"Missing Plug-in" instead of image in incoming mail

Question

Level 1

27 points

"Missing Plug-in" instead of image in incoming mail

Recently, some mail has arrived with gray text reading "Missing Plug-in" where the image should be. The attachment size shows next to the paper clip, and I can use the Save button to save the image, and view it with Preview.

But when I try to cut and paste the saved image into an outgoing message, the same gray text appears instead.

Not all incoming mail behaves this way. I have not yet been able to determine if this is unique to a single sender.

Mac Pro (late 2008), Mac OS X (10.5.8), 4 GB RAM, 2 500 GB WD RE3 HD, 20 in CinDisp, 2 TB TM, iPhone 3G, iPad 32GB 3G

Posted on Mar 4, 2011 1:37 PM

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Answer 1

harv47 Author

Level 1

27 points

Mar 9, 2011 4:34 PM in response to harv47

This seems to have been due to some problems at the sender's end. I've seen no other instances of the problem.

"Closed pending reoccurrence." (A recurring phrase in an old software problem report.)

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Answer 2

KelKix

Level 1

5 points

Mar 24, 2011 3:23 PM in response to harv47

I am having the same problem, on some emails there will be a missing plug-in icon instead of the image. However I can open it in preview.

What gives?

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Answer 3

PittPaul

Level 1

15 points

Apr 3, 2011 6:02 PM in response to KelKix

Same problem. When I view an email containing an attachment in jpg, tif, gif, or png format, or a document in pdf or rtf format, I instead of seeing the picture/document inline in the text of the message, I see the text "Missing plug-in" where the picture/document should be. I can save the attachment via the Save button, so attachments aren't totally broken, just half-broken. This is not just on emails I send or just on recent emails, but whenever I view years-old emails from anyone with any of these types of attachment.

The problem sprang up since I did a software update yesterday. I'm now on Security Update 2011-001, and Java for Mac OSX 10.5 Update 9 - could one of those two be at fault?

This is a serious bug. How do I fix it?

I'm on Mac Mail version 3.6 (936)

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Answer 4

PittPaul

Level 1

15 points

Apr 3, 2011 6:14 PM in response to PittPaul

I found the solution to the problem at http://discussions.info.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11710121 . This worked for me:

*Applications / Utilities / Java Preferences / Restore Defaults / quit out of Java Preferences.*
*then quit Mac Mail, restart Mac Mail.*

null

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Answer 5

Apr 3, 2011 11:25 PM in response to harv47

Greetings All,

I've recently noticed the "Missing Plug-in" phenomenon too in Apple Mail (Version 3.6 (936)). I've tried resetting Java preferences by clicking the "Restore Defaults" button, but there's no change. Since I'm running Leopard 10.5.8 I didn't download the Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 2 at http://support.apple.com/downloads/. Is it okay to load this update if I'm running OS X 10.5.8? If so, I'll give it a try, but I don't want to attempt a fix if it's going to cause more problems.

I also went into Safari (Version 5.0.4 (5533.20.27)), into Preferences/Advanced and checked the Show Develop Menu in Menu Bar. I then went into Develop but found no Enable Extensions option. So that was a dead end.

I've checked my system for updates and everything seems to be up to date. However, I suspect that this just may be part of the problem. Sometimes things get fluky when updates occur. Strange how that is.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks!

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Answer 6

May 31, 2011 8:30 PM in response to PittPaul

This "missing plug-in" for images in RTF mail, both out and in bound, occurred for the first time today. Mail.app v4.5.

The "restore Java defaults" tip seems to have cured it.

Thanks!

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Answer 7

harv47 Author

Level 1

27 points

Jun 10, 2011 7:29 PM in response to PittPaul

This solution has been proposed before. It works for some, not for others. I'm in the latter category.

I've taken to saving the attachment to my desktop, and opening it from there.

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Answer 8

Aug 9, 2011 4:56 AM in response to harv47

Ditto here! Have all the latest updates and now cannot forward any jpeg images. Tried all the solutions in these posts and others and still get the very unhelpful "missing plug-in" message. Gee - if Mail knows it's missing, why

can't it at least say which one is needed and how to get it. But, then again, I notice that mail's help says that third party plugins are not supported by Apple for Mail under 10.6 and are removed with each OS 10.6 update. So, perhaps we need to revert to an earlier version of Mail that did support image forwarding.

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Answer 9

Sep 9, 2011 6:02 AM in response to harv47

I have found, that selecting other messages containing a kind of similar picture, shows the picture in that other message. If I switch to one or two other messages, then the message with the missing plug in gets OK and shows the picture correctly.

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Answer 10

harv47 Author

Level 1

27 points

Sep 9, 2011 8:28 AM in response to H.A. VERDUYN

So it somehow depends on some attributes of the attached picture? If you can get some information on the pictures (size, filetype, etc.) maybe we can move toward resolving this issue.

Thanks.

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Answer 11

Sep 9, 2011 9:30 AM in response to harv47

We use a picture of our logo's like this one:

Kind: Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)

Size: 8 KB on disk (5,958 bytes)

Dimensions: 164 x 80

Color space: RGB

and also a pased gragpic.tiif of 45 kb, which I am not allowed to upload here.

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Answer 12

aizu

Level 1

0 points

Dec 9, 2011 11:34 AM in response to H.A. VERDUYN

I have never found a solution to the "missing-plugin" problem. I need to see images in my email. What's the best replacement for Apple Mail?

I'll switch back when Apple fixes it.

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Answer 13

BDAqua

Level 10

239,225 points

Dec 9, 2011 12:42 PM in response to aizu

Do you have Perian installed?

http://perian.org/

What type of attachments are missing the plug-ins?

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Answer 14

Dec 9, 2011 1:43 PM in response to harv47

With me, the pluggin missing message appears only sometimes after I have sent a message and I get the cc to myself back. Then it appears. It is just a hickup of the app. When I close the main window and open a main window again, the image shows correctly. Another trick is selecting some other messages with graphics in them and then return to the message with the plugin missing. It shows correctly then.

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Answer 15

Sep 2, 2014 1:49 AM in response to PittPaul

Worked for me. Thanks very much.

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