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How can I prevent mail attachments embedding when sending mail

In Lion when I send out an image - the recipients are receiving them as embedded images instead of simple attachments. I know in previous version of mail, having windows friendly attachments enabled solved this, but it doesnt seem to be helping in Lion mail.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 25, 2011 1:47 AM

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221 replies

Jul 26, 2011 1:55 PM in response to Seth Aronstam

I can confirm this is an Apple Mail problem. Apple mail is not sending as plain text. Even if you set the preferences for plain, it does not send the message as plain. This is reproducable and occurs with every mail client, on Windows and Linux, including Squirrel Mail. It is an Apple Mail problem, not the recipients mailer problem.


Apple, when will there be a fix? I rely on this mailer to send attachments several times daily. Now no one can see any attachment I send.


Thanks.

Jul 29, 2011 7:09 AM in response to Seth Aronstam

I experienced the same issue - the problem appears to lie with the "content-disposition" field in the message headers. Apple Mail always seems to set this to "inline", regardless of what settings you change ("View as Icon", "Windows-friendly", "Attachments at end" etc.) and, for some reason, Outlook users are unable to save these attached images files.


Finally, I discovered http://lokiware.info/Attachment-Tamer which is an add-on for Apple Mail and which can force the content-disposition field to "attachment" so the receiving Outlook client is able to save the attachments as normal. I have literally just been testing this myself and it seems to have done the trick.


I am in no way affiliated with Lokiware and do not gain in any way from promotion of their product - I'm just a very happy user!


C.

Jul 29, 2011 8:50 AM in response to Seth Aronstam

Seems fine at this end, received by Windows 7/Outlook 2007

I also have my messages set to insert attachment at the end of the message.

Apple suggest this on the help page that this may also be useful.


I remeber coming up against this a few years ago when I first started using Mail, but never go to the bottom of the reason why it happens. I just leave the settings on permanently as I never know what OS the mail is being received by.

Jul 29, 2011 9:27 AM in response to Jeremy Kinsey

When I was testing it a few years ago, I found that jpg and I think bmp files would embed into the email without the setting and would not allow windows users to save or open the attachment.

I don't remember the insert at bottom really doing anything except what it said. I tend to use this setting so when I compose messages all my test is together making it easier for me to read..


I tend to leave both settings on by default as I don't necessarily know what OS is receiving the messages, but also I haven't had any complaints for a few years either, so I presume it is working reliably for me.

Aug 12, 2011 3:14 PM in response to Seth Aronstam

I had this problem sending PDF files. When attaching the files they would allwas become embeded in the message body when all I wanted was a simple icon indicating that the attachment was present.


There is a really simple solution to this problem. Right click on the embeded graphic and select View as Icon and the embeded graphic is replaced with an icon.

How can I prevent mail attachments embedding when sending mail

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