iPhone 4 - Downloading attachments when sent from Outlook Mail

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iPhone 4 - Downloading attachments when sent from Outlook Mail

After receiving iPhone 4 few days ago, discovered that attachments in word, excel, powerpoint, pdf when sent using Microsoft Outlook email would not download to iPhone 4; they showed up as "winmail.dat". Solution: downloaded "Documents to Go Premier Office Suite" from Apps Store on iPhone 4; although it cost few $ to buy, it was well worth the cost.

Has anyone else had the same problem? Any other suggestions?

Dell Inspiron 1525, Windows 7

Posted on Feb 16, 2011 8:15 AM

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Answer 1

chip27

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Feb 28, 2011 12:51 PM in response to 2687neshanic

So Mail recognizes and opens Excel attachments now that "Documents to Go Premier Office Suite" is installed? Or do you have to save the attachment and then use the app mentioned above to open Excel attachments?

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Answer 2

Feb 28, 2011 1:09 PM in response to 2687neshanic

This is an Outlook problem entirely which Microsoft has known about for years - since the first Outlook version and refuses to do anything about. This means the sender using Outlook is using RTF for message composition and can also occur when using HTML for message composition and when the account is an Exchange account with the message sent by an Exchange Server, which isn't a problem when a recipient is also using Outlook but is a problem when a recipient is using any other email client besides Outlook.

http://www.pchell.com/support/winmaildat.shtml

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransportNeutral_EncapsulationFormat?wasRedirected=true

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Answer 3

chip27

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Feb 28, 2011 1:52 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Right, thanks for further explanation.
However, the weird thing is, one of my co-workers with the same model iPhone as me never has trouble (whether the email was composed as RTF or HTML or Plain Text - she is able to open all Excel attachments via Mail). I, on the other hand, can only open if the email was composed as HTML or Plain Text as you mentioned (otherwise they show up as winmail.dat)....

I'm hoping to figure out why hers works and mine doesn't. Another co-worker has the same issue but is using an iPhone 4, so the issue is not limited to the iPhone 3's or OS4.

My iPhone: 3G, v4.1
Her iPhone: 3G, v4.0

Any additional thoughts?

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Answer 4

Eave

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Nov 9, 2012 7:53 AM in response to 2687neshanic

I found a solution that worked for me. In Microsoft Office it was the autocomplete feature as you type in the email address you plan to send the email to. Type the first few letters and when the autocorrect pops up to complete the address don't let it. Right click on that address and delete it from the list. Then start a new email and type in the full address yourself. There you have it, no more winmail.dat.

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