When I receive an e mail with a PDF file attached it shows as a .DAT file. I have Adobe Reader installed. Why is this happening and how can I correct it?
iPad 2
The emails are probably being sent to you in rich text format : http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1506 . One option is to get the sender to re-send them in a different format, or there are some apps in the app store that cope with winmail.dat files.
Below is a link that explains .dat files. And i have extracted the key of interest.
"Winmail.dat files contain formatting information for Rich Text (RTF) messages sent from Microsoft Exchange Server; they are added to the end of e-mails when a recipient's e-mail client does not support RTF messages; the Winmail.dat file is not useful to users that do not use Outlook or Exchange Server to retrieve their mail."
http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/dat
So basically, the attached files are useful for the particular application that created them, but are not of much use otherwise.
In the pc world, i would sometimes open them in notepad, just to see what was there, and generally, nothing of value.
If pdfs are coming through labeled as dat files, i think that is a problem on the senders end. Or pssibly ( but i would not bet on it) your mail providers end. I thought everybody supported pdf.
Is this all pdfs or just from a particular sender? It may be that the particular version of pdf is not recognized by his sending server? Ask the sender if he has any alternate save options for the pdfs and see if thise come through better.
There is nothing in the mail app or ios that would change an extension type.
Cannot open attachments
