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Missing Attachments in Mac Mail

Hi, I have a client who use Exchange 2007 as there mail server. The mac clients either use Mail or entourage to connect to the mail server.

The problem i am having, is usaing the Mail client, attachments will not show up on random emails. If i use OWA, an Iphone, Entourgae the attachment appears OK. The Mac has all the lastest software updates.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on May 19, 2008 5:21 AM

Reply
37 replies

May 19, 2008 8:04 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Hi Ernie, this appears to be random, users can recieve attachments in emails that are plain text, but some times the attachments are missing.
Unfortunatley the e-mails we receive are from outside sources, but if you use entourage the attachment is present. It only seems to be affecting the mail client.
This has only started happening since we upgraded the exchnage server to 2007.

May 19, 2008 8:21 AM in response to DanBrown

Dan,

I was hasty, and misunderstood -- I thought it was attachments on email you sent. But you are talking about mail received from others? Not seen when accessing with Mail, but is with Entourage, from the Exchange server?

Take one such email in Mail, open it, click on View in the menubar, place the cursor on Message and choose Raw Source. See if you can find the header for the first or only attachment. What does that Header say?

Ernie

May 20, 2008 4:14 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Hi Ernie, I have tried to replicate the probelm on a different laptop, when i created the account. All the attachments where present. Both laptops run mail 3.2.

This is really bizare, the user reported yesterday, that there was no attachment, then ten min later, after forwarding on the email the attachment was there.

Any ideas would be appreaciated.

Dan.

Jun 4, 2008 3:50 PM in response to DanBrown

Hi,

I've been having the exact same issue with attachments not showing up when connecting to Exchange 2007, as has a friend of mine. In some messages the attachments don't appear at all, in others only one is missing but others are visible, and in others still all attachments show up fine. It's pretty random, as far as I can tell. The problem was not there when we were using Exchange 2003. As Dan posted, all attachments appear properly when the mailbox is viewed through OWA, on the iphone, or any other IMAP client I've tried, both desktop and mobile. So, it's definitely some weird bug with Apple Mail.

Jul 8, 2008 12:09 PM in response to PK_Seattle

I have been having a similar problem:
I get an email every now and then where the little attachment icon in Mail shows up. When I click on a message, however, I see the text of the message but no attachment. If I use webmail to look at the same email, the attachment is there.

I've tried rebuilding my mailbox but that did not help.

This is kind of annoying since it seems to happen at random....

Aug 4, 2008 12:04 PM in response to DanBrown

We're experiencing the exact same thing here, but on a different mail server (Zimbra), so the common factor here appears to be Mail.app, not Exchange. In the header list, the mails will even be listed as having 2 attachments, but in the viewing pane it reports 1 attachment and the second file is mysteriously missing. There has been no consistency as to size or type of attachment, seems like any random one will just fail to be displayed. Viewing the same mail with several other mail clients works fine (zimbra, tbird, etc.) and all attachments are visible.

-Mike

Aug 7, 2008 5:08 PM in response to mikelcu

This is for emails that are sent and the receiver does not have the attachment.
After asking and bugging people I sent emails too. I have found they are present that can not see them. Based on the size of the email, it is there!

Some were savvy enough to determine they need to hit the "Detail" button on their mail program and there it is. (not sure which programs have this)

This is not the end all solution but it has solved some issues with my clients. All my emails with an attachment have this type of statement- "Note- The attachments are here. Some email programs you need to hit the Detail Button to see the attachment."

Hope this helps some.
joemed

Aug 12, 2008 11:24 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Same problem here. Some attachment are missing. They would appear in Entourage, but not in Mail.

I looked at the raw source, and it says it's there (obviously). Here is the header for the first attachment of a recent email (the attachment is a pdf file):

------ =_NextPart_00201C8FC84.7DC160E1--

------ =_NextPart_00101C8FC84.7DC160E1
Content-Type: application/octet-stream;
name="179_Licence Application Procedure 2562008.pdf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Description: 179_Licence Application Procedure 2562008.pdf
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="179_Licence Application Procedure 2562008.pdf"

Sep 6, 2008 3:53 AM in response to joemed

This is a very annoying problem. It has nothing to do with viewing details to see attachments. I think it might have something to do with the format of the message from the sender.

-- Here is something that worked for me. While the message with the hiding attachments is selected in the message viewer, go to the file menu and select "Save Attachments...". I saved them to a folder on my desktop and when I went to that folder, lo and behold there they were!

Not a solution but sure beats having to go to my webmail and downloading attachments from there.

Sep 7, 2008 6:41 PM in response to ramobrah

The problem of "invisible" attachments sounds all too familiar. I am using Apple's "Mail" program ver. 3.4.

Recently, attachments have not always been showing up when the email's file size and the Paperclip icon indicates an attachment should be present. I have found that when this happens, very often I can view the hidden attachment by either going to the File Menu and choosing "Quick Look Attachments", or by pressing the Command and Y keys simultaneously. On occasion, I have had this abnormality occur from the same sender's email account who has also sent other emails with attachments that have shown up.

If this is a known Bug, hopefully the upcoming OS X 10.5.5 update will provide a fix.

Missing Attachments in Mac Mail

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