Email photo as attachment, not embedded, in iOS 14

As I see it, a MIME message can contain the following internet properties in its header:

Content-Type: multipart/mixed:

Multipart/mixed is used for sending files with different Content-Type header fields inline (or as attachments) (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIME)

Content-Type: multipart/related:

A multipart/related is used to indicate that each message part is a component of an aggregate whole (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIME), i.e. embedded images.

What the good folks here are complaining about is that Apple Mail at one time used the Content-Type: multipart/mixed header, and at some point switched to specifying Content-Type: multipart/related if the only content were JPGs.

The mail tool I use (as well as Apple Mail form IOS 12, I confirm after a test this morning) sends a JPG with Content-Type: multipart/mixed.

To me this is not a matter of compliance, both are compliant MIME messages, it was a choice of which header to include. And as we have discovered, selecting a video and emailing it with Apple Mail will result in Content-Type: multipart/mixed, meaning the tool can include either header, but chooses not too for JPG attachments.

This is my understanding, but am no export at all on MIME format.

Scamp468 wrote:

… They expect receiving Mail Servers to emend their systems to deal with it. …

No International Internet Standards compliant «Mail Server» need make any changes, whatsoever!

All that Apple is doing, in is regard, is completely standards compliant.

We don’t even know if Microsoft Exchange servers are not standards compliant.

… MS mail accounts show the photos embedded. …

All that is showing is how your email client is rendering your received email.

It’s about formatting. Nothing more.

… G-mail still renders them as attachments.

Are you talking about received email, seen on G-mail? Or emails sent from a G-mail account? Or something else?

However, unlike Outlook (and its derivatives), a G-mail client, and all other email clients, seem to have no problems performing bulk email attachment operations (such as bulk-saves), regardless how said received email may be rendered.

Only Outlook (and its derivatives) has any such trouble.

terrapinny wrote:

… all I know is that I used to be able to send images as an attachment using the same email program that I have always used for the last 10 years of owning an Apple phone, with the same email address, and now I can’t.

Yes. I understand the perceived issue.

This is why I and others, around here, primarily asked questions of those actually experiencing the issue—for a good month, or so (starting in September of last year)—before expressing what we found the actual issue to be.

It took us that long to get at the underlying issues, vs. the more superficial issues associated with appearances and circumstantial evidence.

(There’s a reason circumstantial evidence is excluded from legal cases: such is usually misleading!)

We also found that this issue was not new with iOS 14, but had been seen and “worked around” over years, involving earlier iOS versions.

Yes. Apple made one or more changes, with regard to their implementations of various International Internet Standards governing email creation and transfer/interchange. (However, all such changes are demonstrably consistent with those International Internet Standards. Furthermore, none of those changes involve deviating from those International Internet Standards by doing anything other than attaching files to email bodies: a part of those standards from the beginning of sending files with emails. [I can not, actually, guarantee that the International Internet Standards will not, someday, allow for some form of actual embedding of files, in some way. All I know is that such hasn’t happened, yet, and Apple is not doing such.])

The problem, as we found in our collective investigations, all pointed to a very tiny subset of email clients (consisting of a single email client and its derivatives), with evidence pointing to some issue in the email server commonly coupled with that very tiny subset of email clients.

(We can’t claim to understand the entire extent of the issues—so far as I know—but we do know what the minimal change is that will actually solve the issues, vs. fragile “workarounds” that will easily break with any tiny change in the web of interactions involved in transferring emails [thus leading to the recurrent issues that have been seen over the years].

Unfortunately, the change must be made in that very tiny subset of email clients! No change outside of that will be anything besides a fragile “workaround”.)

montesa1 wrote:

Open TEXT messaging (not mail)

put in email address, then pick the pictures from your album.

they will come as attachments.

I have shared this and some of the “hi tech” guys don’t get it (too simple of a work around”

You're lucky if that happens to work with your phone carrier. But I can tell you that is not a guaranteed solution, in the same way attaching a 1 second video to the email works. Take a look at my screenshot. It shows up as an HTML email. If there was a way to make it formatted as Plain Text, then it would've automatically included them as attachments.

terrapinny wrote:

And again, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Explain it to a person who doesn’t understand what an email client is. Are you asking me to try different types of emails services? Like Yahoo, Gmail, AOL? Are you asking me to try some sort of mail service app? What are you asking me to do? I don’t know what you mean by do a functionality test by testing different email clients. Which is what I wrote above.

Fair enough.

Email is accomplished in a client-server like manner (not unlike accessing webpages with a browser [the client] accessing webpages on Internet sites [the servers]).

Just like the case of accessing webpages using a browser, the email client is the software you use to more directly access and work with your email.

Examples of email clients are Apple Mail, on iDevices, a GMail App, Outlook, using a browser to access webpages that actually access and deal with your email (gmail’s site, AOL’s site, etc.).

The email servers—like webpage servers—are seldom seen by the vast majority of users. However, these are the things that actually get your email from wherever you are to wherever the email address indicates it should go.

Email clients can, potentially, deal with multiple email servers, more-or-less “directly”, for the multitude of email accounts you may use the email client to access. Examples are Apple Mail, GMail App, Outlook, and many others (usually not including web-browser interfaces).

When you set up IMAP, on an email client, to access some IMAP (email) server, you are setting up communication between your email client and an email server.

The other part is more focused upon sending your composed email from your email client to an email server that will start the process of transferring your sent email to the appropriate email server for the recipient’s address.

This usually involves the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). (This may or may not be the same server you use in accessing your received email, using your email client.)

I do hope I haven’t lost you!

Yes. It is a bit involved, with many “moving” parts. That’s why I refer to the web of interactions involved in transferring emails!

An email you send (from your email client) can go through many email servers (and various “relays” and “switches”) before it gets to the email server for the person you addressed in your outgoing email.

All this is governed by International Internet Standards: they help make sure all the devices involved “do the right thing”™️ with you outgoing and incoming emails.

Unfortunately, these International Internet Standards are focused upon the actual data, of your emails.

While these standards are sufficiently involved that any astute reader can understand the implications for any email client dealing with such email data, these standards do not require that email clients provide any particular functionality to the user!

So. That very tiny subset of email clients that disallow their users from performing bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves), under some set of internal conditions, are not—technically—in violation of the standards.

Instead, such email clients are simply deficient in their user functionality.

So, what I’m asking you, and other, to do is to try to access your received emails using as many different email clients as you can: Apple Mail, GMail App, Outlook, and whatever other (generally free) email clients you can get your hands on. All those email clients may access your emails off the same email server, if you want, so long as that is supported by both the server and the various clients.

After all, it’s the email clients that will either allow you to, or disallow you from performing bulk attachment operations, such as bulk-saves, on your received emails.

You could also use different email servers, if you wish, but the principle test is of various email clients interacting with the same received email.

Does this help, or did I give you too much information?

Halliday wrote:

terrapinny wrote:

And again, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Explain it to a person who doesn’t understand what an email client is. Are you asking me to try different types of emails services? Like Yahoo, Gmail, AOL? Are you asking me to try some sort of mail service app? What are you asking me to do? I don’t know what you mean by do a functionality test by testing different email clients. Which is what I wrote above.

Fair enough.

.....

Does this help, or did I give you too much information?

LOL at how terrapinny wrote that it's impossible to understand you, and you acknowledge it, yet you go on writing in the exact same way, and twice as much as before! I, as well as many others, I'm sure share his sentiment.

-----------------------------------------

Here's my attempt at trying to understand what you wrote, and look for a solution based on it (spoiler alert: it was pointless).

I have tried viewing the emails sent using my Apple device with pictures in them in my Microsoft Outlook PC client, and they were embedded, and not attached. I have similarly looked at emails in my yahoo email account on Chrome on my PC. In both cases, every time pictures were sent in an email using my phone, they were not attached, and were embedded.

And in both cases, when I added the "1 second video" solution suggested by somebody else, the pictures showed up as attachments.

-----------------------------------------------

It is interesting that you continue to focus on only the end goal of some individuals here complaining about iOS 14 no longer allowing us to email pictures as attachments (and thus making it very difficult for them to bulk save them). What about others, for whom it is merely a preference? You continue harping on the "bulk save" issue…

As I have said repeatedly, which has clearly fallen on deaf ears, you have yet to put forward a solution on how to get back what we used to have. It is amazing to me that you continue to provide theoretical responses instead of actual solutions to the specific examples provided to you, which quite a few people in this thread have done in fact, like attaching a 1 second video as well.

Furthermore, your writing style – perhaps due to your inability to actually come up with concrete solutions – only serves to obfuscate things. This expression comes to mind: “Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.” C. W. Ceran

Martin_Williams wrote:

Dear Halliday.

I think I speak on behalf of the people who use an iPhone and Outlook in the real world.

To quote

As a result, of all the above, there is, actually, no “fix” that is within Apple’s power or authority.

What a load of rubbish - Apple made a change, they can change it back …

Two (2) things:

1. That might—only might—be reasonable if any change Apple made was purely incidental—not for any “greater” purpose:
   1. Apple doesn’t tend to stay static. They are always working to take better advantages of the various International standards, and even work to advance such standards (such as the new USB4 standard).
2. There were, likely, more than a single change, that Apple made, and all the changes, with regard to email, were to come into better compliance with, and take better advantage of, the latest International Internet Standards governing email creation and interchange.
   1. Apple is not inclined to “hold back” simply because some third-party email software has poor Standards compliance and/or poor programming.

Besides, iOS 14 is far from the first case where that same third-party email software “broke down”.

I would fully expect Apple programmers and their management to be saying “enough is enough”. I expect they aren’t going to continue to “play that game”, with that third-party.

… Like most of us on here, we don't care about the details just that it broke when we went to iOS 14. …

I understand that thinking.

Unfortunately, it is the very kind of thinking that causes stagnation.

One must understand the root causes in order to know the correct course of action.

While y’all may not wish to participate in that, all of the more experienced users, here, on the Apple Support Communities (that participated in any related Discussions), have taken the time to come to understand the root causes.

Additionally, the Apple programmers y’all are wanting to “pressure” into “reversing” their changes, understand these details (and, probably, more), and will, very likely, “push back”, hard, against the stagnation that would lead to.

(In point of fact, if y’all were to “demand” that «email photo[s]» be implemented as «attachment[s]», rather than being “«embedded»”—to use the terminology of this Discussion—the response from the Apple programmers, involved, will likely be: “They are «attachment[s]». They have never been otherwise. NEXT!”)

… As for using another email client other that outlook - seriously are you in the real world ? Have you not seen what has become the normal ? …

Hey. It’s up to y’all.

You can either adapt, or petition the responsible company to “get their act together”, or be perpetually “miserable”, perpetual “victims” of your own making.

Back when I used Outlook, in the corporate/governmental world, Outlook didn’t have such problems.

If they had, I, and others would have contacted Microsoft and demanded corrections.

(I did the same for some of our other software suppliers, and, usually, received satisfaction in short order.

I did have one, where their software had a limitation on Windows, but had no such limitation on their mainframe or UNIX versions.

They told me that the problem was a limitation in Windows.

I found that to be likely, but still performed deeper investigations.

Ultimately, I found that their claimed Windows limitation only occurred if one uses the Stack in transferring data, rather than the Heap [«the technical details»], which is more appropriate for large amounts of data.

So. I contacted the company and shared my findings with them.

They, subsequently, contacted me, back, and informed me that a corrected version of their software for Windows would be available the following month.

This is the power of understanding «the technical details».)

… Sorry mate but you are on another planet and us mere users are on planet earth and don't like it when things stop working following an update. …

I’m here «on planet earth», as well.

The only difference is that my “eyes” seem to be more “open”.

(Of course, much of that is due to nearly a half century of experience with computer systems.)

(To be continued …)

Halliday wrote:

Incidentally, Lotus9999, my response to N-K-O’s investigation (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251807601?answerId=254616832022#254616832022) shows the odd reason why adding an attached file that has a different file type seems to help Outlook (and its derivatives) “do the right thing”™️: it simply “plays” into Outlook’s way of taking “shortcuts” with the International Internet Standards governing email composition.

Even just there, it is Outlook that is not treating the standard properly.

You are wrong... I encourage you to please do testing before repeating your theories and/or understanding of how it is working. What you state is simply inaccurate. I had in fact done two tests, the second one of which proves it is NOT just Outlook, which you seem to have missed. I will repeat them below for ease of reference:

Mar 2, 2021 6:57 PM in response to Halliday

I have tried viewing the emails sent using my Apple device with pictures in them in my Microsoft Outlook PC client, and they were embedded, and not attached.

I have similarly looked at emails in my Yahoo email account on Chrome on my PC. In both cases, every time pictures were sent in an email using my phone, they were not attached, and were embedded. And in both cases, when I added the "1 second video" solution suggested by somebody else, the pictures showed up as attachments.

So clearly it is NOT just an Outlook problem… I sent the email FROM my Yahoo account using my phone TO my Yahoo account, therefore, completely bypassing Outlook.

Lotus9999 wrote:

Halliday wrote:

Incidentally, Lotus9999, my response to N-K-O’s investigation (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251807601?answerId=254616832022#254616832022) shows the odd reason why adding an attached file that has a different file type seems to help Outlook (and its derivatives) “do the right thing”™️: it simply “plays” into Outlook’s way of taking “shortcuts” with the International Internet Standards governing email composition.

Even just there, it is Outlook that is not treating the standard properly.

I did 2 tests NOT involving Outlook. I have added more formatting to make it easier for you to find the important spots...

Mar 2, 2021 6:57 PM in response to Halliday

I have tried viewing the emails sent using my Apple device with pictures in them in my Microsoft Outlook PC client, and they were embedded, and not attached. I have similarly looked at emails in my Yahoo email account on Chrome on my PC. [Emphasis added]

In both cases, every time pictures were sent in an email using my phone, they were not attached, and were embedded. And in both cases, when I added the "1 second video" solution suggested by somebody else, the pictures showed up as attachments.

Yes. Once again, all you have done is «view» the «look[es]», the appearances!

The problem is not the appearances—such are as recommended by the International Internet Standards governing email composition and interchange.

So clearly it is NOT just an Outlook problem…

Now. Rather than purely «look[ing]» at appearances, how about trying the functional test of saving all attachments!

Lotus9999 wrote:

Halliday wrote:

…

Really? Why don't you try and forward an email in Outlook with the embedded pictures (which is obviously HTML formatted) and switch the formatting to Plain Text, and see what happens to your so-called "attached" pictures…

Once again, such is merely an issue with Outlook mistreating emails with attachments that more fully utilize the International Internet Standards governing email creation and interchange.

The fact that Outlook, when you save the received email as HTML, correctly places the attached files (photos/images/pictures/whatever) as files within a folder/directory, demonstrates that Outlook does recognize the attachment structure of your received emails.

Furthermore, the fact that no other email clients (other than the few Outlook derived clients) have any issue with allowing you, the user, to perform bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves) on your received emails, also demonstrates the uniqueness of the Outlook misbehavior.

Additionally, if Outlook still allows you, the user, to view the Raw textual form of your received emails—as it used to, back when I used Outlook in the corporate/governmental sectors—this, again, proves that the received emails have all files (images/pictures/photos/whatever) attached!

Even the HTML (actually, Mail-HTML, or MHTML) body, of the received emails, has no “embedded” images.

(There may be a day when the International Internet Standards governing email creation and interchange may permit actual “embedding” [or whatever they may call it] of images/pictures/photos/etc. within the HTML body of emails, as one can do within webpages. However, there has yet to even be a “request” for this change, as far as I have seen!)

Lotus9999 wrote:

Halliday wrote:

Incidentally, Lotus9999, my response to N-K-O’s investigation (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251807601?answerId=254616832022#254616832022) shows the odd reason why adding an attached file that has a different file type seems to help Outlook (and its derivatives) “do the right thing”™️: it simply “plays” into Outlook’s way of taking “shortcuts” with the International Internet Standards governing email composition.

Even just there, it is Outlook that is not treating the standard properly.

You are wrong... I encourage you to please do testing before repeating your theories and/or understanding of how it is working. What you state is simply inaccurate. I had in fact done two tests, the second one of which proves it is NOT just Outlook, which you seem to have missed. I will repeat them below for ease of reference:

Mar 2, 2021 6:57 PM in response to Halliday

I have tried viewing the emails sent using my Apple device with pictures in them in my Microsoft Outlook PC client, and they were embedded, and not attached. (Emphasis added)

I have similarly looked at emails in my Yahoo email account on Chrome on my PC. In both cases, every time pictures were sent in an email using my phone, they were not attached, and were embedded. And in both cases, when I added the "1 second video" solution suggested by somebody else, the pictures showed up as attachments. (Emphasis added) …

Yes. Once again, all you have done is «view» the «look[es]», the appearances!

The problem is not the appearances—such are as recommended by the International Internet Standards governing email composition and interchange.

… So clearly it is NOT just an Outlook problem… I sent the email FROM my Yahoo account using my phone TO my Yahoo account, therefore, completely bypassing Outlook.

Now. Rather than purely «look[ing]» at appearances, how about trying the functional test of saving all attachments!

CJCragg wrote:

And further evidenced by my Outlook 2010 that hasn’t changed in years, always sent attachments until IOS 14.

IT’S APPLE WHO MESSED IT UP.

The longstanding answer is:

«The answer, as I, and others, have posted for months, here and within previous Discussions on this issue, are twofold:

1. Apple Mail is, and always has been, «send[ing] emails … where the photos are … attachments, like how it [has always] be[en] for years», even at those times, through the years, when this Outlook issue surfaced with previous iOS versions.
2. As far as getting your Outlook (and Outlook derived) email clients to allow you, the user, to perform bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves), that is not something Apple can actually fix. Y’all must contact the responsible company, in order to have that fixed.
3. Anything else is but a fragile workaround, subject to being easily broken by any tiny changes in the web of interactions involved in transferring emails. (This is how this issue came up with the change to iOS 14, as well as many other times, in the past years, with earlier iOS versions.)» (emphasis added)

TarHeelTech wrote:

+100

While I enjoy the many benefits of technology, I also follow the motto "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". The tech world does a lot of fixing things that aren't broken, which drives me crazy. OK, maybe "crazy" is an exaggeration. It's a peeve. What I realize when I find an issue with technology that I dislike, I look for a work-around and then move on with my day.

Unfortunately, in this case, one of the likely things that Apple fixed was the proper use of Content-Type: Multipart/Related, vs. the more generic Content-Type: Multipart/Mixed.

It seems that, possibly, Outlook doesn’t understand this Content-Type, according to an investigation by N-K-O (if I remember the name correctly), even though Content-Type: Multipart/Related was introduced back in August 1998.

However, all other email clients seem to have no problem with this Content-Type.

Would you suggest that no one use this Content-Type just because Outlook is so far behind the times?

I think the problem is that the sending account you are using, Hotmail, is a Microsoft derivative. I find I can receive images as attachments if I send from either the iCloud and g-mail addresses on my iPhone, but not my Microsoft account.

dawnfaye wrote:

Now I understand why we always receive images embedded in emails at my work. We deal with the public and I just assumed they were all technologically unsavvy. Not being able to attach an image to an email is ridiculous. If this doesn't change I'm going to go back to android.

However, as you can easily check, using the definitive test, found at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251807601?answerId=254806789022#254806789022, to see what is actually going on; y’all can verify that the «images» are always «attach[ed]».

So, if there is any problem with any email client properly dealing with the attachments, the issue is not with the email, but with the particular email client.