Mail was unable to save the attachment

I just ran into this problem today for the first time, and yes, Mail claims the file is type "applefile" when it should be MSWord. Our email system has a web interface, and I downloaded the file without difficulty from there, so alas -- the problem does seem to be Mail's interpretation. (I checked permissions, that's not it.) Thanks to Michael Thorn for all his explorations.

Just an update for folks still having trouble. Other's tips/solutions (for example Jay's) have not worked for me, so I have submitted a bug report and with any luck we will get some resolution soon. In the mean time, I found that I can trick Mail into giving me the file it doesn't realize it already downloaded. You can do what others have suggested and get the file via a web interface (fairly fast), or you can change a line in the file and it should work (locally scriptable). I am not sure it works 100% of the time, but it has for me and I don't really have a reason to think it shouldn't.

It is convoluted, but do these steps and you may be able to read that attachment:
1) Grab the file with your mouse and drag it onto the desktop.
2) Right-click or cntl-click the file and open with TextEdit via the "open with>other" selection. Alternatively open TextEdit and open the file from within TextEdit.
3) Find the lines that read (they could be slightly different, but the big thing is it will have your broken attachment name under the 'name' and 'filename' keys (don't change any others):

Content-Type: application/applefile;
name="broken attachmentname.doc"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: inline;
filename="broken attachmentname.doc"

and change: application/applefile;
to: application/msword;
(or whatever the MIME type is for your broken file, e.g. image/png, image/jpeg, etc.)
4) Save the email file being sure to maintain the .eml extension (if you do erase it either save it again, or change the file's extension clicking 'ok' when it asks whether you are sure you want to change to .eml extension.)
5) Double click the new file; Mail should open it; the attachment "should" be there and work.

Good luck.

I have a similar problem with PDF files.
I'm not sure that it's only a Mail.app problem. When I try via Thunderbird I get an error too, and can't download the attachment.
But you'r right about the gmail online interface.
Strange, strange.

I think it must be a 10.6.x problem because I can open the attachment in Mail.app server webmail interface but not in mail clients (Mail.app and Thunderbird).
And I can open the attachment in 10.5.x mail clients (Mail.app and Thunderbird).

Definitely a 10.6.x problem because I can open the attachment in Mail.app server webmail interface but not in mail clients (Mail.app and Thunderbird) and futhermore no problem with 10.5.x, I can open the attachment in mail clients (Mail.app and Thunderbird).

So it's just to be patient, wait for 10.6.3 and hope the bug will be gone for ever 🙂

Hi everyone,
I also had problems doing quick view with attachments in received mail.
Now after reading the whole topic I found the answer to my issue was to
change the permissions of the /Users/<user>/Library folder to read & write.
That was without closing Mail 3.6 (on my OSX Leopard), and immediately the problem vanished.

I opened the .emlx file sitting in my Mail folder in Thunderbird - and it worked, I can view and save the attachment. I could not save or read a colleague's attachment who is using Thunderbird on a Mac. No problems with attachments sent by other people. Today I got another problematic attachment sent by someone who uses Thunderbird on a PC. Is it a combined Thunderbird/Apple Mail problem? THe same attachments were opened by another (PC) colleague without problems.

What file types are these -- all JPEG? What application should they open with, or should they all View in Place as JPEGs should?

Ernie

My response was really for you post in the Lounge and the Compose window issue. Just put it here as I was too lazy to tab back to that topic. 🙂

BR,

I forgot to ask if you had used Repair Permissions, since the Upgrade?

Ernie

I have reproduced this with .docx attachments. .doc attachments seem to work fine. Both were sent by mac mail from leopard from the same machine.

Randy

I'm having exactly the same problem with snow leopard - just attach a word document, and can't open it before I can send it off.

Ditto here with word doc. Never had a problem before Snow Leopard.

sorry that is not from a PC as per my last post. It is from a Mac

Mike

Me too. I also use the workaround of saving documents as .pdf before sending them. Not very satisfactory so if anyone knows of an alternative please help.