Outlook 2013, edited and resent email does not go out

Outlook 2013 (desktop) bug

If you have a rule on your outbox that delays outbound email, then you may have run into a problem whereby an edited and resent email never goes out.

This happens if you edit the email and resend it while Outlook’s focus is on the outbox. If you set the focus to, for example, the inbox, then click send, the email will be marked as outbound and leave when you expect it to.

Steps to duplicate the problem:

1. Set up a rule to delay outbound emails. Click here to see how (and why) to do that
2. Create an email message, and click send
3. Click on Outlook’s Outbox
4. Open email created in step 2.
5. Click Send

Notice that the email message is now shown in regular text, not italics. Messages use italics if they are queued to go out. If you edit message and save it, but don’t click send, you see the same behavior.

To work around the bug, before clicking send after editing the email, click on another Outlook folder such as the Inbox. Click send on your email, and it will be properly queued.

From Outlook’s point-of-view, this may be by design, but, in my opinion, it’s a bug. It’s a change in behavior from (all) earlier versions, and the behavior is different depending on whether the Outbox has focus. In fact, this bug occurs just by going to the Outbox and clicking on, but not opening or editing, the email.