Outlook Get emails error

[michaeloneil]

Hi all

I have an unusual error with outlook action Get emails, when its running it returns the error message "Value does not fall within expected range". This has only appeared recently and the is inconsistent with it running normally sometimes and successfully getting the emails, sometimes for days with no errors, then it starts throwing this error repeatedly. It only started happening over the past month or so and all the processes impacted have been running with no issues for 2-3 years with no recent changes to the outlook actions/vbo. 

I've checked every parameter in the actions to see if there is an identifiable issue but often a small change appears to fix it then a few days later it starts up again. I'm thinking this is environmental and that there might have been some change to outlook or group policies on the machines, we did have an issue with MS office activation short while before this and I think this could have been what started this error. Anyone seen this before and have any ideas on the root cause?

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Michael ONeil
Technical Lead developer
NTTData
Europe/London
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[expertcr]

That error is a little strange. I recommend you try the most recent version of the MS OUTLOOK VBO (LINK HERE)and see if you also have the same issue.

But if you modify the VBO to add some extra functions. Blue Prism can't support the VBO, and you need to try the VBO without modifications.

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Luis Lopez
Customer Support Engineer English and Spanish
Blue Prism Ltd
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[ManpreetKaur1]

Hi @Michael ONeil ,

Did you observe any strange pattern while trying to read emails?

Is it a shared mailbox? Are there too many emails which are being read? Is the mailbox being accessed by any other users as well apart from the bot?

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Manpreet Kaur
Manager
Deloitte
*If you find this post helpful mark it as Best Answer
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[michaeloneil]

Hi @ManpreetKaur1 

Its actually happening with multiple bots on different machines and the mailboxes they are using are all different. Some are accessing a shared mailbox while others are using the default mailbox assigned to the machine ID. As for the number of emails the bots that are impacted (its not all the ones using outloook) are only looking at emails within a specific date range so the number of emails are very small. For example one bot only looks at emails for todays date and there will only be 2 with the correct subject line for today while another bot looks over the past 6 days but this is a once monthly trigger email so there will only ever be one or no emails each time this runs.

@Luis Lopez I previously had a look at the latest version of the VBO and there doest appear to be any difference in the code so I dont think this would resolve the issue if its doing the same thing. The only notable difference between the one I am using the latest is that the profile on the original is set within Get emails whereas in the newer version the profile is set using a separate action. Given the number of bots currently using outlook I would be hesitant to update to the new version as it will require significant rework of the bots to set the new actions as well as include the set profile action. This would be fine if it was every bot affected by the issue but at the moment its only a few.

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Michael ONeil
Technical Lead developer
NTTData
Europe/London
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[expertcr]

It is very strange that error when using the regular Outlook VBO.

In that case, the best will be to create a ticket with our Support department to take a better look at your issue.

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Luis Lopez
Customer Support Engineer English and Spanish
Blue Prism Ltd
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[ewilson · Accepted solution]

Hi @Michael ONeil

That error seems to be a fairly common and also generic Microsoft error. I've seen articles about people dealing with it in SharePoint, Outlook, Visual Studio, etc. Most of the Outlook-related article I've seen are related to issues with corrupted or misconfigured add-ins in Outlook. Are your Outlook instances using any sort of addins?

Cheers,

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Eric Wilson
Director, Integrations and Enablement
Blue Prism Digital Exchange
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[michaeloneil]

Hi @ewilson 

You could be right there I noticed at least one of the machines had a warning displayed on outlook regarding a social media add in. I wondered if that had anything to do with it and tried remove/disable the add in but we have limited access in the client VM's so the best I could do was allow all macros and disable warnings relating to automations in the trust center which helped to stabilize the actions a little and we get them less frequently. I'll speak with the client IT team about getting the add-ins looked at and hopefully they will be able to remove or disable any that are causing a problem. Thanks for everyone's help on this.

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Michael ONeil
Technical Lead developer
NTTData
Europe/London
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