Can’t open attachments in Gmail

Probably you are using the Gmail app to which I have no answer because I do not use the app.

Please configure Gmail on the iOS Mail app.

Add an email account to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

1. Go to Settings > Mail, then tap Accounts.
2. Tap Add Account, then select your email provider.
3. Enter your email address and password.
4. If you see Next, tap it and wait for Mail to verify your account.
5. If you see Save, tap it.

Add an email account to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

You could check that your Internet Connection is working and available, for instance to the Safari App, which might want to open (for instance) your pdf.

To test mine, I like to point Safari at "youtube.com" and see if it can play a video. In my case the problem is usually that I have set "Settings > Cellular > Safari" to off to save on data, and then gone out of WiFi range :-(

You could search for a .pdf web page in Safari, and try to open the link.

I have just tested it on my iPhone 16 running iOS 18.2, and it opens fine, but I don't know what it would mean if it can or can't, but you might be somewhat further forward.

I havn't got the Gmail App on my devices, so I can't check.

As a workaround, it looks as if the user could manually forward any problematic Gmails to his mail app. Any attachments should then follow automatically, and should be capable of being opened from their.

Although it is deep in the heart of the settings, a Gmail account can even forward every received email automatically, although I don't remember an option to do this only for emails with an attachment.

I am new to apple and struggling a bit. I have even been asking ChatGPT to help me out. It is (usually) right.

I am trying to learn to use my Apple properly myself and at the same time introduce my 102 year old Mother to the delights of an Apple tablet.

However, it seems quite difficult to know how best to set this up. No one seems to know how many (useful?) settings there are. Chat GPT just says "hundreds", and that does not include what it says are the 1,730,906 Apps any of which might (or might not) be useful !!!