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

What are your settings for Mailbox Behaviors > Sent on your Mac? Perhaps your devices have a local cache of something that your Mac has deleted.

Apple Issac wrote:
I'm not sure what you mean. Are you talking about my ipad or my mac?

I was talking about your Mac, but you should probably check that setting everywhere. On the Mac it is in Mail Preferences > Accounts for each account. On the iPad it is in the Settings > Mail. There is also a "Load Remote Images" setting that could have an effect.

I honestly think it is a bug. Does anyone know where is the best place to report this to apple?

The Apple Bug Reporter. But before you report a bug, you really have to try to identify a sequence of steps that can reproduce the error on demand. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and Apple's and they will ignore it. I know that when I submit a bug or enhancement report and an Apple engineer responds with something like "hold down command and shift as documented in the online help" I feel like a real schmuck.

I've had the same problem as yours on my iphone& iPad. It is only with mail on my work exchange server emails. Some come through fine and others have the blue box with a question mark in them. Never have been able to figure out why since it is very random.

I have the exact same issue. I have also found a problem where if I forward an email from the iPad (which has attachments) the people on the other end can't view them, they just get the red Xs. So far this has only happened with PDFs.

Elzlaik wrote:
I have also found a problem where if I forward an email from the iPad (which has attachments) the people on the other end can't view them, they just get the red Xs. So far this has only happened with PDFs.

This is probably due to an anti-virus scanner on the recipient's server or client.

I'm having this problem with both my iPhone and iPad these days with Word docs (defanged). I could see the attachment, tried to open it and it failed. After that all I see is the blue box for the attachment. I saved the message in another folder and the same thing happened (could see it, open failed then blue box). Forwarded the message to my me.com account and still have the blue box. Any clues why this happens? PDF files are fine BTW.

I have a similar problem. This also occurs with photos that I can see in preview on my iPhone, but not on my iPad where I just see the blue question mark........!

kk, I am also having the same issues w/pdf & image files...fine on my mac, but not on iPhone or iPad...it happens no matter who sent them to me (incl myself) or from where...earlier, I received an email w/a pdf, opened it & viewed it fine...then, when I opened it again to view it a few mins later I got the blue "?" box...since then, I sent it from my macbook pro (where its fine) to my mobile me acct & to a yahoo acct on the iPad several times & still the "?" box...

I noticed that b/f the last post, this thread kinda' stalled out...Anyone have any resolution to this..? (I'll lurk around the forums a bit & if there is another thread where this is being covered then I apologize)...

I can't open an e-mail attachment unless it is two or more pages, likewise I can't forward one a recipient can open unless the document is two or more pages. Odd!

Also, performed a reboot & nuthin'... 

Exchange account: From iPad to other iPad (other account at the same exchange server) forwarding email with the attached pdf file - no problem.
Exchange account: From iPad to MS Outlook (other account at the same exchange server) forwarding email with the attached pdf file - recipient can not see the attachment (only the small icon - with the red cross), but, at the same moment - if we will open the recipients mailbox by OWA - we can see the attachment and we can download it without any problem (but the paperclip simbol does not shown).
Exchange account: From iPhone to any - no problem.
100% something wrong with iPad's mail. (and if we will look to the outbox folder on iPad - forwarded email's some time also does not have attachments (only small icon with the question mark).

Message was edited by: Tolich

I frequently receive email messages with attachments, most often PDF files. I can open them and read the PDF but when I forward the email (and I select "include attachments") about half the time, the recipient does not feet the PDF attachment. When this occurs, if I've copied myself on the message I send, I too do not receive the PDF attachment.

Problem occurs with my iPad WiFi+3G model, my wife's WiFi only iPad, and my iPhone 3G-S. I have several employees who report the same behavior with their iPhones.

Big problem. Wish Apple would fix. I tried to submit using the link in one of the early posts re bug reporting but was not able to do so.

I received an email to my POP account configured on my iPad with an XLS, and two PDF attachments. The XLS opened fine, but the PDFs were missing. The same email with attachments were also sent to the same account setup on my iPhone; on the iPhone all attachments could be seen and opened.

I forwarded the message on my iPad to my MobileMe account which I can also check from my iPad. When I opened the message from the MM account the attachments were there with a symbol to download them, which I did and I was able to view them.