Lotus iNotes DWA: Unable to Open some Mails with Attachement [SOLVED]

From past one month we were having issue with Lotus iNotes (Domino Web Access) that some mails with attachments were not opening and displayed multiple errors while viewing using web access, on the other hand, they open properly via Notes client. We have Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager Server installed and all of our users have Symantec Client installed [Managed].

This issue was referred to IBM, and their engineers found out that a set of fields were being added to the emails. Those fields,

LastScannedVersion,
LastScannedVersionOID,
LastScanOID,
LastScanOIDCheck,

Which contained garbage that caused the emails to fail to open with messages indicating that they

failed due to an unterminated string.

The fields only apply to some emails with attachments,

The fun part is :> The effected emails open without any error in the Notes client. 

After considerable searching I’ve found out that Symantec Antivirus is the culprit. A feature was added in Notes (SEP) Auto–Protect to cache scanning results on attachments, so that emails with unaltered attachments could be sent without redundant scanning. The fields create no problems in the Notes client, but some (not all) emails with these fields cannot be read in DWA (Webmail iNotes).

I confirmed it by sending the effected mail twice, with and without Notes Auto-Protect enabled. The 4 effected fields were only found on the message where Auto-Protect was Enabled.

I solved it by disabling the ‘NOTES Auto-Protect’ feature on SEPM or client, so far I haven’t seen this issue reproducing again.

Reply From Symantec Support:

Subject: Fixed in the next maintenance build
We are fixing this issue in the upcoming SEP 11 ru7 mp2 build.
Our apology for the inconvenience caused.
Feedback response number WEBB8Q78WM created by Symantec Symantec on 01/04/2012

# REPAIR EFFECTED MAIL USING NOTES CLIENT AGENT

You can create an Agent to run on all mail files to repair the documents. to create agent follow the below procedure.
(But you must have IBM LOTUS DOMINO DESIGNER installed. You can download it from following link.
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/ls/dominodesigner/ )

# Open your Notes Client

# Click on CREATE  >  AGENT
As showed in the image below . . .

# Now Type the Agent Name , and in RUN drop down menu, select FORMULA
As showed in the image below . . .

Now paste the following code in empty box.

FIELD LastScanOID := @DeleteField;
 FIELD LastScanOIDCheck := @DeleteField;
 FIELD LastScannedVersion := @DeleteField;
 FIELD LastScannedVersionCheck := @DeleteField;

As showed in the image below . . .

.

Save it by Goto FILE menu and select SAVE.

On your NOTES Clients, Select your effected mail message which is not opening in webmail. (You can also select ALL by pressing CTRL + A)

Open Action menu , and here you will see your newly created AGENT name, click on it to execute it. upon execution it will repair your mail file by removing four SEP fields from it, then this mail will open on webmail without any error.

As showed in the image below . . .

.

.

#DISABLING NOTES AUTO PROTECT FROM SEPM SERVER

You can also disable NOTES Auto Protect from Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager Server.
As showed in the image below . . .

.

 

More information can be obtained here.

www-10.lotus.com/ldd/nd85forum.nsf/DateAllFlatWeb/7579bdbad9ac26d1852578fd006314b9?OpenDocument

Regard’s
Syed Jahanzaib