iPad Email Attachments showing up as empty/missing icon question mark

I have been having the same problem for ages, since I bought my iPad, and I was one of the first, I've always been diligent with it and updated always the OS as soon as it comes out, I'm careful with the apps that I download, and I use the iPad all the time. But this is really starting to get annoying. It is so random that it is very difficult to determine what causes it, but it generally does not matter what the attachment is, it can be a PDF, word document or ppt. It also seems that if I send an attachment from my iPad tie rearly gets through. I really hope that apple sort this out.

Similiar problem.

A PDF received in my gmail account shows up fine in a web browser but is not shown at all on my iPhone, iPad or OSX Mail.App or OSX Thunderbird. It appears to be for certain types of PDF's --- this one is from a mobile phone company with my monthly bill and is password protected.

The ones that I can view are not password protected.

All devices are updated to OSX 10.7 and iOS5.0.1.

Why are there so many people with the same problem and no resolution????

I used to be able to view PDFs on my iphone and ipad, but no more. It has been a while since I've had to view a PDF from my email, so I am not sure when the problem started. Maybe with the upgrade to the new OS? But then again these postings about problems opening & viewing PDFs have been going on for years. If anyone fineds a solution (APPLE?) please let us know...and fix it with the next OS update ASAP.

Same issue....PDF's are not showing up on my work account (MS Exchange), which is a HUGE problem seeing I work off my phone after hours. I even went out to Safari, logged onto our web exchange account and the PDF's are still a no show. Any suggestions/resolutions would be great!

I want to bump this thread, as I am STILL having the above mentioned problems, very frustrating.

I should mention that when I walk away from the wifi, the images will show up. Hopefully, this will help some of you, but I have no explanation for this.

I have upgraded (????) to ios6 and now cannot open email PDF attachments. The first time this happened I did a full restore of my ipad via iTunes backup and it solved the problem.

However it has happened again and this time a restore hasn't helped.

Presumably Apple are aware of this problem but don't seem to be terribly interested in solving it.

Maybe the company should be rebranded Ostrich!

I am having the same problem. "Open in" is not showing for 1-page PDF files I have sent from my iPad.

Also, when opening a 1-page PDF in iBooks and sending it via mail, the recipient cannot open the file anymore. Somehow the preview does destroy the file.

I already tried out a full reset and it solved the problem for a short time. Suddenly the same happened again.

What is going wrong?

I finally solved the issue ... At least for my special case.

If you have an automated signature added to your emails, which includes bolt letters, then the one-page PDF files are massed up! Also the recipient will not have shown the open in tap in that case.

Try to remove the automated signature if you send your email. It is due to the settings of the sense only, not he recipient of the email.

On my ipad (3rd Gen), if I press and hold any part of the inline PDF image, it gives me the options to "open in..." any one of several programs that view PDF images, such as Docs to Go, iBooks, etc. I can then view the full PDF vs a small, hard to read "preview" of it within the email itself.

I am having the same issue with received Excel spreadsheets on an iPad 3. The act of receving them on an iPad appears to have corrupted them. They don't appear in the forwarded email and if you try and send them via for example Dropbox or an attachment to a new email, the spreadsheets still are totally corrupted. Unfortunately I was in Africa, when I received them on my iPad and had set my mail to clear down from the server after 7 days, so I would not have a great mass of mail re-loading when I got back. I therefore cannot access the original on any of my Macs. Not a great feature for someone trying to use an iPad as a laptop replacement when travelling.

Wilson

Hi,

I have just recently occurred a problem with receiving pdf's that are sent from goodreader (ipad) to outlook. This is only happening with 2 ipads, the other one I am able to receive pdf's from. When I send the pdf to both my outlook and my macmail, I only receive the pdf via macmail. Does anyone have any idea what caused this and what can be done to fix this?

Thanks!

Is anyone still having the original problem with attachments not forwarding? I can make this fail under iOS 6.1.4 with large (8mb) spreadsheets and PDFs at least 1 in 10 attempts. Was this ever addressed? I have no signature line.

I have the same issue with my iPad 2 64G wifi; PDF's appear in Microsoft outlook with a question mark. Removing my signature before sending does the trick but is a bit of an awkward step to remember.

However when I send a PDF from my iPod Touch 5G 64 or my iPhone 4S 64G, all works fine and my signature actually appears as an .htm attachment along with the PDF attachment when received in Microsoft Outlook. Whereas with the iPad, the signature remains within the body of the email.

Let's hope an update fixes this.

hi all, just thought id fill anyone in with some info I found - maybe it might help someone save a day of troubleshooting!

anyway we use BES10 for our iPhone management and we had this problem where email attachments were showing as a question mark and we werent able to open them in any other apps either. Turns out in BES10 there are 2 policy settings hidden away called "Limit personal data to personal apps and accounts" and "Limit work data to work apps and accounts." if these are enabled the ? appears on attachments and cant open them in other apps either. hopefully the above may be of use to someone.

Had issue of PDF Attachments not showing up in outlook. Got a box with a red x imbedded in the body instead. By shutting off the email signature I am now able to get the PDF file as an actual attachment. Very simple (if strange) fix! Thanks to all for your help. Don't know why Apple doesn't read these its been going on since 2010!!