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Webmail does not display some links and other content

tgordon2
tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant
edited September 9 in Email

I had previously asked a question on this same topic, but it was closed because I didn't have the proper time to research it. I now can devote the time to provide some better examples of this issue by posting screenshots of emails from Webmail and from the same email in a 3rd party email client. Hopefully, this will make the issue more apparent.

First, I will post a screenshot of an email taken in Thunderbird and then another screenshot of the same email in Webmail. The Thunderbird screenshot will show some content that does not display in Webmail.

Here is the screenshot from Thunderbird. There is a portion of a chart showing the results of a pool cleaning.

Now, here is a screenshot of the same email from Webmail. Note that the chart is not visible here. The information (phone number etc for the pool service company occurs after the chart in the actual email.

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Answers

  • William_M
    William_M Posts: 1,300 ✅ Verified Employee Moderator
    edited July 20

    Hi @tgordon2, welcome back! Thanks for the screenshots, those are helpful. I've edited it to remove your address.

    They may be using some kind of HTML or CSS code to format the table that is not working well with our webmail. Is it typically tables or other formatted text that is going missing?

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant

    There are other emails from completely different senders which have the same issues. I will include screenshots from them below, but I'm curious as to your remarks about how some emails may "be using some kind of HTML or CSS code to format the table that is not working well with our webmail". I would consider that to be a bug in webmail. Don't you agree?

    Here is a screenshot from Thunderbird showing a properly formatted email which has several links to articles.

    And here is the same email from webmail. Note that the individual links are not displayed properly, but look more like simple text. I'm sure I can find other examples from many senders. If I display these emails using the Mail app on my Iphone they also display correctly. It is only Webmail that doesn't display them properly.

  • William_M
    William_M Posts: 1,300 ✅ Verified Employee Moderator

    Thanks for the additional screenshots. It seems like those may also be using extensive HTML or CSS to format them. I wouldn't necessarily agree it's a bug with the webmail, rather our webmail is likely less tolerant of HTML errors or use of external CSS.

    If you forward the emails to a different email provider like gmail, do you see the emails correctly in their webmail?

    Would you be able to save one of the emails (ideally one without your personal info in it) as html using Thunderbird, open it in notepad, then copy paste the code here?

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant

    First, a question about this forum:

    Each post, including yours has an icon in the upper right corner. I posting a screenshot below. Normally that would open a list of actions but when I click on it it opens a very small rectangle with nothing in it. What is that supposed to open, and why can't I see it?

    Next, to your request about saving the email in Thunderbird as HTM. I'd be glad to do it, but I have no idea as to how. Is that different than using the option in Thunderbird to display the message source? You're going to need to help me.

  • William_M
    William_M Posts: 1,300 ✅ Verified Employee Moderator

    That icon is for options related to the message it's over. If it's blank you just don't have any options to manage for that section.

    The exact steps to save an email might be a little different depending on the version of Thunderbird you are using, but you should just be able to select then right click the email, select "Save selected messages" and then choose the "HTML format" option. (Plain text will strip any HTML/CSS code, don't use that for this.)


    Once saved, go to the folder you saved it in, right click it, select Open With> and then select Notepad (or "Choose another app" then browse to notepad or another text editor). Copy paste that text here or if it won't fit you can use a website like https://pastebin.com/. Please note if you paste it here and it contains personal information, we can edit it to remove that, but if you use Pastebin it's there permanently so make sure you look for anything you don't want potentially shared with the internet.

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant

    I tried to follow your instructions but there was no "Save Selected messages" option. I took a screen shot of the option that I think comes closest to what you suggested. As you can see, there is a HTML format, but it has a set of suboptions.

    Does this look like it will get what you need, and should I select the "Message only" option?

    One more thing: In the screenshot you posted it looks like you selected "Plain text format" even though your instructions said to use "HTML format". Can you see how this could be confusing? Please use the KISS (Keep it simple stupid) approach in clearing up my questions.

  • William_M
    William_M Posts: 1,300 ✅ Verified Employee Moderator
    edited July 21

    Yes, that looks to be the correct option and messages only will work. You may also just be able to right click within the email and select view source.

    I'm sorry for the confusion with the screenshot and my instructions. Unfortunately I don't use Thunderbird myself and I don't see any support articles on their website that provided screenshots or instructions. I just found a random screenshot online.

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant
    edited July 21

    OK, I used the View Source option in Thunderbird, copie and pasted it into Notepad an saved it. I'm attaching it here. It's the second email I posted a screenshot of above.I hope its what you need

    Edit: That didn't work. Then I tried to paste the text here but it was too big. Then I tried to put some new comments in but they were not saved. This forum is crap. Please call me if possible . I'm beginning to feel like this forum is designed to make people give up. If you cant call then give me instructions on how to attach a file an write them like I'm Joe Biden

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant

    I don't know i that worked I clicked on the paper clip which I assume was "attach") but after saving the post i clicked on the link but it didn't open the txt file. Then I tried to simply paste the contents of the txt file but it was too big. I really hate this forum, and you never answered my question about the icon in the upper right of each post. Maybe that has the "attach" command. They should call this the "dentist" forum because its like pulling teeth.

    Edit: I know that the txt file is good because when I go to File explorer and open it, it works,

    How do I attach the txt file? Geez

  • William_M
    William_M Posts: 1,300 ✅ Verified Employee Moderator
    edited July 21

    That's perfect, thank you.

    I want to preface this by letting you know I'm not an HTML expert, hopefully another community member can jump in and provide their insight, however using the tool at https://validator.w3.org/ a large number of coding errors were detected, as well as use of externally hosted images which are the most likely cause of the issue.

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant

    What did you mean when you said "That's perfect?"

    Does it mean that you (unlike me) were able to click on the link I created and read the txt file? Or did you mean something entirely different?

    And after you answer that question, what did you mean by this:

    I want to preface this by letting you know I'm not an HTML expert, hopefully another community member can jump in and provide their insight,

    Are you saying that now that I've spent all this time and effort providing the information you requested that you personally won't be able to address the problem and that I'll have to hope that somebody else will have to volunteer to take over? Look, I appreciate your participation but I am beginning to feel like I used to when I played SuperMario Brothers. Just when I thought I was making progress I discovered that I had just scratched the surface.

  • William_M
    William_M Posts: 1,300 ✅ Verified Employee Moderator

    By "That's perfect", I meant I was able to get your attachment and it's exactly what I was asking for. You must have missed my response about the icon, earlier I said "That icon is for options related to the message it's over. If it's blank you just don't have any options to manage for that section."

    And correct, I probably won't personally be able to resolve this issue especially as it seems to be a problem with the emails themselves. The community here is geared towards assistance from other community members, moderators do their best to answer any questions but can't guarantee we'll be able to personally fix any and all issues. I have a good understanding of HTML but it's not my expertise and ultimately it would be up to the sender of the email to correct any issues with it. I'm sorry to make you jump through so many hoops, while this is likely an issue outside of our scope of support I am just doing my best to help you figure out what's causing the problem.

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant

    I tried posting a long response to your last post but it disappeared. This forum is as bad as Webmail.

    I'm not gonna type the long response again, but I'll just say that I disagree that the emails are the problem. They display just fine in Thunderbird and in the Iphone Mail app. It's more logical to point the finger at Webmail since it's the only app/program that isn't working.

  • HT_Greenfield
    HT_Greenfield Posts: 914 Contributor
    edited July 21

    I'd double-check the webmail email format settings and make sure "show messages in plain text" is disabled and "show images in emails" is enabled, if that's what you want. Otherwise i'm afraid your webmail experience isn't going to improve until sometime after you sign out of it from the obsolete versions of the browsers running on the obsolete Win7 and start hitting it up only with the latest version of the browser running on Win10 if not Win11 and see if things don't begin to improve in the by and by (to say nothing of the enormous quantity of unread messages - and who knows how many total - shown to be in your inbox in the https://us.v-cdn.net/6032106/uploads/GOQZE9XE11X7/image.png image you posted in one of your other discussions.)

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant
    edited July 21

    Looking or an update here.

    Do I need to open another ticket or do I just need to hope some other person will try to help me out of the kindness of their heart? If not, can I escalate to Spectrum management. I pay Spectrum a LOT of money every month. I don't care if email is considered to be "free"; it is one of the tools I depend upon to utilize my internet services.

  • HT_Greenfield
    HT_Greenfield Posts: 914 Contributor

    Lay off of Spectrum with Win7 and see my previous comment, will you?

    🔗 https://www.spectrum.net/support/internet/operating-systems-no-longer-fully-supported-charter

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant

    I didn't see your prior update. I have "show messages in plain text" is disabled and "show images in emails" is enabled. I frequently leave messages marked as unread for a couple of reasons, but I don't see what that has to do with this problem. I am granted 5 GB of email storage and I perform frequent housekeeping to avoid maxing out. Again, unsure as to the relevance of this.

    However, where did you get the idea that I'm running Windows 7. I am running Windows 11 and am on the current version of Firefox. I used to run Windows 7, but not now.

  • HT_Greenfield
    HT_Greenfield Posts: 914 Contributor

    OK. I apologize profusely for being such of a moron. In retrospect, i see it was back in March when you said your main computer is running Win7. The only reason i mentioned the astronomical tally of unread messages in the first place was moronic speculation about potential old browser caching limitations. My bad. I'm a moron.

    I sure do hope some other members of this forum come along and are able to chip in, here. ☘️

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant

    I wish this forum had a quote feature so that could quote your last post an then comment on parts of it. So I guess I'll copy and paste.

    You must have missed my response about the icon, earlier I said "That icon is for options related to the message it's over. If it's blank you just don't have any options to manage for that section."

    Yes, I guess I missed that somehow.😮

    especially as it seems to be a problem with the emails themselves.

    I'm gonna have to kind of disagree with you there. Since these emails are perfectly legible in Thunderbird and my Iphone mail app, I'm leaning towards pointing the finger at Webmail. There are plenty of other emails from many different senders including the US Post Office which have the same issue.

    But, where ever the error is, I need to get a fix.

  • HT_Greenfield
    HT_Greenfield Posts: 914 Contributor

    Hey, t, just for testing purposes, open up that email from The World of Science Fiction in Thunderbird again and then hover the pointer over any of those things displayed in Thunderbird that don't display in Firefox and see if the pointer changes from an arrow to a pointing hand and, if/when it does, then click on the thing and see if it tries to open in Firefox and, if so, what Firefox does with it and let me know what happens.

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant

    I did as you requested. When I moved the mouse over the email in Thunderbird, there were many places where the arrow turned into a finger (this is normal for an email that has links inside of it). I clicked on one of the links and it took me to the web page (in Firefox) associated with the link. In the case of this particular email, one of the links was to an article on Quora about Star Trek. This is all normal, except the part where Webmail did not display the link when I moved the mouse over the email. That's the problem! This issue has nothing to do with Firefox, other than it is the browser I am using to access Webmail. Earlier in this topic I tried using Chrome to access Webmail and the same issue exists, so it is not a Firefox problem. It is a Webmail problem.

  • HT_Greenfield
    HT_Greenfield Posts: 914 Contributor
    edited July 24

    Hey, t, i took a look at the source code of the subject message and i compliment William for suggesting that as well as guiding you with it. Unlike the graphics that do display in Firefox, the ones that don't are all "https://www.quora.com/qemail/track_click…" tracking URL sourced.

    Here's an example of how tracking URL code syntax issues can literally defeat tracking URL's specifically in webmail:

    🔗 https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/campaign-classic/using/sending-messages/tracking-messages/tracking-troubleshooting ↳ Tracking does not seem to work with some WebMail

    I'd contact the sender and let them know about it and furthermore report it at the below-linked webpage. I think it may be important for you to find out what the specifically accountable tracking URL codiers think about the whole thing at this point.

    🔗 https://help.quora.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=239223

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant

    While I vaguely understand what you're saying, I am not at all conversant with the subject of HTML, other than knowing generally what it is 🙂. Therefore, I don't think I'd contribute much to the effort of communicating with the folks at Quora.

    In addition, there are other emails from other sources which expose the same issue (substantial portions of those emails not displaying properly in Webmail, while they display perfectly well in other email programs (Thunderbird and the Iphone Phone app). I'm not saying that all of these other email senders are blameless; just that I'm not competent to do anything other than to bring them to the attention of Webmail support. I very much appreciate all that you and the other support folks are doing, but unless you can educate or advise me as to what I can do, I will be way over my head.

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant

    Just another update:

    Other email senders whose emails don't display properly in Webmail are:

    USPS
    X ( formerly known as Twitter)

    These are not minor players in the IT world.

  • HT_Greenfield
    HT_Greenfield Posts: 914 Contributor

    If you think your ISP webmail provider has anything to do with it, then open up a Gmail or Outlook.com account. Subscribe to the newsletter with your Gmail or Outlook.com email address and then see how the embedded tracking URL sourced graphics display in Firefox with your Gmail or Outlook.com account and go from there.

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant

    First of all, my ISP is Spectrum (whose forum this is 😀), so I’m a bit puzzled by your comment. Secondly, I could forward some emails from the Spectrum server to yahoo mail where I have a free email address to see if they display ok over there. But I don’t know if I’d have to pay more to get the same capacity on yahoo that I get from Soectrum. And I definitely don’t want to have to notify the hundreds of companies, friends and famillybwho know my spectrum email address.


    The only way I can interpret your email is that dither you’re sure that yahoo will have the same issue (they might I guess) or that you just don’t think spectrum will be able to fix the issue (or even try).
    id appreciate it if you just came right out and stated which it is.
    I’ll forward a couple of the emails that we’ve talked about to yahoo and I’ll post the results here.

  • HT_Greenfield
    HT_Greenfield Posts: 914 Contributor
    edited July 25

    If you think any webmail service provider in particular has anything to do with it, then don't forward the email from that provider. Sign up for the newsletter with any email address you have with any other provider and then see how the embedded tracking URL sourced graphics display via the other webmail service in Firefox. I fold. Goodbye and good luck. ☘️

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant
    edited July 31

    I thought I'd try once more. I discovered that simply forwarding an email that was not formatted correctly from Spectrum's Webmail to another web email site (like Yahoo Mail) doesn't work. Not sure why; maybe I did something wrong. So I temporarily changed my email for Quora from my Spectrum email to my Yahoo email. Here's a screenshot of a Quora email that, unlike Spectrum Webmail, displays properly in that the individual articles are displayed separately and not squished together. See my earlier post on July 20th for an example of how Webmail displays the Quora posts.

    Now I obviously don't want to have to have any emails that normally go to Spectrum go to Yahoo Mail instead. I feel that I have now demonstrated that Spectrum's Webmail is different than Yahoo (and I'm guessing other alternatives like gmail) .

  • William_M
    William_M Posts: 1,300 ✅ Verified Employee Moderator

    When you attempted to forward the email, was the message not received at all or it did forward but with the same formatting errors?

  • tgordon2
    tgordon2 Posts: 34 Participant

    it had the same formatting errors. I’m not sure I understand why that is, but it’s more important that when the emails from Quora are sent directly to Yahoo they format correctly.

This discussion has been closed.