Mail corrupts PDF attachments

I've had this problem for a while now, usually on older emails i've kept in my inbox, but it's started happening on more recent emails now and is becoming a real nuisance. Basically, sometimes, when i go to view or download a PDF attachment, preview tells me "Couldn’t open the file. It may be corrupt or a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize." I'm using gmail through imap on Mail. The attachement itself is fine though. I can download the attachment through gmail itself and preview displays it fine. Also, mail displays the inline preview as a small black box.

Any ideas why mail is corrupting my attachements? i've already tried rebuilding all my mailboxes multiple times, and deleting and redownloading all my messages, but the problem hasn't gone away.
Thanks for any help.

Message was edited by: zig_k

Macbook Pro SR 2.4 GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Apr 15, 2009 2:02 PM

18 replies

Nov 2, 2009 2:05 PM in response to zig_k

Same thing happens to me with Mail downloading attachments in AOL (which is also IMAP). In this case though it was multiple small PowerPoint files (each < 1 MB) within a single email. Mail would download the first one fine, but the others would be corrupted when I tried to view them with PowerPoint. If I download them using the AOL Desktop application or from the web at aol.com the downloaded files behave properly. So it's not just gmail attachments that Mail is screwing up. It's also unpredictable--some files get corrupted and some don't (but the ones that get corrupted always get corrupted on subsequent download attempts with Mail, and those that download OK stay OK). It's possible to circumvent this using the other downloading procedures above, but it's sure frustrating that Mail can't download all attachments properly all the time.

etresoft

Level 9

56,810 points

Nov 2, 2009 2:34 PM in response to David Wagoner

Sorry, no one is allowed to mention "Apple Mail" and "AOL" in the same post and somehow wind up blaming Apple. AOL's e-mail system has been busted for decades. They have never fixed it.

AOL cannot handle more than a single e-mail attachment. That is why you notice that it is unpredictable.

Nov 2, 2009 2:42 PM in response to David Wagoner

I just now read about a technique that ended up correcting my corrupted Mail attachments. It was in the comments at http://www.macworld.com/article/137634/2008/12/fixattach.html : 'I solve this by "moving" the messed-up message. Select the message, and select Message->Move->Move To, and select the account's Inbox. The message vanishes for a moment (yikes!) then comes back, with attachment intact.'

It would be nice if Mail wouldn't corrupt the attachments in the first place, but this simple technique at least corrected them for me.

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Mail corrupts PDF attachments