Q: Cannot Open PDF Forward From iPhone

I have had several users experience this problem as well.  When forwarding an email that contains an attachment (usually a PDF) in certain cases the PDF file is corrupt when the receiving user tries to open it.   It didn't corrupt the entire file as perhaps the first 7 or 8 pages were readable and then it was corrupt after that.   I have run a byte by byte compare against the 'corrupt' file and the original file that was forwarded and there are indeed differences in the file.

I also ran into a situation today where a user forwarded an email with 2 attachments (1 was a 60k Excel file and the other was a 2MB PDF).  The receiving user received 1 attachment that was a corrupt .xls file.  The interesting thing is that when looking at the original files and the received file the size of the .xls that was received was just over 2MB.  Slightly larger than a combo of the 2 files.

We are having the exact same issue here, we use both Nuance and Adobe.  The only work around seems to be to install Outlook for iOS.

We are also experiencing the exact same issue since iOS 9.3.x. It's a random thing and doesn't happen with all PDF attachments. The attachments which on Windows are called corrupted (tried several PDF readers) could be opened easily on an iPhone without any problem.

Someone suggest not to forward the attachments without opening them first on the iPhone (download the attachment on the iPhone first and then send them), but this workaround also doesn't seem to work all the time.

This is for sure an issue with the latest update of iOS which 'does' something with those attachments. I've this problem with around 10 users now and I've asked the rest not to update to the latest version of iOS.

I hope Apple would patch this problem with an update very soon as it'd eventually be a big problem.

I have the same issue happening at a Law Firm with IOS devices connected via ActiveSync to O365. Very intermittent, but I cannot locate a fix as yet,

Does anybody have an update on the matter ? Really not interested in installing Outlook for iOS, as that seems a weak fix

We have the same issue with one of the 14 iPhone users we have. We are running Exchange 2013 onsite.

Only seems to happen occasionally and not related to emails from a particular sender, the format they are in or the file type as it is corrupting Word and Excel documents as well as PDF's. The other issues we have had is it dropping attachments off as well. Therefore, the original email has 5 attachments 3 are ok 1 is corrupt, and the other is missing.

For compliance all our emails are archived. The attachments are fine on the archived version and the version in the users inbox. The forward version in the sent items is corrupt so definitely the phone that is causing the issue.

I think it is related to where they are when they send it. If they are at home or in the office so on Wi-Fi we don't have an issue. When they are out and about using mobile data we seem to have a problem. Therefore, is it corrupting the attachments when it is downloading and/or sending them on?

They particular user is not the most IT literate so don't really want to go down the Outlook for IOS route. Has anyone tried backup, resetting and restoring the phone?

I'm having this issue as well. For my scenario, this only occurs when a user receives an email with attachments from outside of our domain. She then forwards the email to her secretary. At the point when she asked to "include" the attachments, only one attachment shows. It looks as if multiple attachments are grouped into one. The attachment displayed is named the same as the first attachment from the original email. This occurs on both an iPhone 6S and an iPad, both running iOS 9.3. This hasn't always been the case, and didn't occur until about a month or two ago. This has been one of the only threads that I have been able to find that is anything similar to what my user is experiencing, and I have a feeling that it is related. This issue only occurs when forwarding an email received from an external domain, with attachments, from an iOS device, using the default Mail application. This user can forward an email sent to her from inside the domain with multiple attachments and not have a problem. Internally, we run an Exchange 2010 environment, and I might as well include that we are also running MobileIron for mobile device management.

We are using IBM lotus notes and we have the same problem, not always but on occasions .. also if there are more pdf's the first is corrupt and the following pdf's aren't attached.

My next step is to wipe and restore the device. I will report back with the results once I can get my hands on it.

I've seen in another Apple discussion forum where others were having this problem (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7530950?tstart=0). They have offered a workaround where if the user opens the attachments on their iOS device before forwarding the email, the attachments are not grouped together, and are no longer corrupt. However, when trying this out with my user, who had five attachments that she was forwarding from her iPhone, only two of the attachments were sent. They were not corrupt and could be opened, but not all of the attachments were sent. Two out of the five came through. It looks as if the other attachments show up as ".htm" files, which cannot be viewed as the original file type.

Re: Email forwarding issue

related.. this is all on apples end and no one elses.  iPhone 9.3.x has caused this from what i'm seeing on this post.  Apple of course has not responded.  Also, I had a user have this same thing happen.

1. receives email w/6 or so attachments. various sizes under 1MB.  file types were .docx and .pdf

2. forwards me a copy of the email. we use exchange 2013 and iPhone activesync and native mail clients.

3. android device w/same exact account setup has ZERO issues

4. in the thread i linked to; someone on there has literally found the line of code causing the issues.

/snark removed but seroiusly.. ITS ALL APPLES FAULT on this one. i'm also mobile os agnostic; **** i even give WP10 a run once in a while so i can at least complain about it (can't complain about something you never use).

thankfully i have only seen this issue on one of my 400+ iPhone/iPad devices we have in our company but once you see something like this happen for a user.... you get a bit worried that it will affect ALL of your users. I have high level users like one of the posts here mentioned that are what you call 'mobile warriors' and rely HEAVILY on their mobile phones and relaying of data between external clients and internal.

I hate how Apple's responsiveness to any issue is basically a non-response or a "sounds like an Exchange issue, you should contact Microsoft" or sounds like a google / gmail issue, you should contact them.  They really make us IT geeks feel like we have nowhere to go when we run into a major issue like this.  the post i linked to has a company that has 400+ devices and most are being affected.

Sorry to LACAllen for my childish ranting.  My bad, I have scolded myself.

Sounds like the similar circumstance that i saw today too.  outside/external email sender and email had about 4 docx files and 4 pdfs; once i received the fwded version of the message on my Outlook client; i only saw the non-pdf attachments in the email i received.  my user has an iPhone 6 w/9.3.2 os and sees the same thing happening on his iPad w/9.3.2 also.

Users in another thread have confirmed that Beta 9.3.3 appears to resolve this issue for them.

This hasn't been completed substantiated, but 2 users on Beta so far report issue is gone.

See this thread:

PDF Attachments From iPhone Become Corrupt iOS 9.3

Hey Team,

We are experiencing the same issue with management at present.

Are we able to confirm that there is a call logged with Apple for this issue and it is being investigated?

Thank You

Regards

Joseph

I will be putting an official ticket w/Apple today on this issue and hope to have my user's iPad w/9.3.2 available to test with.  I'll keep this thread updated w/what i find out.   This issue could be a pretty major one if it starts become more and more widespread.