How can I save email attachments to my iPad?

You cannot tap and hold down on the open file and bring up the Arrow icon in the upper right hand corner of the document? You can tap on that Arrow icon in order to get the Open In window.

if the attachment is in the body of the email you should be able to tap and hold down on it and still get an Open In option with all of the compatible apps that can open that file type.

AdiJAIN1129-

I think it depends on what type of document it is. For example, a JPG document loads as an image in a mail message. I can press and hold on it and get several options. The "Add to camera roll" option would save the image to my photos.

I have to select a PDF document to get it to open. It then has the Arrow icon Demo mentioned. GoodReader and iBooks are two of the options I see. Others include some printing Apps.

Can Mail open other types of documents if you have an App for them? You may only be able to save documents that Mail is capable of opening. I do not know if Excel documents qualify, since I don't have any handy to try.

Fred

I can confirm this behavior with small PDF files. Not sure about other types. Just spent a frustrating few hours with Apple support on this issue. Too bad they don't know their own product. I went through the usual routine of reboot, delete mail account, reset settings, etc. before they sent me on to a senior tech. He didn't know what was up either, but after a long time he confirmed that this is the new functionality.

The support rep seems to think this was a change in 6.0.1, or maybe even 6. If the file is small, not too complex, and the mail reader app can decode it, then the file displays its contents directly in the email. The little download box we all got used to no longer exists for these small files, nor does the secondary screen where the file would open and there was an option to send the file off to different apps such as GoodReader. How one is to send small files to another app is a mystery to me. The rep indicated you just hold your finger down on the file display inside the email and a "send" menu should come up, but it doesn't work that way for me.

Apple seems to specialize in removing functionality from iOS products these days. The maps app, the contacts search that now also searches the notes field returning way too many names, and now this blooper. My next tablet and phone won't be from Apple, that is clear.

This is a cropped screenshot of an email on my iPad 3 running iOS 6.0.1. Tapping and holding down on the icon brings up the Open In window with all of the app options that you see here - and a couple of more in the next window,

Thanks, Demo, but this doesn't help with the problem being described. Your screen shot shows what IS NOT happening (and for that alone is useful). On my iPad, the little box in your screen shot that has the PDF icon and says "December Email Blast.pdf" does not appear. Instead, the contents of the PDF are simply displayed in the body of the email. There is no way to get to the "Open In" screen. I assume this is the same problem that the OP describes.

I'm having a very similar problem. I'm trying to open a PDF attachment in my Gmail app. However when I long-press the attachment icon I get a pop-up with only three options: "Open," (Opens in the iOS standard reader) "Save to Reading List," and "Copy" (Copies a link to the file). A software developer familiar with iOS thinks that it ought to use the iOS standard "Open," which may be what it's doing when it opens in a generic reader. But it doesn't give any other options.

The standard reader has an arrow icon that allows me to open the doc in Chrome or in Safari, but not in any of the apps I have that would normally read a PDF (I have Acrobat, Goodreader, and a couple of others).

I've got a workaround. I use Goodreader to access the Gmail server directly and download attachments. But it seems that an advanced system like iOS ought to do that sort of thing natively.

Same problem here..email on iPad displays as open document and I cannot open it in another app...however, that same email is an attachment on my iPhone and I can "Open In" to other apps...???

Has there been a solution or explanation given by apple to this problem? I'm experiencing the same thing, only worse, it doesn't give me any options when i tap & hold the attachment icon and the only option given by that share/open arrow/icon from yahoo mail or gmail is 'print'. I've also tried rebooting my ipad but I still can't open my mail attachments. Why is this happening? Help!

I've found the solution to the problem. if you are using the regular email app from iPad you can still save and print your documents, PDFs, jpgs, etc easily to wherever you want, but if you use the new google email app, you do not get these choices, only google choices ie cloud print or google documents. Hope this helps!

Attachments always appear at the bottom of the email thread, not the top. So make sure you scroll down to the very bottom if you have a lengthy email

It simply is a matter of where.

From the google mail app you cannot "open with" 3rd apps

But from the iPad's mail app you do have options for your 3rd apps

Update google, update!

:)

There's a work around that I use. On top, select to Forward the email to yourself, the forwarded one you should be to tap and hold, the option for save, print... will appear. Hope it helps.

- Actually... after few seconds, I did realize that if you tap and hold in the file opened by the email, it works the same way. tap and hold firmly, it should work.