Q: Remove attachments in Mail

The update works for me too. Not a year too early.

Doesn't fix the problem for me.

Unbelievable: it worked for me initially and now does not work: did Apple roll back the update?

Does it still work for you? I am unable to delete the attachments now.

The upgrade was a mixed bag for me, as far as being able to remove attachments from "Sent" messages. I found that quite a few of my Sent messages with attachments suddenly showed up with the Paper Clip in the Attachment column, and those I could select and choose "Remove Attachments." But other Sent messages, especially older messages, even those with multiple attachments, did not display the Paper Clip and for those messages, the menu option "Remove Attachments" was greyed out and I could not remove those attachments. I don't know why some messages could be separated from their attachments and others have some sort of attachment disorder, but it seems like maybe from here on, the problem may be solved.

This "feature" (Remove Attachment) has been essentially disabled (grey) since I installed Mavericks and that includes the recent Mail update. This inability is not only for emails that I sent but for the many(!) emails that I receive that have attachments. I get my email fromn a university server running Exchange. This is not a gmail problem.

I'm still experiencing the problem now and then. Today I discovered something interesting.

I have two messages lying around in my Sent box, since their attachments cannot be removed. I just got an answer to one of them, and suddenly I could remove the attachment from the original sent message. The other message, still unanswered, cannot be relieved from its attachment. There seems to be some connection here - or was it just coincidence?

I know this is a user forum, but if Apple means anything with their usability image, someone should monitor this conversation (and others) for input to problem solving and product enhancement. Hey, Apple?

And the same thing just happened with the other message. I got a reply to that, too. When I, in turn, had sent my reply (so that there were two messages in a thread in my Sent box), I was free to remove the attachment from the original message.

So, one way to be sure (?) would be to send BCC to yourself, and then reply to that incoming message. That would probably "unlock" the Remove Attachments command. I'll try that the next time and see what happens.

I tried your suggestion and it did not work. I have had this problem since the introduction of the new, improved Mail. I cannot "Remove Attachments" in any (logical) systematic way. Occasionally I am offered the opportunity - actually I have to check - and then I clean out the stack of attachments that have accumulated. But the service is spotty. Weird! Sigh.

I've just run into the same issue with Apple Mail 7.3 in the Exchange account. When I sent this same message to my iCloud account, I was able to "remove attachment" from the same exact message in the iCloud account in the same exact Apple Mail application. So, this has something to do with the type of email account - the Message > Remove Attachment menu item is not grayed out in the iCloud account in Mail, but it is grayed out in the Exchange account.

This problem is still not fixed in Yosemite. In fact, now it is even worse. The list view doesn't even recognize many of the attachments in the messages. This is not a complicated programming problem. The attachments are clearly detected in the rendering of the messages. Just fix it already Apple. It's been broken since 10.7.

Yes, it's definitely time to address this problem, Apple.

One "solution" that always works for me is to move the message with the attachment from my IMAP Sent box to any local mailbox, and then back again to any IMAP mailbox. After this, any attachments are always removable. For me. Which doesn't mean it works for everybody. But it might be a tip to try.

Edit: spelilng

Clearly haven't read through all 6 pages of old posts, but for me, as apparently for others, the problem was related to the well known bug of the paper clip icon displaying for messages with attachments. Credit is not to me, but I'm too lazy right now to look for the original solution, so reproduced here without credit (and doesn't involve moving messages):

1) Create a rule where <Any attachment name> <contains> <"."> [include the quotes] and have the rule's only action be <Mark as Read>;

2) Apply the rule to the messages in question (Message > Apply Rules);

3) Remove attachments.

Thanks GAZ8 for being simple, clear, and concise. I am still using Mountain Lion. This issue has bugged me for some time. Finally, a helpful workaround.

I really appreciate the help in creating this rule in Mail.app. I'd never done a "rule" before. I've had this problem with inability to "remove attachments" in the Sent folder ever since upgrading to Yosemite, three months ago. Mail is a lot more buggy than it was in Snow Leopard, which I'd clung to for years -- it was a really solid OS; Yosemite has a lot more bugs! Now (with this rule) I'm free of this problem with Mail. THANKS!!