Apple Intelligence is now available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac!

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

How to remove attachments in Mail?

I like to keep old mail messages. But I don't need all the attachments, which are often space-consuming photos.


How do I delete the attachments from a mail message?


I used to be able to do this - but now the option seems to have gone, or gone somewhere I can't find it.


Is it still possible to delete attachments from a mail message - without deleting the whole message? If so how?


I am on Mac OS Big Sur Version 11.2.1.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Feb 21, 2021 8:56 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 22, 2021 6:05 AM

Thanks for clarifying it.


I did some additional research and I found that:

  1. The issue is not recent: Some users have been noticing it back in High Sierra
  2. The problem is only occurring on POP accounts.


You might find this discussion interesting: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251663017

Similar questions

9 replies

Feb 21, 2021 10:28 AM in response to 6x6

Thank you, that's helpful. It works for the first message in an email trail.

Sometimes people reply and keep the attachments attached. In this case the "remove attachments" is greyed out when I select the message.

As you see, on the right is the message I've selected. You can tell it's selected because it has the blue frame round it. It has two attachments.

When I click the "message" tab, the "remove attachments" is greyed out. Any ideas?

Feb 21, 2021 11:45 AM in response to Alizarine

I'm puzzled. I just tried with 2 email accounts I have, and in the reply, Remove Attachments was not grayed out (see screenshot below) either when the email was selected from the inbox list or when the email was opened as a separate window.


Could you clarify what you meant by "As you see, on the right is the message I've selected. You can tell it's selected because it has the blue frame round it."?




Feb 22, 2021 4:05 AM in response to 6x6

Thank you very much for investigating. I appreciate your interest in my issue.


You ask

Could you clarify what you meant by "As you see, on the right is the message I've selected. You can tell it's selected because it has the blue frame round it."?"


I meant that the message on the right was the one that I clicked on. It's essentially the same scenario as in the screenshot you sent. Except that in your screenshot the "remove attachments" is not greyed out.


Here's another screenshot. The message I've selected has 14.4MB of attachments, as you see circled in red. But when I click the "Message" tab, the "remove attachments" is greyed out. This email account is a POP account. It is not my iCloud account, which I rarely use.



Feb 22, 2021 6:17 AM in response to 6x6

Thank you!

Oh dear. So I will need to move my account to IMAP.


I've had this account for decades. I use my tens of thousands of stored and backed-up emails as a "memory" of people and events.

Some time ago I investigated ways of moving the account from POP to IMAP without losing my database of emails, and keeping my current email address. It seemed like a long-winded and error prone process, so I didn't want to do it.

Perhaps it's time to have another look at how to do it.


Many thanks for your help and for investigating this problem.


How to remove attachments in Mail?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.