When used in conjunction with Exchange ActiveSync, Windows Mobile phones may periodically receive email messages with a strange subject line that just says "utd" (no other text) with body text similar to the following:
//SCKL040AAwFqAAADxgADBQHDEK3p2u/k/tsRgAEiDBQfxgE
This is a caused by a misinterpreted SMS notification sent by Exchange Server to the mobile device to tell it that new email has arrived. A formatting quirk inadvertently delivers the SMS notification as a regular email message.
There's two solutions to this problem:
- Update the software on the mobile phone to the most recent version. The Treo 700W out-of-the-box software often exhibits this issue, but updating to a more recent version of the software (TREO700W-1.10-VZW, for instance) fixes it. The Nokia 8215 phone also has this problem.
- If a software update doesn't fix the issue, set the phone to retrieve new email on demand rather than via SMS alerts -- i.e., set the synchronization settings on the phone to "retrieve new email every X minutes" instead of "when items arrive." Obviously this isn't a perfect solution, but it can work as an interim fix in lieu of updating the mobile device.
About the author: Serdar Yegulalp is editor of Windows Insight, a newsletter devoted to hints, tips, tricks, news and goodies for all flavors of Windows users.
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