Outlook Mac - Glitchy formatting behaviour

[AJV]

Hello!

I'm using the O365 plugin with Outlook 365 Mac Desktop app, with the plugin permanently "pinned" so it opens with each email (otherwise I often forget to log/track...)

I've also changed the default font for new email and replies to Helvetica, as I absolutely despise Calibri.

I am experiencing two issues - on two seperate machines. Same behaviour.

First Issue:

When either creating a new email, or replying to an email, the window appears and I start typing with Helvetica. However, when I hit enter twice (new paragraph) the font automatically changes to Calibri. And it's super irritating.

Second Issue:

When hitting reply, if I begin typing right away, after a second or two, the cursor is moved to the end of the email, below the very last line of the original message.

Neither issue happens when I do not have the plugin "pinned" to automatically load.

Any ideas?

[ZOffen]

Has there been any progress with this? Experiencing all the issues flagged!

[djaytch99]

No still the same – neither Outlook or Hubspot can agree on who is at fault, so nothing gets done…!

[PGillard]

Any update on this from hubspot? This is maddening and causing lots of rework.

[AaronFriedman]

Have been complaining to Hubspot about this for over a year, so its somewhat comforting to see that many others are experiencing issues with them as well.  Here was the response I got from their Customer Success Manager in January 2021:

"Thank you for much for your patience on this. I was able to speak with one of the members of our product team and they gave me both good and bad news. The bad news is that unfortunately some of the behaviors that we observed, like the cursor skipping to the end of the page, don't have a solution at this time. This is caused by the HubSpot plug-in loading in the email editor, and there isn't a way at the moment to make the plug-in load any faster and prevent this skipping from happening.

The good news is that our team has been working on finding a way to improve this experience for a while now, and a new beta that Outlook 365 put out recently has given us a way to build a plug-in that works more seamlessly. Their new beta allows developers to "append upon send", which for HubSpot would mean that we would have the plug-in add the tracking and bcc address to them email automatically upon hitting send, without even needing to load the  plug-in while creating the email.

The team is actively working on this solution, but we don't have a timeline on when it would be completed. If the team were to put out a beta with this functionality would you like me to add you to the list? 
(Note: I was added to the list and have never heard back 12 months late)

When I asked them for a refund/reduction in pricing given that Hubspot wasn't working and I wasn't using it, here was their response: "Thank you for your response. Unfortunately we wouldn't be able to offer a price reduction for this situation. The Outlook plug-in is working as designed, and the ability to work on the new functionality that would address these issues has only been made possible very recently thanks to the changes Microsoft has made to Outlook. Our product team knows that this is a pain point for our customers, and I've added your voice as well so that the team is aware that there are still more users that would benefit from the "append on send" functionality."

Pretty terrible Hubspot.

[jackpaine]

Hi thank you for the reply.

Great to hear they are working on a solution.

Being able to have Hubspot track emails would be great as that’s the most important feature.

Yes, would it be possible to ask them to have me added?

Thanks,
Jack

[AJV]

Zoho has been a great solution. I haven’t looked back. Everything works.

[jackpaine]

This is so frustrating from Hubspot 

[MMT]

HUBSPOT - NOT COMPATIBLE WITH O365 OUTLOOK FOR MAC - PLEASE FIX!!

Background

Microsoft released  O365 version Outlook for Mac in September 2020.

Issues - Hubspot not compatible with O365 Outlook for Mac

We've been following up and chasing Hubspot for over 14 months, trying to troubleshoot with ongoing issues with not being able to use Outlook for Mac for sending/receiving emails and tracking and Hubspots features within Outlook and Hubspot.    HubSpot have only just now, 14 months later, advised us that hat HubSpot is NOT compatible with Outlook for Mac that was released Sept 2020.  Its been 14 months since Microsoft released Of365 Outlook for Mac, and its hard to fathom, that Hubspot, after 14 months and lots of its own devoted Hubspot users been screaming out to release its own Hubspot extension so that it can be compatible, that there seems to be no plans whatsover by Hubspot to make and Microsoft O365 Outlook for Mac compatitible.  

Any update? 

[LeeChapoton]

FYI, I went back into our Support Inbox and reopened our case for this just to see if there is a timeline for a fix, there is not. HubSpot has identified this as an issue which Microsoft needs to fix. I've closed the ticket again and created a support ticket on the Microsoft website. Hoping to get some traction over there now. View the support post here.

Also, in case you are not aware here is the Microsoft Roadmap page. This is where I look to see what fixes are coming down the pipeline. The HubSpot Product Updates page shows new updates, but not feature requests or pending bug fixes.

[LeeChapoton]

Hello all,

After only 24 hours of use, I can report the HubSpot Sales add in for Outlook's desktop app exhibits more quirky behavior than the web-based version of Outlook. Here's the list I have thus far:

• Typing lag is noticable to the point of being frustrating. This includes backspacing and deleting characters as well. (does not happen in web version)
• Lag in Bcc field being populated with HubSpot Bcc email causes cursor to jump from To field into Bcc field as I'm trying to type the reicpent email into the To field. Causes me to move my cursor back into the To field and delete the partial entry that I began typing before my cursor got moved. (does not happen in web version)
• Addresses that are listed in our "never log and track" settings still get a HubSpot tracking address in the Bcc field, as well as an error message in the add-in (see screenshots) (does not happen in the web version)
• Font size changes to a smaller font. While this happens the least of the quirks, it did happen a few times.
• Font family changes midway through composing a message. I did not personally experience this during the past 24 hours, but my boss seems to experience it more often than me. (he's on a newer Mac and newer OS) (does not happen in web version)

Also, I don't know why this hadn't dawned on me several months ago, but it did this morning. Instead of @PamCotton, @JessicaH , or any other HubSpot staff asking us for screenshots, videos, and other proof, why doesn't someone at HubSpot fire up a Macbook and trial this out for themselves? It would save a ton of back and forth as well as put the issue right in front of them to troubleshoot on the spot.

Thanks and cheers!

Lee

[bsm007]

I am experiencing the same frustrating behavior. I have noticed old font behavior when using the Hubspot add-in for MS Outlook for Mac. I have attached screen shots to describe the issues occurring. When composing an email message with the add-in logged-in, the new message exhibits these aberrant behaviors: 1. Tabbing to body from the Subject field skips 3-4 rows (orange box) 2. The first row of text is indented one space, but text is input in the correct font size (size 11 per my Outlook preferences) 3. Hitting a carriage return, the text suddenly enlarges to 12 point size (blue arrows) When I log off from Hubspot within the add in, the behavior is normalized with the beginning text within the body as 11pt font. See in both screen shots. This issue occurs on both my iMac and MacBook Pro. I am using Outlook for Mac v16.38 (although this behavior has been happening for awhile). I contacted support in July 2020 and got this response:

"This is unfortunately a known issue with the Outlook Extension on Mac, there is nothing that can be done on HubSpot's side to correct this. The design part of this is from Microsoft. When they convert the message body to HTML and give it to our add-in, the formatting changes. This is their rich-text to HTML conversion process. The Windows version is better about these conversions, but, there is still a lot that happens to convert the rich text.

We advise that you use "HTML" format and not "Rich Text" format when composing emails if possible. Otherwise you can use the Outlook Web version from your browser. This issue should not be present there."

My reply: 

1. That's disappointing and I find that dev response unacceptable as other CRM addins do not encounter this problem which points back to the developer. I suggest you push back on your dev team (I have experience managing my own developers and usually find this response doesn't pass the 'smell' test).

2. As for advising me to use HTML and not RTF, there is no RTF formatting option in Outlook for Mac that I can find in preferences. Point me to where that is located. I don't believe that is an option which makes me further doubt the dev response.

3. Lastly, why would Hubspot have a Outlook addin if it doesn't work and tell its customers to just use the web version? The reason I switched from Apple Mail to Outlook for Mac was to use the Hubspot addin (I asked Hubspot for years to develop further for Apple Mail with Sidekick). 

Frustrating and makes the add-in unstable and unusable for Apple users.

[djaytch99]

I feel your pain!  I am running the app on my Macbook Pro 2019 and I had turned off the pined version relying instead to remember to select it before I sent - not always successfully!  So I turned it back on to see if it still exhibited the same behavior and sure enough, still a problem!

[djaytch99]

Same problems that no-one is inclined to fix.  Not enough Mac users I suspect...

[PamCotton]

Hello @djaytch99, wanted to confirm if the solution @LeeChapoton provided did not worked on your end? The more information, screenshots, and details you can provide, the better I can advise on the next steps.

Thank you,

Pam

[djaytch99]

Hi Pam - I don't see a solution being offered by Lee.  I am already using the desktop app.  As to screenshots, all I can show is my text format changing from the default to someting else about 3 lines into the text.  And the skipping to the bottom of the email is pretty self-explanatory...

Thanks. DJH

[LeeChapoton]

I have been using the HubSpot Sales add in with Outlook 365 for the web for several weeks now without issue. Decided to switch over to the Outlook desktop app beginning today in order to see if things work as expected with it too.

My computer is a 15" MacBook Pro (2017) running macOS Catalina Version 10.15.7, with Microsoft Outllok for Mac Version 16.46 (21021202)

Along a similar vein, my boss (the company owner) has not been using the HubSpot Sales add in due to the behaviors described by @AJV above. This is causing a bit of friction within the organization as his email corrospondance with key contacts is not being logged within the CRM, and whenever we're Cc'd in any of these emails we go into the contact and manually log the email. Hoping to win him over to using the add in if it works now. There is one issue though, as he is on a newer MacBook Pro running macOS Big Sur, which is not the exact setup I have.

Just about all other employees use Windows-based computers and are not reporting odd behavior with the HubSpot Sales add in. 

If @AJV @djaytch99 or @JessicaH  has any recent updates, I would love to hear about them. Thanks!

Cheers,
Lee

[AJV]

Hi Lee,

Sadly, no improvement. Actually I find it worse. While you can avoid some of the glitchy behaviour by turning the add-in on when you're finished typing (and yes, you forget sometimes and miss logging emails) - but when you do this, if you have any bullets or special spacing, it removes it all and you have to go back and reformat your message. 

In all, it's become more of a pain than it's worth, and we're now looking for other solutions such as Zoho to see if they perform better.

[djaytch99]

I echo the remarks of AJV - I really like your program, but I cannot see Microsoft supplying a fix anytime soon.

[djaytch99]

Hi - I have the exact same 2 issues - did you ever get to resolve them?  Right now I'm not pinning the module to the email window and have to remember to open it up beofre I send the email.  LMK thanks. DJH

[PamCotton]

Hello @djaytch99 and @AJV were you able to follow the steps that @LeeChapoton  provide in the solution? If so, would you please provide where did you got stuck in the process?  The more information, screenshots, and details you can provide, the better I can advise on the next steps.

Thank you,

Pam