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Email forwarding issue

Here's the scenario, user receives an email with 4 attachments: One PDF file, one DOCX and two email messages attached to it. Inside each one of these two message attachments there's an Excel file attached.

User then forwards that message.

The resulting email is a message with two attachments, One corrupted PDF file the doesn't open and a 1K htm file.

This is on an iPhone 6s running iOS 9.3.1 and the native Apple Mail client. Connected to an Exchange 2010 backend via MobileIron.

I've tested the same steps with other ActiveSync email client for iOS and did not experience the problem.


Has anyone came across this issue?


Thanks


Andre

iPhone 6s, iOS 9.3.1

Posted on Apr 13, 2016 9:11 AM

Reply
47 replies

May 17, 2016 2:18 PM in response to andre-ldn

Not sure if this is on Apple's radar or not, hopefully so. We have had a similar thing occur, and I found a workaround for it if the attachment can't be recovered by just resending from the iPhone or iPad, maybe someone else will know a way to fix or improve the method. Once received on a computer, it requires saving the email as an eml file and opening via text editor. Once opened in the text editor looking for the section that has the base64 encoded information for the particular attachment, you will find that the text is not actually encoded properly for just the particular attachment file such as:


--_007_2DBFBC07AE554C9FBBECACB7232533E8_

Content-Type: application/pdf; name="attachment.pdf"

Content-Description: attachment.pdf

Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="attachment.pdf"; size=531340;

creation-date="Tue, 17 May 2016 19:11:43 GMT";

modification-date="Tue, 17 May 2016 19:11:43 GMT"

Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64



Receivedfromsomewhere123123123123bymymailserver

234234234234withMicrosoftSMTPServerTLSid1432792Tue17May201613484905

00Receivedfromhostinformationbyp3plwbeout1503prodphx3secureservernetwit

hbizsmtpidvWoo1s0010FDBWt01WooAQTue17May20161148480700XSIDvWoo1s0010FDBWt01R

eceivedqmail8172invokedbyuid9917May20161848480000ContentTypemultipart/mixedb

oundaryf8c68204d8f2b879567551c3bf13eb7fXOriginatingIP199116157114UserAgentWo

rkspaceWebmail629MessageID201605171148462d72b9a84ca577e8313ec065200ea7849f4b

9d1ad8wbeemail15godaddycomFromsomesubjecttext

SubjectDataDateTue17May20161148460700ReturnPathmoreheaderdata

XMSExchangeOrganizationAuthSourcemail10mymailserverXMSExchan

geOrganizationAuthAsAnonymousXGFISMTPSubmission1XGFISMTPHelloDomainp3plwbeou

t1503serverGFISMTPRemoteIPIPIPIPIPXKSEAntiSpamIntercept

orInfoprotectiondisabledXMSExchangeOrganizationAVStampMailboxKaspersk5171608

00XKSEAntivirusInterceptorInfoscansuccessfulXKSEAntivirusInfoCleanMIMEVersio

n10f8c68204d8f2b879567551c3bf13eb7fContentTypemultipart/relatedboundaryc7a02.... .


Basically you can recover the corrupted attachment by selecting this readable text, and then finding in the output where you can not read the information any longer, you then remove everything from the Received text which starts what should be showing only base64 encoded data, to where the base64 encoded information actually starts:


It should be the last place in the file that has something like /pdfnameAttachmentADpdfContentDispositionattachmentfilenameAddachmentADpdf After this text it should start being valid base64 encoded information, deleting the garbage ahead of that after the correct heading info for the attachment and saving the EML file should result in being able to get to the non corrupted pdf attachment.


Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="attachment.pdf"; size=531340;

creation-date="Tue, 17 May 2016 19:11:43 GMT";

modification-date="Tue, 17 May 2016 19:11:43 GMT"

Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64



JVBERi0xLjQNJeLjz9MNCjQgMC

BvYmoNPDwvTGluZWFyaXplZCAxL0wgNTI0MjYxL08gNi9FIDQ3NTk1Ny9OIDEvVCA1MjQwNjcvSC

BbIDQ3NiAxNDRdPj4NZW5kb2JqDSAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIA14cmVmDTQgOQ0wMDAwMDAwMD

E2IDAwMDAwIG4NCjAwMDAwMDA2MjAgMDAwMDAgbg0KMDAwMDAwMDY4MCAwMDAwMCBuDQowMDAwMD

AwOTMwIDAwMDAwIG4NCjAwMDAwMDA5NjMgMDAwMDAgbg0KMDAwMDAwMTA1OCAwMDAwMCBuDQowMD

AwMDAxNDE2IDAwMDAwIG4NCjAwMDAwMDM2ODAgMDAwMDAgbg0KMDAwMDAwMDQ3NiAwMDAwMCBuDQ

p0cmFpbGVyDTw8L1NpemUgMTMvUm9vdCA1IDAgUi9JbmZvIDMgMCBSL0lEWzxBMjdDMTMzMURGND

k0MjAxQUFGMzc5RDI3RUQxQzI2RT48MjQ1RDc2N0VCMkZGNERDOEFFMzA5RDI0OUREMUIzNjg+XS....

May 25, 2016 5:22 AM in response to admiralperry

We have the same issue with exchange 2013 and office365 (EAS)accounts.


My experience is that if the attachments havent been opened, the problem will occur. If the attachments have been opened before forwarding, the problem will not occur.


We have had the problem from iOS 9.3 to 9.3.2 We do not have problem with MS Outlook app for iOS


I've tested with iOS 9.3.3 beta 1 - now it seems that the problem is solved.

Jun 8, 2016 6:39 AM in response to andre-ldn

Same Issue here. Iphone 6 with iOS 9.3.2 and activesync with exchange 2010. The user recieved email with 2 jpg images (1.jpg 300kb and 2.jpg 200kb) He forward to another user (including attachs) but other user recieved only one attach (2.jpg 500kb) and cant open in any device (android, outlook, windows, nothing).


do you have reply from Apple? this is very IMPORTANT.


We need a solution...!


Thank you


regards,

Jul 13, 2016 12:43 PM in response to andre-ldn

I have the same problem with several users. Exchange 2010 w/ iPhone 6, 6s versions. Affected files are pdf, excel, and jpg.

I can't seem to replicate the problem and had hope that someone who had replicated the issue can try to use the Outlook App (instead of Apple Mail). I want to see if its an issue with iOS9.3, Apple Mail, or our Exchange server.

We have android device users and thus can pretty much eliminate the issue with our firewall router or Exchange server.

Email forwarding issue

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