How can I prevent mail attachments embedding when sending mail

The one that I am aware of is a paid app; about $15 called 'Attachment Tamer'

This article (linked to by others before me) details it's use:

http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_control_your_attachments_mail

http://lokiware.info/Attachment-Tamer

Looks pretty comprehensive, thanks for the info!

This works. Try it.

In my case, I wanted my images encoded as base64 and inline... not as an attachment.

Create a new email in Apple Mail. Address it to yourself and give it a subject. Drag an image into the body of the message. Don't click the attach button just use the drag and drop method. Send it.

Now do the same thing with another email except this time. Type something in the body, then drag an image into the body.

Open both emails you receive from yourself and view the source, side by side.

If an image is in the first thing in the body of an email it will be encoded inline as base64 other wise, it is plain text.

Using the "Attach" button makes sure that the image is always encoded properly in the body no matter where it is. When I drag an image into the email (or in my case I was having Applescript do it for me) if there was anything before the image in the body, the image would not be encoded properly for MMS/SMS.

Why is this important? If you want to send and SMS/MMS via email, the image must appear first or it is stripped out. This may also be important for other email services as to how they treat embeded content.

Hi there BITCRUSH3R. I tested your right click idea (with settings set to Rich Text) and it it works, BUT only to gmail! To my pc running outlook, it shows a stunted icon which when you try to save is a bmp. I also spent over 30 mins speaking to various Apple helpline people who could only suggest switching to plain text, which is too limiting to be a long term solution.

I do agree with the other posts, that Apple should look more seriously at this since it seems to be affecting so many customers for such a long period of time - the above posts were all from mid 2011 and for the issue to still be around in early 2013 is madness!

Not happy! 😟

I do agree with the other posts, that Apple should look more seriously at this since it seems to be affecting so many customers for such a long period of time

Have you ever considered suggesting to Microsoft that they fix their products: http://www.email-standards.org

Thanks for the link Barney and please don't assume that I am knocking only Apple.

My point is this: if Lokiware have been able to create a solution that works from within Mail on the Mac, how come so many people are defending Apple, saying that it is Microsoft's problem? As usual it takes 2 to tango and while the big boys ignored each other (and their customers!) someone else popped up and created a solution - on the Mac.

But we now have to pay extra to a 3rd party, for something that is so fundamental that it should never have been allowed to happen in the first place! My humble opinion. Or have I missed something?

I am a recent convert to Apple, but that does not mean they have got everything right. Take Finder for example, compared to Windows Explorer it is poor in terms of customer control (regardless of how good it's background indexing is etc etc). However, Pathfinder have made an alternative that is better than both Finder and Windows Explorer put together and some!

Re your question about suggesting Microsoft fix their products - hmmm not sure I have enough time for that 😉

But we now have to pay extra to a 3rd party, for something that is so fundamental that it should never have been allowed to happen in the first place! My humble opinion. Or have I missed something?

You don't have to pay extra. Personally, I could care less that they can't read my attachments. If they complain, I tell them to get a better email client.

I am a recent convert to Apple, but that does not mean they have got everything right. Take Finder for example, compared to Windows Explorer it is poor in terms of customer control

I can't stand Windows Explorer. The path list on the left keeps sliding around thinking I want to look at something else when I scroll it to where I want. If I change something somewhere, I have to refresh the window to see what changed.

As to the Finder, I don't spend that much time moving my files around, so it serves its minimal purpose well.

Thats fine if its their personal computer, but in a business world most people can't change email client, its down to the IT department, who might have no desire to change.

You cant turn round to a client and say tough you cant have this attachment.

At the end of the day it doen't matter who is write or wrong it just needs to work for the end user

It does work for the end user. The end that is not using the buggy Outlook software.

I also understand the limitations of the email standard. Expecting your email to display anything like you composed it is not guaranteed at all by the standard. Expecting it to do so is a pipe dream. Depending on it to do so really isn't very smart if your livlihood depends on it.

I just found an easy solution at the following URL: http://www.macworksinc.com/quick-tips/make-all-apple-mail-attachments-an-icon-wi th-terminal/

Go to the folder applications/utilities/terminal.app

When the terminal prompt appears type or paste the following to turn the inline Mac Mail images off and just show an icon: defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool yes and then hit the "Enter" or "Return" key on your keyboard.

If you want to turn the inline images back on, then repeat the process, but type (or copy): defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool no when the terminal application opens, then hit "Enter" or "Return" on your keyboard. It's that simple. Thanks to Macworksinc for this wonderful quick tip.

That only affects how the email is viewed on your mac, it has no effect on how the recipient sees the email

Kevin Neal wrote:

That only affects how the email is viewed on your mac, it has no effect on how the recipient sees the email

Nothing affects how the recipient sees the email except the recipient's email client.

Ive been having the same problem, any attachments are embedded in the email, ive been getting lots of responses from clients asking me to send the email again as an attachment. Ive tested an outlook account and when I send the email from mac mail it shows up in Outlook as a fuzzy little image embedded in the email.

Works fine from mac mail to mac mail, obviously there is some compatibility issues. Ive tried all of the suggestions from the numerous posts that go back years (obviously an issue thats been around for long time) including:

Plain text

Windows friendly attachments

Terminal - with the command to show attachments as icons

etc

Doesnt look good when I cant send an email with an attachment to a client, I am going to try Entourage to see if that works.

It is solvable. What version of OSX and Mail are you using?

Ernie

Hi

Im using mac mail Version 5.3

OSX version 10.7.5

Macbook Pro

thanks

matt