You cannot return a routed Microsoft Office file to the sender in Microsoft Outlook. Additionally, you may experience the following symptoms:
- The routed file loses its status tracking information.
- When you try to return the routed file, you receive the following error message:
General mail failure. Quit Microsoft program, restart the mail system, and try again.
Note To route a file in an Office program, point to
Send To on the
File menu, and then click
Routing Recipient.
This issue may occur if you use a mailbox that is not a Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox. For example, this problem may occur if you use a Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) mailbox.
To work around this issue, use one of the following methods.
Method 1: Add your e-mail address to your display name
- Start Outlook.
- On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
- Click View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
- Click the e-mail account that you want to change, and then click Change.
- In the User Name box, type your name and e-mail address. Enclose your e-mail address in parentheses. For example, type the following:
John Smith (someone@example.com)
- Click Next, and then click Finish.
Method 2: Add an address book entry that matches the sender's display name
- Start Outlook.
- Determine the sender's display name. To do this, follow these steps:
- Open the routed file in an Office program.
- On the File menu, point to Send To, and then click Other Routing Recipient.
- The sender's display name is in the Routing Slip dialog box. Note the display name, and then click Cancel.
- In Outlook, create a new contact for the display name that you noted in step 2c. To do this, follow these steps:
- On the File menu, point to New, and then click Contact.
- In the Full Name box, type the display name that you noted in step 2c.
- In the E-mail box, type the sender's e-mail address.
- Click Save and Close.