emails with winmail.dat attachment forwarding

Question

Level 1

0 points

emails with winmail.dat attachment forwarding

Hello,

I am using iPhone 5 with iOS6.0.1 native mail app. Emails with winmail.dat attachments (probably sent from Outlook with RTF) do not forward when the attachment is included, they do not show up in the sent items and there are no error messages saying the sending failed. The body text of the email is legible on the iPhone. The winmail.dat is actually a PDF. Does anyone have any idea on why forwarding this email including the attachement does not work? I can forward the email without including the attachement without any problems.

Thanks

iPhone 5, iOS 6.0.1

Posted on Jan 23, 2013 8:04 PM

Reply

Answer 1

modular747

Level 6

19,656 points

Jan 23, 2013 8:22 PM in response to S0laris

What is the file size of winmail.dat?

Reply

Answer 2

S0laris Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 23, 2013 8:26 PM in response to modular747

approx 160 KB

Reply

Answer 3

modular747

Level 6

19,656 points

Jan 23, 2013 8:36 PM in response to S0laris

This is probably becuase ".dat" files are not supported as mail attatchements in the iOS:

Viewable Document Types

.jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)

Reply

Answer 4

S0laris Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 23, 2013 8:48 PM in response to modular747

Ok it's not supported. So, I am assuming that since it is not supported iOS does not know what to do with it when I try and forward the email including the attachment. In this case then the native mail app should tell the user that the email cannot be forwarded including the attachement, as the attachment is not supported and give the option to send the email without the attachment. The native mail app does not respond back with anything and the assumption is made that the email actually got sent but in reality it did not. Slightly annoying.

Also, viewing the email (in gmail) using a browser on a computer the attachment name is the actual name of the PDF and not winmail.dat.

Therefore, would this be a scenario that needs a quick fix by Apple to look at the attachments before allowing forwarding?

Reply

Answer 5

truerock

Level 1

10 points

Jan 25, 2013 3:14 PM in response to S0laris

SOlaris,

I was having problems receiving PDF attachments in e-mail on my iPhone 5 with iOS 6.0.2.

PDF attachments would arrive as winmail.dat files.

Until a couple of months ago, I had been successfully receiving PDF attachments for several years (iPhone 3, 4 and 5).

I had one of the e-mail senders delete my contact information in their Outlook address book and the problem was fixed for any new e-mails that person sent to me (not the previous emails).

I saw this solution over in the OS X forum.

Reply

Answer 6

S0laris Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 25, 2013 4:49 PM in response to truerock

truerock,

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunatly I have no control over the persons contact info for myself on their computer. I receive PDFs on my iPhone 5 all the time without any problems. Looks like RTF messes up the iPhone native mail program. I hope Apple fixes the forwarding to give a warning message saying the email cannot be forwarded as the attachement is not recognized.

Thanks

Reply