Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Ipad2 won't open attachments in mail app

I have an iPad 2 on 5.0.1. I am unable to open photos, docs or PDF files that are sent to me via email. These same files open fine on my iPhone and Mac.


On the iPad the attachments have an arrow on them. One click on it and a fast wheel spins but nothing opens. A click and hold does nothing.


What am I missing here?

Posted on Dec 4, 2011 12:53 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Dec 4, 2011 12:57 PM

Try to press Home button 2 times, (you'll open the multitask bar)

- press the Mail icon for 3 seconds and then, press the ➖ button.

- Open the Mail app again.


If this don't work, try to power off, then on your iPad.

18 replies

Apr 27, 2012 8:48 AM in response to Steve Rawley

To all posters above. Go into your problem email accounts via the web browser, forward the problem emails to another account (if you have one), and then delete them from your current Inbox (and eventually from your Sent folder). Now do a Reset of your iPad and try sending them back to yourself again to see if they register and open!

May 29, 2012 2:15 PM in response to Diavonex

How about something really crazy and unheard of?


I have two email accounts with Google Mail. Both are the only ones set up in the Mail app inside my iPad2. One would load everything: .jpeg, .docx, .pdf, and everything. The other would not.


I tried hard reset multiple times, deleting both email accounts and hard resetting. I cut all processes using SBSettings and killed all processes related to mail. So I have nothing running now, and I deleted all of the readers (Adobe Reader, Goodreader, Doc to Go, Quick Office), and other apps I had added.


Now I have nothing running and no apps installed.


Then I set up mail again from the bottom, as if the iPad came in the mail today. One gmail account still automatically opens and previews .jpg attachments, and show .doc, .pdf attachments with their respective icons. THE OTHER GMAIL ACCOUNT IN THE SAME iPAD MAIL APP DOES NOT OPEN THE SAME MESSAGES I HAVE FORWARDED TO BOTH. I would see an arrow pointed down in the icon inside that "faulty" mail account, and the name of the attachment below the icon. I have pressed my finger a gadzillion times on those icons, only to see the spinning wheel briefly and nothing. Holding them down would do nothing, and i can't open in other apps.


The wackiest thing is... when I hit forward (by tapping the curved arrow at the top), I get a drop-down choice list: "INCLUDE" and "DON'T INCLUDE" attachments. When I tap on INCLUDE, .jpg files immediately load and show in the reply message, only two of four .pdfs load and open, but no .docx attachments would.


How would we be supposed to troubleshoot or fix something like this?

Jun 7, 2012 4:37 AM in response to Steve Rawley

This is an easy "fix".


It seems that the Ipad (unlike the iphone?) hides the part that tells you the message is only part downloaded. I guess this is because there is so much more real estate on the ipad, whereas on the iphone if you have 4 or 5 attachments then you need to scroll upwards to read the message?


If you scroll the message upwards with a flick of your finger in the body bottom to top you'll find a dotted line that was hidden and a button that tells you that the message was only part downloaded, and press to download whole message.


Do that and your attachments will appear quite happily. Note: You may need to do twice to get the whole message - unsure why.


Not therefore a bug, more a feature.


J

Jun 7, 2012 6:09 AM in response to JustinFielder

Found what it was... It was a bug, not a feature. I aleady flicked to the bottom, pulled at the top to refresh, tried shrinking to the smallest or enlarging the message to the maximum zoom. Nothing worked.


What I would see is a little flicker of the attachment icons in the message. They would not convert from rectangular icons with downward pointing arrows and the name of the attachment spelled below the arrows. They should be rectangular icons with blue large print PDF or DOCX, instead of arrows.


I tried everything, even standing upsidedown and going monkeys and bananas with it. Nothing worked.


I finally found it was the AFC2ADD tweak that was missing. By going through installed packages in my iPhone, I started with the first letter of the alphabetical order. Oddly, Afc2add isn't supposed to have anything to do with the attachments, but it fixed everything.

Jun 10, 2012 4:30 AM in response to Buckaroo25

What is AFC2ADD ? Where an I find it on the iPad? Is it a function in the general settings or mail settings.

Have you sent this fix to apple? This problem makes the mail app useless as a serious business tool. Apple just don't seem to get this. The rest of the world use attachments across multiple platform to move files around.


Please expnd on your fix.


You are a star.


Bruce R

Ipad2 won't open attachments in mail app

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.