Problem Statement

When emails that are received in Outlook and synchronized back into Dynamics 365 / Power Apps are downloaded as .eml files and then re‑imported into Outlook, the email date appears incorrect.

This occurs because the Date Sent (senton) field on the Email entity is not populated for emails synchronized from an external mailbox. As a result, Outlook applies a default or fallback date value when importing the .eml file, leading to confusion and incorrect email timelines.

Business Impact

• Customers downloading emails for audit, compliance, or record‑keeping purposes see incorrect sent dates.
• Imported emails appear out of chronological order in Outlook.
• Manual intervention is required, which is not scalable and increases operational overhead.
• Impacts trust in exported email data from Dynamics 365 / Power Apps.

Scenario

1. An email is received in Outlook and synchronized into Dynamics 365 (Email entity).
2. The email record is created in Dynamics 365 without the Date Sent (senton) field populated.
3. The user downloads the email from Dynamics 365 as a .eml file.
4. The .eml file is imported back into Outlook.
5. Outlook displays an incorrect sent date.

Actual Behavior

• The Date Sent (senton) field is null for received/synchronized emails.
• When exporting the email, Outlook cannot correctly interpret the sent date.
• Outlook applies a default or incorrect date value.
• Users must manually edit the .eml file to correct the date.

Expected Behavior

• Emails synchronized from Outlook into Dynamics 365 should have the Date Sent (senton) field populated correctly.
• Downloaded .eml files should preserve the original sent date when imported back into Outlook.
• No manual modification should be required to maintain data integrity.

Validation / Findings

• Editing the date directly inside the .eml file confirms that Outlook correctly displays the date once a valid value is present.
• Emails sent directly from Dynamics 365 populate the Date Sent field correctly and do not exhibit this issue.
• The issue only affects emails synchronized from external mailboxes (received emails).
• The Date Sent (senton) column is a managed field and cannot be modified by customers.

Current Workaround

Since the Date Sent field is managed and cannot be edited in Dynamics 365:

1. Download the email from Dynamics 365.
2. Open the .eml file using Notepad.
3. Manually update the date value.
4. Import the email back into Outlook.

This workaround is manual and not suitable for high‑volume or compliance‑driven scenarios.

Suggested Improvement

• Populate the Date Sent (senton) field for emails synchronized from Outlook using available message metadata.
• Alternatively, ensure the exported .eml file includes a valid sent date derived from received email headers.
• Provide consistent behavior between sent emails and received/synchronized emails.