Q: Remove attachments in Mail

I also had the problem of being unable to remove unwanted attachments to sent messages. I tried several of the workarounds in this post, including rebuilding the mailboxes. That seemed to "fix" a few of the messages (the attachments to those messages were then indicated by the paperclip icon and could be removed). But I've now found a relatively easy solution beyond exporting and reimporting messages. Try this:

1. In Mail, select all the messages in the Sent mailbox from which you want to remove messages. If you want, select all the messages in your Sent mailbox (or all the messages above a certain size).

2. From the File menu, select "Save As..." Save the messages to your desktop and later delete the saved file.

The mere act of saving the messages seems to "bring back" the attachments--a paperclip now shows with the number of attachments for each message (except, oddly, the first or last). Then, with the messages still selected, select the "Remove Attachments" option from the Messages menu (and, oddly, that command will remove the attachment(s) not only from the messages that were then marked with the paperclip but even from the one that wasn't).

Hope this works for other mystified Mail users...

Does not work for me. The only solution that works for me is to export and reimport the sent messages.

Hi revldc, the Save As tip did not work for me either. But selecting problematic messages together with at least one in which attachments are correctly recognized and then choosing Remove Attachments does work. Thank you!

I posted the "Save As..." suggestion as a way of revealing attachments to sent messages, which a couple of others have said doesn't work for them. I've gone back and tried it again on some remaining messages that have attachments (but no paperclip icon) and it didn't work initially for me either. It doesn't seem to work to save only one message, and I'm not sure how many it takes. But if I select several, including at least a couple with unseen attachments, and then save them, most of the ones with attachments will then show the paperclip. I may have to try several different saves, but eventually it will work (as it did for me so easily the first time). And as Adam Nohejl noted, if you've got several problematic messages selected and at least one has its attachments correctly recognized, then "Remove Attachments" can be selected and it does work. But so much for easy .

By the way, I'm using Mail 5.2 (1257) in OS X 10.7.3 on a 2.3 GHz i7 MacBook Pro with 8 Gig of RAM. I don't know if version or configuration matters for this solution to work (when it does!) Your mileage may vary...

Hi Adam

'Save as' doesn't work for me either, but your tip works!

I wonder, do you also experience the following (less irritating) bug: removing attachments from received mail causes the mail itself also to disappear. After selecting another postbox and then reselecting received mail the message reappears (correctly without attachment). Maybe these problems are related.

I get the disappearing problem as well, quite often, but not always. It's kind of unpredictable. You might find itm "less irritating", but I find it pretty serious myself. If you don't know that selecting another box and then the inbox again makes it reappear, you can find yourself looking at a list from which your message has disappeared altogether.

This crap is getting really tiring.

I finally have found two workarounds that work for me.

I assume that you have the same setup as me:

- IMAP Accounts

- Attachments from SENT mails cannot be removed

Workaround #1

- Go to another computer. I could successully remove all attachments from the sent folder on my laptop (that I sent from my desktop) and vice versa: If I sent the message from the laptop, I could remove the attachment from the sent folder on my desktop.

Workaround #2

- Move the offending message from one IMAP account to another one. As soon as the "new" mail has been downloaded into Mail, the remove attachment menu item is enabled.

- It is crucial that it's another IMAP account and not only another folder within the same IMAP account. If you move it within a folder only, it may work or may not.

I think this is an issue if the mail does not leave the computer. As soon as the mail is processed in some way (e.g. on a mailserver), the issue disappears.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Michael

Haha! #2 works fine for me! Thanks, this saved me the trouble of exporting/importing mailboxes.

Edit: Still, Apple should really do something about it.

Funny. #2 works for me too. Even with a POP3 account. I just move the message to another account(IMAP), then back to the original one (POP3) - just to keep things where they belong (you do not have to do it to remove attachments) and voila - I can remove attachments.

#2 does not work for me when moving a sent message from a POP3 account to my iCloud (IMAP) account. The attachment still cannot be removed.

Meanwhile Apple found a decent solution to this, I use a practical solution. Everytime you will send a message containing a big attachment, include your email direction in the blind copy line. Then you will recieve a copy of your mail in the inbox and there will be posible to delete attachments. Then you can delete the mail in the sentbox and archive the copy received.

It´s work but the problem is how to remenber this all the time. There are some rule o function to make this automatically?

Regards to all of you.

Thanks, #2 worked for me!

Now Mail 5.3 and this still isn't fixed??!!?

Mail 6.1 and not fixed :-(

Mail 6.2 and not fixed :-(