Queue Viewer

Message Summary Display

When you click on a queue, you will see the queue's messages in the details pane, provided the messages have been enumerated. If there are no messages currently queued, the message There are no matching messages queued displays in the details pane.

A summary display of messages provides a comprehensive look at queue contents, as well as the key characteristics of each message you have enumerated. You can click a column header in the details pane to sort the messages by category. Messages can also be examined, sorted, and deleted directly in the details pane.

The following table describes the message summary display. This information can be useful for solving message flow issues:

Message Information Why information can be useful
Sent from If there is an unexpected message state for incoming messages, it could be a problem with a particular sender.
Priority Message priority is determined by the protocol, and not necessarily the priority assigned by the sender (such as giving a message "High Priority" in Outlook).
Message subject Can help you identify a message quickly. The subject line of messages are visible in SMTP and MAPI queues only, but not by default. Some Exchange organizations may not want the subjects of every message exposed in Queue Viewer. To see message subjects, you have to first enable the feature.
# of body recipients The total number of recipients for the message. This includes expanded distribution lists and anyone cc'd or bcc'd on the message. Servers can have limits on the number of recipients, so messages with large numbers of recipients may sometimes be undeliverable to particular servers.
Message size (bytes) Some servers have message size limits, so it's possible that larger messages will be undeliverable to particular servers.
Time of Submission The time the message was submitted for delivery by the client. The longer it takes a message to be delivered, the more likely it is that a problem exists somewhere in your system.
Time Received by Server Similar to Time of Submission, this is when the message was recieved by the Exchange server. The longer a message is in a queue, the more likely it is that a problem exists somewhere in your system.
Time Expires Can help determine when a particular message will no longer be attempting to use Exchange resources and will remove itself from the queue.
State Displays the current state of the message:
  • Frozen: the message has been frozen (does not mean the queue is frozen)
  • Retry: one or more delivery attempts have failed, and the message is waiting for another delivery attempt
  • Queued: the message is ready and waiting for delivery

Tip   Message Tracking ID and other additional information about a message are available from the message Properties dialog box. This information can be very useful when troubleshooting specific message flow issues. For more information, see Message Tracking Center.