Attachments Blank or Will Not Download in Mail.app

Question

Attachments Blank or Will Not Download in Mail.app

I'm having a persistent problem where Mail.app will not download attachments. The attachments randomly appear greyed-out, with a dotted line surrounding the file. Some emails will come through with an attachment that is downloadable and another that is not. Typically, when these attachments are greyed out, if I click "save all" or otherwise try to download them, it simply opens a blank document. Any ideas? If I access my email through webmail, the attachments download without incident, so I think this is a mail.app problem.

Here's a screenshot from Mail.app, of an email with two attachments. The first downloads and works fine. The second just opens a blank document if I double click on it or if I click save all attachments.

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Aug 13, 2013 1:25 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Aug 13, 2013 4:29 PM in response to Des Esseintes

Please follow these directions to delete the Mail "sandbox" folder.

Back up all data.

Triple-click the line below on this page to select it:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services ▹ Reveal

from the contextual menu.* A Finder window should open with a folder named "com.apple.mail" selected. If it does, move the selected folder — not just its contents — to the Desktop. Leave the Finder window open for now.

Log out and log back in. Launch Mail and test. If the problem is resolved, you may have to recreate some of your Mail settings. You can then delete the folder you moved and close the Finder window. If you still have the problem, quit Mail again and put the folder back where it was, overwriting the one that may have been created in its place. Post your results.

Caution: If you change any of the contents of the sandbox, but leave the folder itself in place, Mail may crash or not launch at all. Deleting the whole sandbox will cause it to be rebuilt automatically.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

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Answer 2

Aug 13, 2013 7:07 PM in response to Linc Davis

It didn't work. The intervention cause my settings to change, so Mail.app appeared differently, but I still get the greyed-out attachment. I just realized that this happens with docx files. Could there be some special issue concerning files of that format?

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Answer 3

TildeBee

Level 7

31,923 points

Aug 13, 2013 7:11 PM in response to Des Esseintes

Des --

Are you running 10.6.3 ???

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Answer 4

Aug 13, 2013 7:20 PM in response to TildeBee

Oops. No that is old. I have a macbook air with 10.8.4

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Answer 5

TildeBee

Level 7

31,923 points

Aug 13, 2013 7:29 PM in response to Des Esseintes

OK, Des . . .

You could select the file, and change the extension to .doc. Do you have an old MS Word app? Prior to 2008?

If so, you could download LibreOffice for free, and then select the .docx files to be opened with LibreOffice.

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Answer 6

Aug 13, 2013 8:38 PM in response to TildeBee

It's not a file conversion problem--when I click to download the file, it downloads preserving the filename, but the file is empty. So there is nothing to convert.

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Answer 7

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Aug 13, 2013 8:58 PM in response to Des Esseintes

You wrote in your first message that the problem was "random." That means to me that it doesn't always happen. Does it happen only with messages from one particular sender or outgoing mail server? Does it happen when you send yourself a test message with an attachment?

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Answer 8

Aug 13, 2013 9:01 PM in response to Linc Davis

It only happens when I get email from my colleagues! Strange, huh? And again, if I use webmail, the attachment comes through no problem. If I send these exact attachments to myself, they come through fine 🙂

Also, if I right click for "quick view attachment," it just hangs with this message.

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Answer 9

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Aug 13, 2013 9:30 PM in response to Des Esseintes

The problem is caused by an incompatibility between your coworkers' mail client, or your organization's mail server, and the Mail application. You've already found one workaround. Another might be to use a different mail client, such as Outlook or Thunderbird.

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