Mojave Mail.app no longer displays images while composing

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120 points

Mojave Mail.app no longer displays images while composing

Using Apple's Mail.app V12.4 running Mojave V10.14.6...

While composing a message, I used to be able to drop photos, screen grabs, etc. into the message and then view them in context. As of recently, only the icon of the file (named "Pasted Graphic-1.png" in the case of a ScreenShot) appears in the message editing pane.

I have tried, based on another post I read here,...

Quitting Mail

In Terminal, entering

$ defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing 0

$ defaults read com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing

0

Launching Mail

...to no avail. Mail still shows only icons in the Composing pane.

If I Save the message, then select it* in the Message List of the Message Viewer, the Preview Pane shows the images. However, if I double-click on the message in the Message List, the Editing window opens up showing the file icons, no images. I can move them around, but I cannot see the result until I save, then go look* in the Message Viewer window to see my results.

I'd appreciate suggestions for further research.

--Gil

- the Message List does not update immediately. To kickstart it, I select another message, then select back. It's after I select back that the images appear.

Posted on Dec 27, 2020 4:23 PM

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Answer 1

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Gil Dawson Author

Level 1

120 points

Jan 2, 2021 9:31 AM in response to Gil Dawson

Well, son-of-a-gun! It's working now.

I'm not sure why. Couple days ago, I found and studied https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5693109,

which led me to a file named

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

which I opened with BBEdit. Inside, I found inside these two lines:

<key>DisableInlineAttachmentViewing</key>

<true/>

Eschewing caution, I changed the second of these these two lines...

<key>DisableInlineAttachmentViewing</key>

...and Saved the file.

My test run immediately thereafter...

Quit Mail

Reboot machine,

Launch Mail

Open New Mail Message

Paste a picture into the Message area

...indicated that my change had done nothing.

(Instead of the picture, an icon of its file appeared in the Message pane.)

However, now two days later it's working as I had expected.

(The picture itself appeared in the Message pane.)

Glory be.

--Gil

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Answer 2

Gil Dawson Author

Level 1

120 points

Dec 28, 2020 8:33 AM in response to Gil Dawson

Another, older MacBook Pro running El Capitan does not exhibit this behavior.

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Mojave Mail.app no longer displays images while composing

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