Winmail.dat attachments

To say its an Outlook problem is passing the buck. If what you are saying is true then sure, Outlook is sending it as Winmail.dat. However there was no problem before the iOS7 upgrade, and then one after with no apparent change from outlook. It's reasonable to assume that Apple changed something in their OS to make this start happening.

Why is iOS mail suddently not playing nice with Outlook after a major update? You'd think they'd take the time to make that interaction seemless considering how many people use Outlook, especially in commercial settings.

Just making an observation. If it is sitting on my server and I use webmail to access the email and attachment, and it is a winmail.dat file it has nothing to do with my Mac or iOS operating systems. Outlook has a proprietary format for encoding files and that is what is causing this problem.

"winmail.dat" emails are a result of an Outlook server not configured correctly which needs to be corrected on the sender's side and upgrading iOS should not have caused the problem.

I have developed an iOS app which will enables you to open winmail.dat attachments on iPhone and iPad which may be helpful to you.

Here is the app store link: http://taps.io/winmail.

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

<Edited by Host>

I do not care what Apple says. This is something on their end, or with the compatibility of some versions, or default settings I cannot find. If I send the email from my work outlook with an attachment, I can open it just fine under Yahoo, Gmail, etc. and ironically even on my troublesome MacBook Pro, mac mail application, but it comes in as a winmail.dat file on my wife's MacBook.

So ironic. My wife has always used mac mail application, and has to go into web based Gmail to open the attachments on her machine. The old Yahoo email application was great, so I never used mac mail, feeling the yahoo version with the tabs on the whole was superior. Yahoo screwed it up, and now I am starting to use the mac mail application.

I too have started having this problem since upgrading my iPhone 5 to IOS 7. I sent an Excel attachment to myself and 2 other people. They were both able to open the file on their iPhone 5S, IOS 7, but I couldn't open on mine. Could it have something to do with my device settings? Or possibly it is the iPhone 5 upgraded to iOS 7, as the other 2 people that didn't have trouble have the iPhone 5S running IOS 7?

No, winmail.dat attachments have nothing to do with iOS 7 or the model iPhone or iPad in use. They originate from MS Outlook/Exchange on Windows systems.

It's all about the settings the sender of the email has configured in MS Outllook (or MS Exchange Server). To avoid sending such troublesome attachments to non-Microsoft Outlook email users the sender needs to configure Outlook to send emails as either plain text or HTML, but not Rich Text format; as described here:

http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/richtext.htm

If the sender continues to send emails containing winmail.dat attachments then the receiver of the emails can use one of the many apps, plugins or other email services that can handle winmail.dat attachments. The Apple Mail app (on iOS or OS X) does not handle them natively, you need to install extra software. You always have, this is not new behaviour.

David Shanahan wrote:

No, winmail.dat attachments have nothing to do with iOS 7 or the model iPhone or iPad in use. They originate from MS Outlook/Exchange on Windows systems.

OK fine, its an MS/Outlook problem. So as mentioned before, why did this MS problem only start happening after the only change was upgrading to iOS7? To take it further, also mentioned before I have tried sending in all formats (Plain, Rich, HTML) and no matter which setting it comes as winmail.dat.

It's semantics, but I am of the opinion that fault lies with the party that changed something to cause the error to start happening.

Though I know this is a thread about iPad I felt this was relevant here - I thought it would 'put to bed' all those thinking it's an iOS7 specific issue.

A client of mine has been sending me attachments for years. Suddenly, two have come through with the dreaded winmail.dat. I've changed nothing on my Mac laptop... I'll repeat: I've changed nothing on my Mac.

He's not tech savvy so he lets Windows do it's background updating thing. He also has no idea tech wise, so he could have inadvertantly changed something (he does from time to time). His emails were RTF, they're now defaulting to HTML. I've changed the setting in his Outlook on his machine to send as RTF (as before), only to my email address, and the same emails previously arriving as winmail.dat have come through ok now.

In my opinion this'll be a problem caused by the garbage that Microsoft products output.

I started to experience the very same problem a few days ago. Several emails I received since the beginning of the week contains this winmail.dat attachment. Never happened to me before. Are we really sure it is just (another) unfortunate coincidence?

It would appear that numerous administrators all over everywhere decided to make this unusual change at the same coincidental time. Mine also started dropping attachments in November, on both my iPad and my iPhone, but not my MacBook Pro.

Does anyone know of an app that will download from all my email addresses as Mail used to so efficiently do? I simply must be able to receive email attachments. This is critical, of course.

I sure would appreciate app suggestions right about now! Thanks.

P.S. I don't care whose fault it is, I just need my attachments.

THANK YOU!

BTW, I emailed our firm helpdesk with the (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q138053) thing you explained above, and this is his response:

"This article references material no longer supported by Microsoft. We are on Exchange 2007 and this does not apply for this product. But no, we have not changed format forcing RTF emails, to answer your question."

I also just checked out "Letter Opener," as you recommended. It is specifically for opening a winmail.dat attachment. Having to go to a separate app just to view attachments is ludicrous.

I am looking for a mail app that does everything Mail used to -- for all my email addressess -- and all attachments. I would pay anything for this convenience that the rest of the world still enjoys. Suggestions from anyone? Thanks.

Ok, I'm also having trouble opening PDF attachments. And after reading many of the comments here it seems I have to download a windat reader? "Really".... I need to open a PDF "within my inbox" is that not possible now??? I also need to open the pdf in "Keynote" so that I can edit the document.

Any friggin suggestions? I find this ridicules that Apple keeps changing things and they don't work. The new ISO operating system is less than desirable. What would be the best fix? Help greatly appreciated....

You should need nothing extra or new to open a pdf attachment, this discussion applies *only* to winmail.dat attachments, not .pdf, .jpg, or any other file type. If you're having issues with pdf attachments then this is not the forum for your problem.

Yep, I cannot open winmail.dat attachments. Somehow my PDF files convert

To the winmail.dat file format and I cannot open them on my iPad .

?....? If I send a PDF ( via outlook) when I get the email on my iPad

It comes in as a winmail.dat file. This has somehow changed.

Never used to do that.... what happened? iOS 7?...

It's a pain. Do I need to use a gmail account to send PDFs to my iPad now?

And if so , "why"?

I need to get PDF files on my iPad ,and be able to open them

In keynote to edit them.