Suddenly most of my e-mails contain unintelligble text

M Hope 30

Suddenly most, but not all, of my e-mails contain only a bunch of unintelligible text. The From field displays as either "Received-SPF: pas" or "X-VadeSecure-Unsubscribe-Data:" (See screen shot attached.

What's going on and how do I fix it?

Thanks

Outlook Screen Shot

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James Hoskins 10 Reputation points

2025-08-11T17:09:58.2666667+00:00

I'm having the exact same issue. It just started this morning.
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Steve Nowak 25 Reputation points

2025-08-11T21:24:33.93+00:00

I have the same problem Jeronimo.

Same problem with Outlook Win11 Desktop Outlook 365 and it just started today.

Seems to be related to VadeSecure. I tried the steps suggested and it di not fix the problem.

Any other solutions?
James Staley 0 Reputation points

2025-08-11T21:31:09.44+00:00

Having the exact same problems. All seem to be related to VadeSecure

Outlook Win11 Desktop Outlook 365 and it just started today.
Alan W 30 Reputation points

2025-08-12T00:01:37.6266667+00:00

Hi Guy's. I am not a tech person more a very OAP still using Outlook 2010.

Today I found my emails were not downloading as usual, a load of jumble and references to razorgate. I posted on the Outlook forum (Slipstick)

Seems I cannot add a link to the post but this is the sort of email I received:
Stevie 5 Reputation points

2025-08-12T01:01:24.1333333+00:00

This is also occurring for me and, like other users, only from this morning.
Marshall S 0 Reputation points

2025-08-12T01:12:32.9+00:00

Yes same problem here, since this morning. Email appears correctly in webmail, plus I installed Thunderbird which displays without any issues. Spent about 1.5 hours with Microsoft Tech support this morning, they could not figure it out and said they would research and get back to me.
Alan 0 Reputation points

2025-08-12T20:46:54.1166667+00:00

*'*I'm having the a similar issue. Early on 11 july my emails began arriving with a bunch of code in place of the original content. Also, the "From" and "Subject" fields were deleted.

I'm using win 10, Outlook 2020 and POP3. Emails that were downloaded prior to the 11th display normally.

This appears to be related to VadeSecure.

14 answers

Anonymous

2025-08-12T22:46:17.1466667+00:00

Our Outlook In App Team found with a couple users that disabling ‘Encrypted Web Scanning’ feature in Bitdefender mitigated the issue. Please check if this applies to you.

Open Bitdefender > Protection > Online Threat Prevention > disable 'Encrypted Web Scanning'.
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7 people found this answer helpful.
James Staley 0 Reputation points

2025-08-13T00:52:02.56+00:00

Hmmmm that fixed it for me. Lets see if it sticks.

Thanks Gabe

Steve Nowak 25 Reputation points

2025-08-13T01:40:04.6833333+00:00

Perfect! That also sorted out my problem as well! Thanks Gabe.

One item not mentioned previously is that email that should have been directed to 'Junk' was not going there. That has also been corrected with this change in Bitdefender.

Andy Thorogood 0 Reputation points

2025-08-13T08:09:34.0133333+00:00

Thank you Gabe, that solved the issue for me too......... but sad old Engineer that I am would like to know why! As Alan W in the thread below sent the problem yesterday to Bitdefender directly, maybe they will shed some light on it. Interesting that only some Email hosts were having the issue? ... Thanks again

James Hoskins 10 Reputation points

2025-08-13T13:10:52.7266667+00:00

Did not resolve my issue. Same problem...

Chris Lea 5 Reputation points

2025-08-13T13:15:05.6333333+00:00

That works for me too! Thank you Gabe. I am using Outlook 2019 and POP3, and the problem only occurred for e-mails that I download from BT's servers, i.e. the @btinternet.com domain. E-mails downloaded via POP3 from Dreamhost's servers were received and display fine. However, I also use Bitdefender's Total Security Suite, and switching off 'Encrypted web scanning' has solved this problem. If it reappears, I will post again.

M Hope 30 Reputation points

2025-08-13T13:33:52.0066667+00:00

Thanks Gabe. I turned off everything in bitdefender this morning and email seems to be working fine so far. I'll try just turning off Encrypted Web Scanning next. Hopefully you've saved me a bunch of time trying to figure out exactly which bitdefender setting is causing the problem. My email provider is Earthlink.

Tom F 0 Reputation points

2025-08-13T16:38:18.2533333+00:00

This was my issue.

LongBeach Danno 0 Reputation points

2025-08-13T17:18:07.6066667+00:00

It has mostly worked for me, but not entirely. I still get occasional corrupted emails.

Vince W 0 Reputation points

2025-08-13T18:51:45.29+00:00

This solved my problem (at least for now). Interesting note, the problem only occurs on e-mail originating from ATT.NET, BellSouth.net, me.net, and yahoo servers. No problems with mails originating under gmail.com.

Steve Nowak 25 Reputation points

2025-08-14T20:54:38.8433333+00:00

I received this from Bitdefender: "Thank you for reaching out and for sharing this helpful update.

We appreciate you taking the time to provide additional context. We've received similar reports, and it appears that the Encrypted Web Scanning feature in Bitdefender is a common factor affecting Microsoft Outlook functionality.

Our team is actively investigating the issue and working on a permanent fix. In the meantime, as you mentioned, temporarily disabling the Encrypted Web Scanning feature is a viable workaround and has helped many users restore normal functionality.

Thanks again for your input, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions or updates."

AT 0 Reputation points

2025-08-14T20:59:28.3733333+00:00

Thanks for the update. So it seems, something was changed as this feature had no problems in the past at all.
Alan W 30 Reputation points

2025-08-14T12:44:28.12+00:00

Well, Bitdefender has patched their email problem and are working on a permanent fix. I have just downloaded a bunch of emails to my Outlook 2010. .

Alexandru_BD

admin

12:40 pm

They reverted the changes made in the last signature update and this should do the trick until a permanent fix is deployed. Alexandru_BD

admin

1:43 pm

Click on update in systray and reboot. But keep in mind this change is being rolled out gradually, so it may not reach everyone at the same time..
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3 people found this answer helpful.
M Hope 30 Reputation points

2025-08-14T17:06:20.78+00:00

This is working for me too. It didn't seem to at first but then I realized my Bitdefender was not updating when I did an update. I had to uninstall it and then re-install it to get it to the latest build.
Alan W 30 Reputation points

2025-08-13T16:55:51.78+00:00

Looks like a solution maybe on its way. This morning I received a PM from BT/EE asking me for more information on this problem. I duly filled in as much info as I could on their questions. Late this afternoon I received a message from EE/BT saying they would phone me regarding this. A while later my mobile rings and I am speaking to a 'guide' from EE who new of the problems we are experiencing and wanted me to go into more technical details. I am a very cautious OAP and I am sure this was not a scammers call.

As much as I would have liked to assist him we agreed he needed to speak to someone with more knowledge so he suggested he would contact another person who had reported the problem on the BT forum. He assured me that EE/BT were looking into this with some urgency to find out what is the cause and how to fix it.

Apparently they would need to install an app called 'wireshark', This would help them to track down what was going on, find a solution and allow us to continue as before. I did say that as they, if it was them, who caused it they should update our systems.

Fingers crossed.
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2 people found this answer helpful.
AT 0 Reputation points

2025-08-13T16:59:43.8566667+00:00

Thanks for your help! :)

Edward Fitchett 45 Reputation points

2025-08-13T17:04:05.0166667+00:00

Be careful with this. Wireshark will give someone a bit by bit, full topography of your network - not sure why this would be needed although it might tell them what is running interference on the network - but not in a particular program .....beware of someone lurking around tech help forums looking to defraud you of something. Not sure how you could confirm if they are real or not....

Edward Fitchett 45 Reputation points

2025-08-13T17:06:46.3933333+00:00

Be careful of scammers - not sure why wireshark would be needed other than to fully expose your entire network to.someone....

Alan W 30 Reputation points

2025-08-13T18:12:01.8866667+00:00

Hi. It sometimes amazes me how fast someone comments about something even they admit not knowing about. The techs dept at EE/BT know about their network and systems but not about our networks or what we are using. If they can find the problem, with the users help, they should be able to fix it.

If your not happy, or 'not sure' to go along that's fine, I think that anyone on here has already heard about scammers and what they do.

At least I have tried to be positive, personally I'd rather not go Gung Ho and start changing most of my settings for something I know little about to me that's both feet in quicksand and finding yourself in an even bigger mess. But that is the readers choice. Why not give them a chance to fix the problem?
Diane Poremsky MVP 17,536 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-08-12T02:01:50.4666667+00:00

The steps provided by Jeronimo will not work top fix this (or honestly, any classic Outlook problem). It is a problem with vade. If you are using POP, try imap.
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James Staley 0 Reputation points

2025-08-12T02:19:24.5733333+00:00

The problem seems to be unique to Outlook and just started this morning. I'd rather not go through losing email and starting over with an imap account on my NetSol email server. Perhaps something was pushed from MS yesterday that can be fixed on their end?

Alan W 30 Reputation points

2025-08-12T08:18:18.7366667+00:00

Still not fixed this morning, Like many others I have multiple email for different needs; personal, competitions, matches, appointments and so forth. With Outlook 2010 I can download from all the email accounts into one Outlook account, without it I will have to login for each email account, a real pain in the proverbial.

In Outlook I can reply to all accounts easily from Outlook 2010.

I will have to find out if changing from POP to imap will add to my problems, is straightforward, work in the same way as POP or if there are other problems or advantages to changing?
Jeronimo Fuerte 46,170 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2025-08-11T17:38:02.0033333+00:00
Hi! From your screenshot, it looks like your Outlook is displaying email headers or raw data instead of the normal formatted message body. This can happen if:
- Outlook switched to “View Source” mode for certain emails (rare, but can be triggered by add-ins).
- Antispam or another email security filter is breaking the HTML rendering
- Corrupted reading pane cache in Outlook is preventing the HTML view from loading.
If you have any security filter active please disable it, then go to View tab >Reset View, also try turning the Reading Pane off, then on again.

You could also check Message Format, right click one of the affected emails > Message Options (or Properties) > Check if it's arriving as content type: text/plain instead of text/html. If it's only plain text, Outlook will show exactly what you see.

You can also try to Clear Outlook’s Cache:
1. Close Outlook.
2. Navigate to: %localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook
3. Delete the .dat files
4. Restart Outlook.
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1 person found this answer helpful.
M Hope 30 Reputation points

2025-08-11T18:26:27.61+00:00

Thanks so much for the replies. My e-mail appears to have returned to normal. Not sure what caused that. First odd e-mail I received was at 9:19 and the last was at 12:01. Everything since then has been fine, so I'm hoping it's fixed.

Jeronimo/ Thanks for such a detailed response. I didn't actually have to try your suggestions but they might come in handy sometime or if the problem returns, so I'm accepting your answer.

James/ Hope yours has also returned to normal.