Level 1

62 points

“ This message cannot be displayed”

On my 3rd gen iPad Air, the Mail app has started displaying the error message:

”This message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted. Ask the sender to send it again using a different format or email program.”

about one time in 10 messages. It has so far only happened in emails that I BBC’d myself. IOW, I am the sender. And I can see the first few words of the original email in the sidebar. So it’s a Mail glitch?

Any know the solution? Thanks.

iPad Air, iPadOS 14

Posted on Oct 7, 2020 7:23 AM

Top-ranking reply

Perplexer-

Level 1

19 points

Posted on Feb 17, 2021 1:46 AM

Apple's Mail app has been buggy for quite a while now, actually. One other bug is that it keeps automatically fetching e-mails even when it is set to "Manually" in Settings.

Anyway, I noticed this "message cannot be displayed" issue as well, basically only on e-mails that I send to myself from my iPhone or iPad. The bug is still present in iOS / iPad OS 14.4.

When you send an e-mail to yourself via the Mail app, you essentially end up with 2 copies of this e-mail. One arrives into your "Inbox" folder and the other copy stays in your "Sent" folder. The Mail app doesn't seem to correctly switch between the two copies when tapping between them. This might be what is contributing to the randomness of the e-mail being "readable" or "bad".

Anyway, here's what I found out in my testing (it gets a bit complex):

After you send yourself an e-mail from the Mail app, whether the received e-mail is "readable" or "bad" depends on where you open it first.

1- If you tap on the e-mail in the Inbox folder first, it will be random (so it seems).

If it is "bad" in Inbox, the copy in Sent is also "bad". If you delete the copy in Sent, the one in Inbox will become "readable".
If it is "readable" in Inbox, the copy in Sent is also "readable". If you delete the copy in Sent, the one in Inbox remains "readable".

2- If you tap on the e-mail in the Sent folder first, it will always (so it seems) be "readable". If you then tap on it in the Inbox folder, it will be "readable" there as well.

If you delete it from Inbox, the copy in Sent will become "bad".
If you delete it from Sent, the copy in Inbox will remain "readable".

So basically the bottom line is this:

If you send an e-mail to yourself and it ends up showing "message cannot be displayed" when you open it in Inbox, go to the Sent folder and delete the copy in there. That should make the one in Inbox readable.

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134 replies

Silkq

Level 1

4 points

Nov 20, 2020 10:51 AM in response to SP-ALB

I just tried this and it didn't help. I'm getting the message "This message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted..." on every email I send from my new iPad Air 4 with the automatic bcc setting activated. This is happening to original emails as well as my replies to other incoming emails. However, my emails are being received by others, and the text is partially displayed in the preview panel.

The alert message advises me (as the sender) to "send it again using a different format or email program" but I don't see any relevant settings options in IOS that can be adjusted by the user. I also noted that at the bottom of the alert message it cryptically says "text/plain".

Grrr.

Nov 20, 2020 2:34 PM in response to Silkq

How easy would it be for Apple ,who are hopefully/ presumably monitoring this site , just to say “guys don’t worry about this , we know about it and will fix with next upgrade”. ?

common sense customer relations you would think !!

Nov 22, 2020 8:38 AM in response to lwalton

This worked for me

Here is an iPhone Email Tip that will hopefully save you some frustration:

When reading your email with your iPhone, have you ever got the following message?

"This message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted. Ask the sender to send it again using a different format or email program. Multipart/Alternative"

If this happens to you, you can work around the problem by first deleting your message. Then go find the message in your trash and move the message back to your in-box. You should now be able to read the message properly.

Apparently this was an issue with iOS 3. It was fixed in iOS 4. Unfortunately the bug seems to be back again in iOS 5.

Dec 12, 2020 8:02 AM in response to page145

Yes, me 2! I have been calling about this problem ever since iOS 14 came out. Thought it would be fixed in iOS 14 1 or 14.2, but is was not. They claim to NEVER have heard of this issue!! Not believing that! Happens randomly as someone said . Very annoying to put in Trash and move back which sometimes works and sometimes not. Sometimes I do it over and over. This is in my end only both in Sent mail and my blind copies. However recipient seems to get the email just fine. APPLE, PLEASE FIX THIS PROBLEM!! Happens on ALL IOS MAIL DEVICES.. iPhone , iPad!!!!!! Stop SAYING IT DOESN'T EXIST!!!!

Dec 27, 2020 10:29 AM in response to SP-ALB

Thanks for sharing this work around - it has worked for me. I wonder if there is a way to fasttrack deleting all emails then reinstating? This is definitely an Apple problem that is only occuring on my Apple iPhone - as I’ve checked my webmail and my non Apple laptop and there are no issues there.

Cosy25

Level 1

4 points

Apr 16, 2021 3:58 AM in response to Johnnybell56

That just about sums it up. Apple direct you here to find solutions from other people but the problem is really theirs to solve as they have created it. As their OS is such a closed system no other outside Tech person can get access to find a solution. It needs someone from Apple to read and act on these comments and find a solution.

page145

Level 1

4 points

Nov 19, 2020 7:29 AM in response to Tom_Boycott

Same problem here. No change with 14.2. Occurs randomly when trying to cc links to my iPhone 8. Links appear OK on same email on iMac.

Nov 19, 2020 11:19 PM in response to SP-ALB

Did it work for you? I seemed to lose the message completely when I tried. That was about 2014?

Tenney99

Level 1

4 points

Nov 20, 2020 5:14 AM in response to SP-ALB

Moving it to trash and then back to my In box also worked for me. I have an iPad Pro on 14.1. The problem does NOT occur on my iPhone 8 Plus. (Also on IOS 14.1)

Nov 20, 2020 5:34 AM in response to Tenney99

I have an iPhone 8 and an iPad Air 2 and they both have this problem but only intermittently. Maybe just every 20 emails. Both have been upgraded to 14.2.

Siouxb57

Level 1

8 points

Nov 21, 2020 10:49 AM in response to lwalton

I’ve had same happen and found a solution someone suggested ages ago...delete the message then go to bin and move back to inbox...hey presto message displays properly!

Nov 22, 2020 3:30 PM in response to hamidfromcape town

I can’t believe it’s still happening with IOS 14.2 !!!🤯

Dec 13, 2020 5:22 PM in response to lwalton

Same problem on IPAD Pro running 14.2. Deleting then moving the message back to the inbox at least made the message readable.

Dec 18, 2020 7:38 AM in response to danfrommequon

Does sound easier! I just set my phone to shake and sent a few emails....of course they both displayed in my always copy myself...lol..i will keep trying till i get one! Thanks for the suggestion!

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