Impossible to drag mail attachment from mail if it is a 1-page PDF

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Level 1

15 points

Impossible to drag mail attachment from mail if it is a 1-page PDF

I get invoices in my mailbox very often and they are usually 1 page PDF files (of course not only invoices). There are usually some signature files in those emails, and using the Save all button is not very practical as have to remove the clutter afterward.

But I can't drag pdf from viewing email to my invoices folder because it drags some interloc thing instead of the file. This sometimes happens even if I want to drag a simple jpg from mail!

I suspect this is because of this new useless ability to select text over jpg and other files but even if I think I had this disabled it still doesn't allow me to simply drag the file.

With brilliant Quicklook I honestly prefer to be able to just have files as icons ALWAYS and then I drag or preview depending on what I need. I struggle with this for years now - is there really no way to implement "Always display attachments as icons" in the Mail app?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Oct 11, 2022 11:33 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

67,288 points

Oct 13, 2022 2:47 AM in response to cgartists

Besides dragging, there are other ways to save attachments, and that may at least serve as a workaround: control-click, Save Attachment (which can actually be seen in P. Phillips' first post above) will do, and it will remember the last chosen location (or you can just drag the title of the open Finder window over the save dialog to quickly get the desired folder); similarly, you can hover near the line separating the header from the message, and save from there:

(FWIW, I have no trouble dragging one page pdfs, but if I had I would use one of the above)

And then there is this:

"Of course, the never fixed disability of Mail when sending images in email and almost everyone getting them having problems with using them would be a dream come true if it was fixed as well."

I don't know what this means exactly. I have sent thousands of e-mails with attachments of many sorts over the years, to mac and pc users, and never had any trouble.

If you mean that you want people to see them in a certain way (like inside the mail, or as an icon), the short answer is "you can't", no matter what program or OS you use. The receiving e-mail program will do what it will do, you can force it from afar.

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Answer 2

PRP_53

Level 10

91,201 points

Oct 13, 2022 1:58 AM in response to cgartists

Emphasis with your computer situation but as we All are only fellow Users - there is little we can actually do about what Apple has done or will do

Then have a few suggestions ;

1 - Get Support Choose a product and we’ll find you the best solution.Start now and open an Apple Support Ticket as they are Apple Employees to deal will these types of issues .

2 - Product Feedback - Apple and make it known to Apple regarding this ongoing issue

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Answer 3

cgartists Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 12, 2022 11:18 PM in response to PRP_53

Thanks for the replies!

Viewing files as icons in composing view is ok but it is not an issue for me. I think at some point in previous macos versions I actually already did that.
What is problematic is the viewing of one-page pdfs in emails. I can't reproduce this error now but it happens sometimes - maybe it is a matter of how the pdf was made. Anyways I'd love to have the ability to just say Hey Apple Mail please display all attachments as icons. As simple as that - it would even make using Mail more responsive and pleasant. Going to another email and back as a workaround I will test but it is not a solution to the problem. Also this affected JPGs with text but since I disabled that wretched live text it is now problematic only with one-page PDFs.
Of course, the never fixed disability of Mail when sending images in email and almost everyone getting them having problems with using them would be a dream come true if it was fixed as well. But let's face it - Apple seems more focused on other things than what people complain about for over 10 years ;) Maybe they don't send JPG with email and they don't see the problem but believe me it would be handy to be able to send design previews to clients as JPG instead of via wetransfer because in most cases people just didn't see them in messages. But that is another issue.

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Answer 4

PRP_53

Level 10

91,201 points

Oct 12, 2022 3:23 AM in response to cgartists

" "Always display attachments as icons" - that specific feature is available for Composing a New e-mail.

As for Received e-mails with File Attachments - never have any issues " Drag and Drop" from the e-mail to Desktop

refer to below

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Answer 5

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,206 points

Oct 12, 2022 5:00 AM in response to cgartists

It does make it difficult. I have found you can get fairly good success by clicking and dragging without first selecting the PDF.

Once you select the PDF, you start selecting the text. If that happens, go to a different email and back, then try immediate click and drag.

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Answer 6

cgartists Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 13, 2022 10:36 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Hi - thanks for this.

All my life I never clicked attachment like this as I was 100% sure it will open the file instead of saving it.

Dragging PDFs doesn't always work so until the option to display all files as icons is there I will use this solution as it it new to me and it seems like a decent replacement of that basic drag problem. And probably works for images as well. I will use this way for now - thank you Luis Sequeira1

As for the sending of images possibly our receipents are different - I had so many situations of replied "I didn't get attachment" simply because image was inline at the end of message below their viewer area.... I just gave up sending them in mail :/ It seems so hard to scroll down for people that they don't see them...

If you use Outlook or Thunderbird you can add images inline or attach and this works - in Mail you can't send image files properly as it inlines them and even if you get files you get a mess of an email where all images and files are mixed at the end of message unevenly and scattered. Seriously if you want to tell me that it is in any way better solution than displaying things in an organised way then you're more orthodox Apple believer than I am ;) This I can't justify myself and would still want to see done properly.

I did report feedback as P. Phillips suggested - thanks.

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Answer 7

Oct 13, 2022 11:20 PM in response to cgartists

I only use plain text e-mail. An attachment is an attachment, there is no information conveyed about it being "inline", or whatever.

Perhaps you prefer "rich text" e-mail, and that is of course different.

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Answer 8

JamieOx

Level 1

4 points

Nov 11, 2022 10:56 PM in response to cgartists

I’m with you on this – I’m surprised that nobody else is complaining! Sometimes they drag as they should; sometimes they drag but the resulting filename is "Unknown.pdf"; sometimes you get the .inetloc file; sometimes the image under your mouse pointer as you drag goes way too big and you can't see what you're doing; sometimes dragging just doesn't do anything and things freeze up. It’s so annoying, because it *should* be the quickest way of saving an attachment in many cases.

Have you got the following switched off? System Preferences > Language & Region > Select Text in Images

(I'm with you on the 'inline' thing – I prefer the way Outlook works, where you can drag an image into the body of an email OR drag it into an attachments area)

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