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Mac Mail has problems to display HTML embedded images

Well Im new here , but have a real problem.

I create HTML pages with embedded images and send them off as MIME/multipart etc. mail through active server pages.

So far so good. All PC users see the mails with 2 embedded images at correct positions using windows e-mail .

However all Mac users receiving this mail have a problem, then MAC mail show embedded images just as a box , the 2 images become attachements of the email.

If a PC user forwards such a received HTML e-mail to a MAC user , the MAC Mail sees the 2 images are correctly displayed.


Thanks for hints and comments .

Posted on Feb 20, 2012 9:38 AM

Reply
12 replies

Feb 21, 2012 9:58 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks to picking it up. I will as next step compare the raw code and then comment on the findings.

Since I have no Mac I have to go to my friend in the village to see what/how he receives the mail, so it is a bit time consuming. Is there a standard dump utility on a Mac which allows me to dump the raw code of the received mail ?

Feb 22, 2012 6:09 AM in response to KDP529

Thks, for the hint. but that's the least problem.


I dumped on my PC the HTML mail with the embedded images as sent from the server (IN box) and compared it

with the dump after having it forwarded to the Mac (sitting in my 'sent' box) . Remember : Mac sees embedded images only when forwarded from PC and not as received from server.

When forwarding to the mac the windows mail

- 'beautifys' HTML a bit and sends it

- using Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable; (server default was : Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit)

- adds alternative plein text only body as Content-Type: text/plain; (server default was : none)


So I changed the server to

Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

additional body Text as Content-Type: text/plain

copy/past 'beautyfied' HTML body/code as body for server to send

and thought now I am identical and it must work

but same negative result : Mac shows images as boxes and attaches them.instead...!


So the only way is that I can inspect dumps on Mac side to compare server sent and PC forwarded

mail bodys.

So my question is does Mac have a program (and which - that mac user doesn't know low level stuff) to dump raw mailbody ?


Ufhh ...

Feb 22, 2012 1:26 PM in response to KDP529

I think all they have to do is View Raw Source in Mail, Select All, Copy then paste in a Text Edit Doc.


Small sample...


MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

boundary="b1_546369974fe0ba6472663ef07c93d97e"



--b1_546369974fe0ba6472663ef07c93d97e

Content-Type: text/plain; charset = "UTF-8"

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Feb 24, 2012 8:07 AM in response to BDAqua

Hello BDAqua


Thanks for the dump hint - I could use it.

Well I have not been able to track down the exact cause of the problem, but at the end I have succeeded to see the pictures even on the Mac. Initially , because I tested the HTML code against Safari/Foxpro/IE9 with success and the PC's received it as a mail perfect with the pictures , I ruled out the code.

After sending it with various different parameters for 7-bit coding , multipart/alternative; multipart/mixed, with and without alternative ascii-text body, etc. and having no change of the problem (in one instance Mac stuck the pictures at the end of the mail instead of having it as attachement - but never displayed inside the page) I thought about the HTMLcode again (the mail small but was consisting of a cluster of multi nested tables, where in the pictures where placed). I started from scratch with one simple table and one picture - and saw it also on the Mac, so repeated reconstruction every table layer and picture with testing each step again - and at the end - it worked all. So my conclusion is that the mentioned browsers and windows mail are made more HTML fault tolerant for little code mistakes than mac mail. It seems that when forwarding the page from windows-mail to Mac mail , windows even corrects and thats why then it was seen ok on the Mac.

I think that a number of people had similiar experiences. I contacted one advertising company (all Mac freaks and only Mac's there, they do a lot of Internet/Intranet design and develeopments for large companies) and asked them wether they know of any hints or problems - they simply said forget it it's not possible - which is not true - but seeing the HTML correct in all browsers doesn't mean it might ok for the mac mail.

Well any way I now know where I am and know where to look if suddenly a picture is not shown anymore...

Thanks for the help and all the best.

Rgds

peter

Feb 24, 2012 9:51 AM in response to BDAqua

Hello BDAqua


Jesus, what worked yesterday doesn't work anymore now. So forget about my theory on HTML sensitivity.

Guess what happend. I just sent a mail again to the Mac and today and went over to have a look. The Mac doesn't show the pictures anymore (same mail as yesterday) ). We then had a look at the mails from yesterday (out of the delete box) the ones I spoke with starting easy html one table - one picture and so on, which we saw yesterday as pictures are now just showing BOXES....... , even the simplest one ! I go crazy - I never saw something like it. By coincidence the Mac user had an html mail with pictures (ad) in her delete box which I had a look at. It was using img src pointing to http... so live link seems to work but the src to a CID seemes more than flaky.

This is so fundamental that I can't think I am the only one on this planet having seen that.

Do you know what is Apples say about that. Do you have me a e-mail address so I can send you one test mail ?

Rgds

Peter

Feb 24, 2012 10:46 AM in response to KDP529

You can either allow you email to be viewed in your profile, you're the only one that can see it, or you can contact me PM or eMail by joining my site...


x704.net/bbs


If you Right click on the box do get a choice to download picture?


Are you using something like this?

<img src="https://discussions.apple.com/static/apple/tutorial/images/icon_helpful_big.png" style="width:24px; height:24px; float:left; margin:-4px 8px 0 0;">

Congratulations, your post has helped

User uploaded file

Feb 24, 2012 3:00 PM in response to BDAqua

I made now my e-mail address visible, so pls. send me a message and then I will send you a test mail.

(not right now here it's midnight... and will call it a day)


I use eg. src="cid:TESTBILD1" in the HTML code where the image ,eg Test.jpg has to be displayed.

The image body will be sent with the mail as MIME as part of the multipart/related content.

After CONTENT-TYPE :TEXT/HTML which is the HTML code

<html> etc.....

then comes the picture

CONTENT-TYPE: IMAGE/JPEG;name="Test.jpg"

CONTENT-TRANSFER-Encoding: base64

CONTENT-ID: <TESTBILD1>

xcxcxcxcxcxxx here comes the picture code block

Jan 21, 2013 11:53 AM in response to KDP529

I usually use Thunderbird to build and send out my HTML emails, but I've had the same problems. Images are not showing up in Mac Mail, but I tested it on my iPhone, the images came up just fine. So I think that Apple should just make it's Mail app up to par or I just go with a third party. Too much of a waste of time.

Mac Mail has problems to display HTML embedded images

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