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I am an Officer and emailed a message using MS Outlook 2010 to a colleague at 08:00 AM on 30.09.2014 for a meeting at 10:00 AM on the same. When he did not attend the meeting and I inquired, he replied that he has not received the message in time for the meeting. Annoyed, I opened his message in his own desktop (also using MS Outlook 2010) and while verifying the file properties (not email header but properties) of the message, I see the following details in the dialog box:

Sent    :   30/09/2014 08:00 AM
Received:   30/09/2014 08:00 AM
Modified:   30/09/2014 11:00 AM

I also verified that he has not done any modifications to the file. I verified some other messages received by him up to 11:00 AM on that day and they all show Modified time different from Received time. After 11:00 AM, both Received and Modified show the same time.

He claim that he was out office till 11:00 AM and switched on his computer and MS Outlook at 11:00 AM only and only then the mail got downloaded into his system quoting the time under Modified.

Is it true that Modified represents the time the message downloaded into (.pst) folder of MS Outlook on his desktop? How come Received & Modified times could be different?

We are using our own company mail server. Is there any other way to find the exact time of downloading mails into (.pst) file?

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What you are stating is correct. Sent is when you send the message. Received is when the mail server receives the message. Modified is when the computer retrieves the message from the server. If the email client is on, then received and modified would be very close in time to each other. Modified should be after received even if it is milliseconds behind.

Based on the technical details and what you described, your colleague's explanation is supported by the technical details.

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  • The information is very useful in many ways official atmosphere. Now it is clear that Modified' time is actually the same asCreated' time and represent the time of the message downloaded from the server to the computer. In other words, if Modified" is the same as Received' in any message, it actually means that the computer and the email client (MS Outlook in our case) of the receiver was switched on at that time and computer has retrieved the message at that time only and we can be sure that the receiver was present at that time in the office. Thanks.
    – Bala1962
    Oct 20, 2014 at 11:32
  • You can not conclude the receiver is in the office, only that outlook is downloading email.
    – Sun
    Oct 20, 2014 at 13:52
  • In our office environment, each one is having their desktop/laptop and outlook configured only in that particular desktop/laptop. We have RSA security feature and only the nominated user could be able to switch on the desktop/laptop and connect to network and therefore could open outlook and download the email. And sharing password is strictly prohibited and punishable and nobody could resort to this. t
    – Bala1962
    Oct 20, 2014 at 16:39
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Modified in a received email is the time when you modify the email (opening the email, answerimg the email, resending the email...), and created date in a received email, is the time of the message downloaded from the server to the computer (so outlook and system must be active). Modified in a sent email, is the last time you edit the mail, and usually is some minutes or less, earlier than the sent date, dependint the time between the last moment you edit the mail and the moment you send the mail

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  • Do you have a reference for this?
    – DavidPostill ♦
    May 7, 2020 at 17:01

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