TarHeelTech wrote:
OK, correct me if I am misunderstanding what you are saying...
You are saying that Outlook has always had a flaw specific to how it displays attachments. …
Sorry. Not «specific to how it displays attachments», but «specific to how it» does or does not allow you, the user, to perform bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves).
However, there does seem to be a correlation, in Outlook derived email clients, between this treatment of attachment operations and the way Outlook chooses to display the received email. (That latter is actually irrelevant to the flaw, but does seem to have contributed to users’ confusion.)
… Apple's iOS Mail app has always sent email attachments in accordance with Internet Email Standards. …
Correct.
However, the «Internet Email Standards» provide for many different email formats.
… Prior to iOS 14, iOS 13 was coded in a way that helped Outlook translate around their flaw in coding that allowed Outlook to display attachments the way Joe User who sent it from their iPhone wanted it to be displayed (as an attachment instead of inline / embedded). …
Like I wrote, above, there are many ways to format emails, by way of the «Internet Email Standards».
It is quite possible that Apple Mail, in iOS 13, defaulted to a different email format.
Even beyond the formatting, it is quite possible that the use of the Content-Types may have changed.
It is also possible that the implementation of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) changed.
One must also recognize that this Outlook issue occurred with earlier iOS versions, over many years. This was far from being unique to the iOS 13 to iOS 14 transition. (This is due to how fragile any “workaround”—that “kicks” Outlook into “doing the right thing”™️—is: subject to being easily broken by any tiny changes in the web of interactions involved in transferring emails.)
… When Apple upgraded to iOS 14, their built-in native Mail app continued to meet International Email Standards, but they removed this translation coding that got around the Outlook flaw. …
Where did you get the idea that there was ever some «translation coding that got around the Outlook flaw»?
I actually wish there was some way to create, say, a Content-Type: multipart/alternative form that would be able to provide a good form for Outlook, that Outlook would actually be “persuaded” to use.
If that were possible, it would be easy to fix this issue in cases where Outlook is used as the receiving email client.
However, there is no mechanism to “force” a receiving email client to render an email based upon a particular alternate form.
(This is probably a good thing, since such a mechanism could easily be abused by competitors.)
… So you're saying that the real solution isn't for Apple to re-add that additional translation code, …
There isn’t such.
… but Outlook needs to fix their code to rid themselves of this flaw that displays attachments as inline / embedded. Correct? …
Sorry. Once again. Not how Outlook «displays attachments», but how it does or does not allow you, the user, to perform bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves).
However, again, there does seem to be a correlation, in Outlook derived email clients, between this treatment of attachment operations and the way Outlook chooses to display the received email. (That latter is actually irrelevant to the flaw, but does seem to have contributed to users’ confusion.)
… Sorry to be so wordy, but I'm trying to get the necessary details to finally understand after 48 pages of posts that have not conveyed to a laypersons like me, what the real crux of the issue is. …
I’m sorry.
Even though we (those of us, here on Apple Support Communities, that worked over months to understand the realities of this issue) have been able to narrow down the issue or issues, we do not, yet, have a full understanding of the flaw in Outlook derived email clients: really, only its programmers know under what conditions they “do the right thing”™️, vs. not doing so.
If Apple, for instance, had the full picture of the flaw in Outlook derived email clients, they might be able to work around it, to get them to “do the right thing”™️. (There is no guarantee, even having that full picture.)
Unfortunately, not having that full picture, any workaround will be fragile: subject to being easily broken by any tiny changes in the web of interactions involved in transferring emails. (In fact, even with that full picture, a full workaround may never be possible, and will be fragile, anyway, to any changes in the Outlook derived email clients.)
(I suspect that the Apple developers understand all this, and are unlikely to willingly subject themselves to such fragile workarounds.)
… Thank you for your continued attempts to educate. I'm sure it's been frustrating to you to have to post the same thing again and again. Maybe we all just needed a translator code to help us understand.
