Preview not opening mail attachments

Hi. I had the same issue and was able to fix it by giving Preview full disk access in Apple Menu -> System Preferences -> Security and Privacy -> Privacy tab -> Full Disk Access then add Preview with the plus button after unlocking the padlock.

Hope this helps you,

dave

There is a thread open on this.

Cannot open attachments in Outlook after … - Apple Community

I would ask that you contact Apple via a bug report or use Feedback Assistant and if this is an Outlook issue, to also contact Microsoft.

The more folks who let them know, the quicker something may get fixed.

There is a workaround in that thread, but it is a PITA to manually open and close Preview and Word and Excel all day long ...

I am also having an issue opening attachments (pdf's) in Mail after i upgraded my intel MacBook to Big Sur 11.6.6.

Is there a work around as i tried changing the accessibly settings for Adobe in the security and privacy section in system preferences but had intermittent results, sometime the pdf attachment would open in mail but the next day the problem would re-occur.

Yup, I'm getting this issue in Apple Mail on 11.6.6 too. Dragging the file from Mail to the desktop and double-clicking opens the file correctly in Preview, but the file will not open when double-clicked in the Apple Mail window. Very tiresome, as the instruction to change permissions doesn't seem possible anywhere in Apple Mail settings.

Ok, a combination of dnasralla's and Warty1's bypasses work:

1. Give Preview full disk access in Apple Menu -> System Preferences -> Security and Privacy -> Privacy tab -> Full Disk Access then add Preview with the plus button after unlocking the padlock.
2. After viewing each attached pdf (or having got the error message) Quit Preview in any of the normal ways. (If you right click on the Preview icon, you will see it keeps a copy open of all viewed files, until you quit the app.)

That works, thanks. I had wondered about that solution, but had a assumed that because Preview could open the files once dragged to the desktop but NOT form within Mail, that the permissions issue was a Mail problem. Seems not ;0)

Give Preview full disk access in Apple Menu -> System Preferences -> Security and Privacy -> Privacy tab -> Full Disk Access then add Preview with the plus button after unlocking the padlock.

Exact same problem. And, I'm having the same issue with AirDrop. When I try to move my own photos from my iPhone to iMac I get the "you don't have permissions" message.

At least from the emails I can drag the files onto the desktop and they will open. I cannot find a work around for Airdrop since the message, but not the .png or .jpg files, move onto the iMac screen.

This is a new development. Sad ...

My hunch is that when they added all the security fixes in 11.6.6 (which were needed) they actually over did it a tad.

I know folks are probably tired of me posting this, but please file a bug report with Apple ... it's the only way to get their attention and prompt a fix to this mess.

Hi. I had the same issue and was able to fix it by giving Preview full disk access in Apple Menu -> System Preferences -> Security and Privacy -> Privacy tab -> Full Disk Access then add Preview with the plus button after unlocking the padlock.

Sorry to hear it ... report the bug please ... the more that do the better the chance Apple will do a fix. They are getting so geared up for the Developer Conference that this could fall between the cracks unless there is enough pounding ...

Like everyone here...same problem. I've made it worse by following advice on the Microsoft support site suggesting I had reached some mystical limit of downloaded attachments and I need to 'clean it out'. Well, I did, and it didn't help this Preview problem (which is annoying as Sin), and in the process have screwed up every email that I had saved from Outlook on my laptop. $!%^@@#!$#! I am so angry at both MS and APPLE.

Seems to be whenever you attempt to open a specific PDF file from inside another application (Mail, Outlook, iBooks..), then the error manifests itself

If I quit Preview then re-attempt it works for the the given PDF

If I try a different PDF then I may get the error again for that file; quitting Preview and reopening fixes it for that given PDF

Seems as if something is cached..

Saving the PDF to desktop and opening it with preview works every time

Having the same problem, too.

Over the years frequent solutions to mac problems' involved using Disk Utility- First Aid to repair permissions or trashing certain prefence files in Library. Does anyone know if anything along those lines might be appropriate here?

Try holding down Control while you click on the attachment in Mail and choose Quick Look Attachment. It's working for me. I can now open multiple pdfs, some of multiple pages, without quiting Preview in-between or dragging the attachments to the desktop..