Screaming.Pict
Level 1 (1 points)

Q: Mail.app- 'Remove Attachments' corrupting mails

I have a weird issue that I've not seen mentioned anywhere. Wondering if anyone can give me any debugging tips.

 

I'm using Mail 5.0 in Lion 10.6.1 (issue was occurring in 10.6.0 as well).

 

I have Mail connected to Exchange Server 2010.

 

I have a fairly tight restriction on mailbox sizes so I have to remove attachments from emails before I file them.

 

My problem is this; about 1 in 3 times I remove an attachment the 'replacement' e-mail is full of gibberish characters.

 

Typically if I look at the raw source of the e-mail then the text version of the mail is retained correctly- it seems to be the Base64 encoded version that is corrupted.

 

Any idea what I can do to debug this? I have tried removing the envelope files and removing/adding the account back in and re-syncing it but the issue has reappeared.

 

I've reported this to Apple on http://bugreports.apple.com but have not had a response.

 

Thanks in advance.

Unibody MacBook Pro 15" 2.8GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Aug 22, 2011 7:48 AM

by Rich In Space,Solvedanswer
Rich In Space Rich In Space
Level 1 (30 points)
A:

New insight:  I see now what Apple does wrong in its "Remove Attachments" command.

 

When they find a base64-encoded text/html portion in the original message they – for some reason – decide to decode it first. Then, after removing the attachment from the source, they write the decoded text version into the new message but leave the encoding headers intact, ie "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64".

 

I verified this by comparing original messages with those created after attachment removals that went berzerk. I haven't been able to verify if this is true for all base64 text/html messages with attachments however. Has any found any deviations from this?

 

Suggested solution (to Apple): Stop decoding any base64 parts of the original message. Just leave them as they are, and write them back into the new message with their original headers.

Posted on Feb 9, 2015 7:21 AM

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Screaming.Pict

Q: Mail.app- 'Remove Attachments' corrupting mails

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  • by manfid,

    manfid manfid Aug 23, 2015 3:17 AM in response to Screaming.Pict
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 23, 2015 3:17 AM in response to Screaming.Pict

    Hi,

    I have just downloaded the bar.scpt file in order to fix the problem of unreadable messages after deleting attachments earlier today ... but I do not know how to run a scpt file. Can anyone add a dummy description of what to do?? I have deleted several attachments and so I have the problem in several messages!!

    Thanks!

  • by Rich In Space,

    Rich In Space Rich In Space Aug 23, 2015 10:40 AM in response to manfid
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Aug 23, 2015 10:40 AM in response to manfid
    1. In “Script Editor” switch on the preference setting called “Show Script menu in menu bar” so that you can easily access any apple script file you have from the menubar.
    2. Move the bar.scpt file into the folder ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Mail so that it shows up in the AppleScript menu when you are inside the Mail application. If the folder doesn't exist, then create it.
    3. That’s it. From now on you can select any number of mail items in Mail that’s gone “bad” from attachment removals, and then choose to “clean” them by executing my script from the AppleScript menu. In order to see the changes you just need to deselect the mail items before viewing them again.

     

    Good luck!

  • by coxorange,

    coxorange coxorange Sep 18, 2015 12:14 PM in response to Rich In Space
    Level 1 (57 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 18, 2015 12:14 PM in response to Rich In Space

    I haven't read this whole thread, but I had a similar problem and found a "solution".

    (Sorry if this has already been discussed here.)

  • by Rich In Space,

    Rich In Space Rich In Space Sep 19, 2015 2:02 AM in response to coxorange
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Sep 19, 2015 2:02 AM in response to coxorange

    @coxorange  Yeah, I think you will the "solution" here much more useful. Feel free to download it, like more than 300 users have done now. It's on page 7 in this thread (marked with a star).

  • by Edward Tewkesbury,

    Edward Tewkesbury Edward Tewkesbury Oct 1, 2015 9:09 AM in response to Screaming.Pict
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 1, 2015 9:09 AM in response to Screaming.Pict

    So far, no corruption under El Capitan (10.11) when attachments are removed from emails that previously became corrupted when attachments were removed. I know we'd all love to know the experience of others.

     

    Fingers crossed,

    Ted

  • by 750 H2C,

    750 H2C 750 H2C Oct 7, 2015 3:15 AM in response to Screaming.Pict
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 7, 2015 3:15 AM in response to Screaming.Pict

    Hmm. I've bought a new computer. To be safe from old sins, I've made a clean install of El Capitan and I haven't used the Migration Assistant, I've made a manual transfer of necessary stuff.

     

    So far, I haven't experienced the problem with corrupted messages after removing attachments. Which feels kind of natural. But on the other hand, all settings I've made are the same as with my old computer. So, what was causing the problem?

     

    Or is it really so: has El Capitan finally solved the problem?

  • by Screaming.Pict,

    Screaming.Pict Screaming.Pict Oct 7, 2015 7:23 AM in response to 750 H2C
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 7, 2015 7:23 AM in response to 750 H2C

    Yeah- looks like after 4 years of pain Apple has woken up and actually fixed this one in El Capitan- I have already removed attachments from 3 e-mails that would previously have been corrupted 90% of the time, and no problems!

     

    Will wonders never cease?

  • by David Jenner2,

    David Jenner2 David Jenner2 Oct 7, 2015 8:05 AM in response to Screaming.Pict
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 7, 2015 8:05 AM in response to Screaming.Pict

    That's great and it appears to be working well for me too. I'm delighted Apple have fixed this, assuming they have done it intentionally and it's not a happy byproduct of other Apple Mail's code within 10.11. What saddens me is that they haven't acknowledged this in any release notes... Typically annoying!

  • by Mark Webber,

    Mark Webber Mark Webber Nov 27, 2015 8:33 AM in response to Rich In Space
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 27, 2015 8:33 AM in response to Rich In Space

    Thank you - this has fixed the problem for me too.

  • by maartenb56,

    maartenb56 maartenb56 Jan 5, 2016 6:45 AM in response to Mark Webber
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 5, 2016 6:45 AM in response to Mark Webber

    Hi all,

    The 'Rich in space' script saved me, too, and I also have seen no new occurrences under el Capitan.

    However, in filing my old mails I found some that were still corrupted. I tried to repair them with the script, but it appears the script no longer works.

    Could this be El Capitan changing some of the script's parameters?

    Thanks,

    M

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