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Mail shows paper clip but no attachment icons to open at all

Hello everyone. I'm having the hardest time finding what's going on and after a few tiring hours of surfing the web I found nothing like my problem. So I decided to come here for help. I hope it's not something stupid I'm just missing but if that's the case I apologiz in advance.


As you can see in the following picture I got an email with an attachment, as you can see the paper clip on the left


User uploaded file

When I open said email I go to the bottom of it and find no file icons to open!


User uploaded file


As you can see for the same email but using the Gmail app, there are four pdf files attached and, as far as I know, pdf is a compatible format to open from Mail native iPhone app


User uploaded file


Can PLEASE someone help me see what I'm missing? I already tried signing out and in again, reloading all my emails but nothing different happened. I'm about to pull my hair out here!


Thank you all for takin the time to read this.

iPhone 6s, iOS 9.2.1

Posted on Mar 11, 2016 8:57 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 20, 2018 6:57 AM

2018 and this issue wasn't solved yet. 2 years, Apple!!!


Some PDF attachments are not showing on the Apple Mail app. It shows the paper clip on the mail list but no attachment inside the message. But there is an attachment, because if I try to forward the message, Apple Mail asks me if I want to include it. One of these attachments is a bill I have to pay monthly. Because of that issue, I have to use Outlook to see my bill.

43 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 20, 2018 6:57 AM in response to seba_opazo

2018 and this issue wasn't solved yet. 2 years, Apple!!!


Some PDF attachments are not showing on the Apple Mail app. It shows the paper clip on the mail list but no attachment inside the message. But there is an attachment, because if I try to forward the message, Apple Mail asks me if I want to include it. One of these attachments is a bill I have to pay monthly. Because of that issue, I have to use Outlook to see my bill.

Feb 20, 2018 11:40 AM in response to AKRBTN

Well, there are 164 more people with the same issue, according to this thread... at least. Even if I'm experiencing this issue for a long time, it's the first time I post something in this thread. And there are more users asking for attachment issues on the iOS mail app on other websites.


This issue is happening (to me) always with some senders (like the Water Company) and some attachments sent by other users, usually PDF files. So... yes, it seems to be a bug.

Jun 6, 2018 4:30 PM in response to marcio_uy

I'm having the same issue, I have an msn account and a gmail account and a shaw account and all show that there is an attachment but nothing in the body of the text on my iphone 8 ios 11.4, But when I go into my mail on my mac the attachments are all there, this seemed to just start happening after the last iphone update. Would be nice if there was a solution to this, please help

May 30, 2017 7:23 PM in response to Shooter-71

Your issue sounds like something to do with the Gmail app. That is not an Apple app, and you would need to check settings in the Gmail app to see how it displays attachments. I've not received any Gmail that uses an attachment, so I cannot answer that, but I'm going to test this out. It will take a few minutes to construct an email with attachments and send it to my Gmail account and see what happens.


EDIT: When I attached a photo to my Outlook email on the computer and sent that to my Gmail account on the Gmail app, it did not show a paperclip, it showed a small thumbnail of the photo and when I clicked on it, it opened the photo in another page. If you go to the Settings of the Gmail app, on the app itself, it has a setting for Show Sender Images.

Apr 24, 2017 9:57 PM in response to Mariah Boyt

The isssue isn't with Microsoft. I have the same problem with emails sent to me with PDFs from a security appliance I use on my network. Doesn't go through Microsoft. Apple needs to come up with a fix. I can duplicate the issue 100%. Will display and open on all mail clients except for Apple iOS mail.


If an Apple tech is monitoring this, please get in contact with me and I can duplicate the issue.

Mar 12, 2016 4:03 AM in response to ManSinha

It didn't work. I also checked on my iPad and it doesn't work either. But in my Macbook Air works fine. The account is from Google and I recently updated my password. Maybe it has something to do with that. I obviously updated the password in my iPhone and iPad and that's why I can see the new incoming emails but there's maybe a bug. I'm thinking of that because in my Macbook it didn't work updating the password in the dialog box from Mail app, Google sent me an email saying it was not a secure log in. Instead, I had to go to Sytem Preferences, delete the account and add it back.

Jul 6, 2016 11:48 PM in response to Blurry face

I have just started to notice the same issue too! Only affects native Mail app on iOS. All other applications show attachments as they should, no changes made to email accounts or passwords or anything like that. Not due to logo or anything else misrepresenting an attachment and the load remote images setting in Settings is always on. So it must be something to do with the application itself.

Jul 7, 2016 2:59 PM in response to seba_opazo

I am having the same problem. Just switched my office computers from PC's to Mac and when the Mac sends an attachment thru OUTLOOK for MAC they don't show up on any iphones. They show up everywhere else fine, just not on a phone. The other thing I find is that you can save them to the camera roll and view them, so the pictures are definitely there. It has nothing to do with the setting "load remote images". Has anyone figured this out? There has to be a solution! Is anyone else using OUTLOOK or this is even happening with apple MAIL app on a computer?

Mail shows paper clip but no attachment icons to open at all

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