HTML in Apple Mail

My wife received an email which was HTML. Apple Mail left all the HTML formatting in text form and did not show it properly. I forwarded that email to my own computer where it opened properly and displayed as one would expect. I went to her macbook Pro and emailed the email to her own Mail account and the email was still displaying improperly. Then I went back to my iMac and mailed back the email to her and it displayed properly.

I went through all the Mail Preferences on both computers and changed her Mail preferences to agree with Mail Preferences on my computer. That did not fix the problem.

We are both using the same Mac OS 10.11.3.

I have a mid 2010 iMac and she has a mid 2009 Mac book Pro.

Are there preferences at the System Preferences level that I need to adjust on her computer to solve this problem.

Oh, and one more thing. Until two weeks ago, her computer was displaying emails with HTML emails properly. Something has changed on her computer and I don['t know what.

Thanks for your consideration and advice.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), Apple Mail

Posted on Feb 22, 2016 6:44 PM

20 replies

Gil Woolley Author

Level 1

51 points

Feb 23, 2016 10:49 AM in response to ChitlinsCC

I moved all of the emails regarding this problem to a new Mail folder (so that my wife wouldn't just throw them into the trash while I'm trying to fix this). She asks for help and then throws the evidence in the trash! So, I think I've rescued it. She's a lovely lady otherwise but technology averse.

Then I tried to look at the emails logging into her account with Safari instead of with Mail. I could not easily match up the emails as they appear in Mail with how they appear in Safari logged into her email account. Maybe I have to find the original email from the newsletter and create a folder just for that and look at that out in Safari.

ChitlinsCC

Level 7

21,140 points

Feb 23, 2016 11:14 AM in response to Gil Woolley

Gil Woolley wrote:

I just tried the Safe Mode restart on her computer and it did not fix the problem of improperly displaying HTML email. Interestingly though, she received a different email from the same investment advisor and that displays correctly. I believe that that is HTML.

BINGO!

There is 'something' that changed two weeks ago about "that newsletter" ONLY - ask the $$ guy's techie just what that might be? It is entirely possible that whatever they did was 'fixed' for the subsequent email also.

I am as guilty as anyone about "this MUST be my fault somehow"... a lot of times that is just not the case - patience would be my tactic

Gil Woolley Author

Level 1

51 points

Feb 23, 2016 11:16 AM in response to ChitlinsCC

Maybe Safe Mode did it. I'm not quite sure now. At first I thought that it had not fixed it. Following that, I decided to rebuild lots of her mail boxes. I also set up a special folder for just the one faulty email so that I could be sure of which was which out looking at her mail in Safari. But in Safari, the wrong email appeared in the special folder. That is when I went on a rampage of rebuilding her mailboxes in Mail. Then I also shifted the faulty email back and forth between the Inbox and the special one email only mailbox. Then I went back to Safari and saw that the mail displayed properly there. And then I looked again in Mail and now find that the faulty email is in the special folder and now it displays properly. I haven't edited that email at all. I just did quite a few rebuilds on various mailboxes in Mail and shifted the faulty email from one mailbox to another and back again. Lets give Safe Mode restart as the most likely cure to the problem and thank you very much.

ChitlinsCC

Level 7

21,140 points

Feb 23, 2016 11:29 AM in response to Gil Woolley

Did you restart in "normal" before all your activity? (Safe Boot 'does stuff' that is only realized when restart normally)

Now you wait for the next newsletter?

Let us know

Nov 15, 2016 7:24 AM in response to Gil Woolley

I started having this issue after upgrading to Sierra, but it's not consistent. Not all HTML emails show up as text only but ALL emails that show as text only show fine on my phone.

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HTML in Apple Mail