After macOS Monterey 12.0.1 update my mail messages do not display any images

Completely unrelated mathematical topics don't belong in this discussion. Personally, however, I have no feeling about the abstract number 12.1. But if it means that macOS 12.1 will have the Protect Mail Privacy feature fixed so that remote content loads in the background, I'm all for it.

Hint, hint! Are any Apple developers listening?

Thanks for this. I was trying to figure out what i'd changed for the last few days and why they would make this automatic for everyone escapes me. Who wants to click download remote content every time when you receive 100's of emails a day?!?!

I unchecked all three options (Protect Mail Activity, Hide IP Address, Block All Remote Content) and restarted the Mail app. Still get the "Your network preferences prevent content from loading privately" message.

Any other suggestions?

Same question. I want to use Mail Privacy Protection but it does not work on my Mac. If the suggested "fix" is to turn it off....that isn't really a fix because then I don't have any protection. I assume a fix will be forthcoming, but it seems odd that MPP works on iOS but not on macOS.

I am surprised that Apple has not acknowledged this problem with Mail on the MacBook Pro (M1chip). I have been using Mail for a very long time (I eschewed MS Outlook).

I tried to fix the problem using the published suggestions. It worked once for about 5 minutes and then reverted back to not allowing me to view the attachment.

I found that Outlook did indeed allow me to open the attached documents. I also could use iCloud for my mail (on my Mac).

It is strange how iOS does not have this problem with Mail. I don't like using MS Outlook as my primary mail reader.

I don't think it's a Monterey problem, and here's my solution.

I've had Protect Mail Activity enabled for a while, with no issues. Today, I turned on my Avast Security app (virus protection that I disabled because it interfered with my VPN) and suddenly got the "Network preferences..." message in emails. So I went back to Avast and through trial and error, learned that their "Web Shield" is the culprit. I disabled that module, and Mac Mail is now working as it's supposed to.

So... maybe check your anti-virus apps?

[Edited by Moderator]

khungui,

I think you are correct. I am running Avast Business Antivirus, per my IT department instructions. I went into the webshield settings and added the imap name of Apple's me.com site for email.

I restarted the systems, and it now seems to allow me to see my attached mail files on the Apple Mail program.

It is weird that MS Outlook could read my Apple Mail documents all along this process. Only the Apple Mail program was affected in the downloading of attached files from my me.com mail. I am not sure why Avast affected Apple Mail and not MS Outlook for the reading of my mail files from the Apple site.

Thanks for the post!

Thanks VT, I'll try that.

There's a string on this topic at the Avast forum website. I'd post an url but I think that's forbidden; I found it by web-searching for "avast not working on M1 Monterey." Avast says they're working on it. Odd, though, that people are pointing at the email shield, not the web shield. Time will tell.

I believe it to be a problem with Avast. I changed the preferences in the program (see above) and it worked. Upon relocation to my office (restart of course) it reverted back to the same inability to use Mail properly.

I am not comfortable with turning off Avast. It is pretty much mandated by IT at my university.

My iPhone and iPad work fine with Mail. So does the iCloud site. It is just strange that Mail 15.0 and Monterey are affected on my computer (from Avast) and Safari with iCloud on the same Mac are fine.

So upgraded to Monterey 12.1 from Big Sur. I get this 'error' message at the top of each email. I have selected the Protect Mail Activity for the privacy benefits. Clearly a bug? I have the equivalent Protect Mail on my iOS 15 devices and the emails do load correctly. Something is inconsistent here.

On my Mac I have no VPN or antivirus software.

I loaded ver 12 weeks ago and had received messages last week that downloaded images/pictures in my email. Went back to look at a previous email and had to click the download button to see them. Don't understand what changed to cause this.

Update. Something changed, I don't know what. But now, having updated to OS 12.1, the latest version of Avast, and running Hotspot Shield VPN, everything is working. Avast is fully enabled; so are the Mac Mail privacy options.

But here's the weird twist: If I turn off VPN, I'm back to the old message about "Your network preferences prevent content from loading privately." Turning on VPN, I get one saying "Remote content was loaded through your current VPN configuration."

I usually have VPN running, so it's no hassle. Worth a try?

That is an interesting explanation but it is still a terrible user experience. Basically anything other than a personal or work related email, includes images as core to the content. Having to click that button 30-40 times a day or more is obnoxious. I've shut it off, but this required unchecking all the privacy options available. So there is no way, apparently to have any sort of privacy protection without this rather annoying blocking of images. Seems wrong to me.

I'm glad so many people solved their problem by disabling or removing Avast or Kaspersky or some other antivirus. But I don't have Avast or Kaspersky or any other antivirus and I still have that problem.

Specifically, the problem is that I do want Protect Mail Activity and I want it to load content remotely, but instead I get a message that content can't be loaded remotely and I have to load it myself, where the sender can see that I did it, so I'm not protected.

There must be another factor, not antivirus, that's causing the problem.

Same story here. I do not use any antivirus on macOS. I am glad for you that found a solution disabling or tweaking your AV options but there has to be something else here provoking the issue.

And as others have posted Mail works perfectly in iOS 15.2. It is just Monterey 12.1 where the problem shows