Message Recall will not be successful if:
– The recipient is not using Outlook.
– The recipient is not logged on to the mail service provider.
– The message has been moved from the Inbox.
– The message has been read. This includes viewing the message with the Preview Pane so that the message is flagged as Read.
Recall can only work for:
– The recipient must be using the Outlook client.
– The recipient’s mailbox must be open for the recall to succeed.
– The message must still be unread and in the recipient’s Inbox.
There are a number of circumstances in which message recall doesn’t work. Since it is an Outlook feature here are some reasons why it might not work:
– You can only attempt to recall a message you sent if you’re using Outlook.
– Recipients who aren’t using Outlook (e.g. POP3, IMAP4, and OWA users) will get the recall request messages, but they have no way to do a recall.
– If an Outlook recipient opens the message before opening the recall request, the recall will fail.
– Outlook users who have the preview pane turned on may still be able to read the recalled message, even if they haven’t opened it.
– Most users will see the recall request and immediately rush to read the message.
Recall Message functionality was designed with a passive rather than aggressive system in mind and is dependent on the Outlook clients’ background “sniffer” idle process to remove the recalled message from the recipient’s inbox. In order for this message to be recalled automatically, the specified criteria must be met. In addition, Outlook clients must also have the Tools, Options, Preferences, E-Mail Options, Tracking Options, “Process requests and responses on arrival” selected. This feature enables the background “sniffer” to run. When it detects an Outlook idle time (generally anywhere from 60-500 seconds) then it will run and process all unread items in the Inbox to see if any of them require its attention such as Meeting Requests, Read Receipt responses, or Message Recalls.
You can try and tune this idle time by modifying the following setting on the CLIENT.
The time values for these settings are set in the registry.
The values are expressed in milliseconds. 1000 = 1 second. Use the following steps
to change the values to 10 and 100 seconds respectively, which are decimal
values.
The steps below are for Outlook 2000. Change the 9.0 to 10.0 for Office XP and
11.0 for Office 2003:
1. Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2. Locate the following key in the registry:
HKEY_Current_User/Software/Microsoft/Office/9.0/Outlook/Options/General/
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value. Type the name of the new value as AutoProcessIdleTime, and then press ENTER.
4. On the Edit menu, click Modify, and then type the following information:Value data: 10000 Base: Decimal
5. Click OK.
6. Quit Registry Editor.
Add two DWORD values with the following names with a value of 0.
–AutoProcessIdleTime
–AutoProcessIdleTimeMax