One click of the mouse, and it's done: You have answered thousands of colleagues - and also paralyzed the email server. Microsoft is now putting a stop to this.
Berlin (dpa / tmn) - The button "Reply everyone" in the email program is as practical as it is fatal. If the mail you responded to only went to a handful of people, the button usually served its purpose.
However, if the message was addressed to the collective address of the entire company, in many cases it is embarrassing or at least inappropriate to reply to everyone.
But that's only one side of the problem. The other is the mail meltdown: With "Reply all", a single user can kick off a huge mail avalanche in such a way that it forces the company's mail server to its knees - especially if several users answer all of them in succession.
Microsoft speaks of a "Reply all mail storm" and has now introduced a protective function for companies that use Office 365 with an Exchange mail server. If ten email conversations are addressed to more than 5000 recipients within an hour, replies to this conversation will be blocked for the following four hours.
The user then receives a message that his reply was not sent due to the danger of a mail storm - followed by a message that a reply is only possible if it is sent to a smaller group of recipients.
Protection notice