have the latest updates fixed the problem? There were some formatting issues in email that were fixed in a recent update.
Hi Diane. The above is still an ongoing issue. Office 365 and Outlook 2016 and also Outlook web app seem to not be showing the Accept and Decline options for tasks and most times, the assigned tasks don't even show-up in the user Tasks section. Any fixes you think we can try?
if only some tasks are affected, are they received as tasks or messages?
If the TNEF blob is missing or corrupt the task won't work correctly.
Diane,
I have discovered the problem. It is Gmail account that doesn't allow Assigned Task to run. I have tried with my Cpanel Email accounts and it works. However, this Gmail problem is recent.
Hear this (from Google site)
What's not available...
And finally, there a few features that aren't available in Outlook or Google Apps:
Task delegation. You can't have your assistant manage your tasks as a delegate.
Assigning tasks to others. If you assign a task to someone in Outlook, the assignment doesn't sync with Google Apps. As a result, the task appears to be owned by that person in your local Outlook client, but the other person won't see the assignment in their account.
Diane,
Am happy to intimate you that I have discover what is my problem. Its Google Aps email (gmail Account) that is the problem. I have tried with my normal Email through Cpanel and it worked correctly.
I also wen to Google site and discover the following statement :
What's not available...
And finally, there a few features that aren't available in Outlook or Google Apps:
Task delegation. You can't have your assistant manage your tasks as a delegate.
Assigning tasks to others. If you assign a task to someone in Outlook, the assignment doesn't sync with Google Apps. As a result, the task appears to be owned by that person in your local Outlook client, but the other person won't see the assignment in their account.
Thanks for your promptness, I use pop3 type of account.
The eml extension indicates it's seen as an Outlook Express or Live Mail message. Are you (or someone) sending the tasks from another outlook? They are being converted to messages when the TNEF data (that tells outlook it's a task) is removed. An Antivirus scanner could be responsible or one of the mail servers involved.
Having sleepless night I cant resolve "Cant Accept or Decline Tasks" with my outlook. Please help me. I had 2010 MS Outlook installed when I had the problem. I downgraded to 2007 and yet the problem persist. Instead of Task Icon...my task was always received as mail with attachment (file extension .eml) which doesnt make sense.
What type of email account do you use?