Hotmail not attaching original message to forwards and replies

I use Hotmail email and am facing a particular problem. When I compose a reply or forward an email the original text is not included in the message. This has happened all of a sudden. How do I correct this?
Deidre Taylor

This indeed seemed a perplexing issue. The first step was to login at Hotmail to make sure things were fine at my account. I was using the Chrome web browser and saw no problems.

I then implemented what I fondly called the “browser test” (my terminology) and started checking with other web browsers. It quickly came to light that with Firefox Hotmail was not attaching the original message when forwarding or composing an email.

Fixing the Hotmail not attaching original message to forwards and replies problem

Now that we know the problem is because of Firefox and Hotmail not behaving nicely with each other, the simplest of fixes is to use a different web browser. You can employ the program that came pre-installed with the operating system on your computer – Internet Explorer on Windows or Safari on Macs. But those who don’t want to change and insist on using Firefox, there is solution… though it’s not so straightforward. But for what it’s worth, here goes:

To have the original message included in a Hotmail reply or a forward, you HAVE to clear the Firefox browser cache. Thus, click “Tools” from the top menu and select “Options“. In the pop-up, select the “Advanced” section and move to the “Network” tab. Hit the “Clear Now” button to get rid of the stored files. You would also like to remove the Hotmail web site if it’s in the Offline Storage section.

By the way, it’s been noted that images in the original Hotmail email message might not be included in forwards and replies. So, it’s still not a perfect solution and, yes, quite a pain in the backside!