HT201773: If your email contains a winmail.dat attachment

Learn about If your email contains a winmail.dat attachment
DE@Lin
Level 1 (4 points)
Mac OS X

Q: I have OSX ElCapitan10.11.5.  PC's send me some attachments with "winmail.dat". Cannot open them. Apple support sent article telling PC's what to change.  Why can't Apple make the necessary changes to receive such attachments?

OSX ElCapitan 10.11.5 cannot open PC's sending "winmail.dat" attachments'

Apple tells PC Sender what to change.  Why can't Apple make modifications?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014), OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Jun 11, 2016 2:12 PM

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DE@Lin

Q: I have OSX ElCapitan10.11.5.  PC's send me some attachments with "winmail.dat". Cannot open them. Apple support sent article ... more

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  • Helpful answers

  • by VikingOSX,Helpful

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Jun 11, 2016 6:06 PM in response to DE@Lin
    Level 7 (21,036 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 11, 2016 6:06 PM in response to DE@Lin

    Because the problem lies on the PC Mail configuration side, and is a Windows Mail Server administration issue, not an OS X Mail issue. I have received emails with Apple Mail from those that use Outlook without any trace of winmail.dat attachment issues.

     

    You can get the free TNEF's Enough application from the OS X App Store that allows you to view these attachments until the Windows Mail admin comes out of their coma.

  • by DE@Lin,

    DE@Lin DE@Lin Jun 11, 2016 6:08 PM in response to VikingOSX
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 11, 2016 6:08 PM in response to VikingOSX

    Thank you very much for your reply.  I will try to get the free TNEF's Enough application and see if it works for me.

  • by Tony T1,Helpful

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Jun 13, 2016 6:44 AM in response to DE@Lin
    Level 6 (9,249 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 13, 2016 6:44 AM in response to DE@Lin

    If you receive these winmail.dat files infrequently, instead of using a dedicated App, just change the extension from .dat to .pdf and then Preview should be able to read the file.

  • by DE@Lin,

    DE@Lin DE@Lin Jun 13, 2016 6:52 AM in response to Tony T1
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 13, 2016 6:52 AM in response to Tony T1

    Thank you so much!

    Please tell me the procedure to

    "just change the extension from .dat to .pdf".

    I don't follow what you mean. 

  • by VikingOSX,

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Jun 13, 2016 9:39 AM in response to Tony T1
    Level 7 (21,036 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 13, 2016 9:39 AM in response to Tony T1

    Not every Winmail.dat file is a PDF, as they can be other file types including Outlook meeting requests, or Word documents with embedded Excel Spreadsheets (OLE), or other Rich Text content. See the Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format.

  • by Tony T1,

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Jun 13, 2016 3:13 PM in response to DE@Lin
    Level 6 (9,249 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 13, 2016 3:13 PM in response to DE@Lin

    DE@Lin wrote:

     

    Thank you so much!

    Please tell me the procedure to

    "just change the extension from .dat to .pdf".

    I don't follow what you mean. 

     

    Save the winmail.dat file to the desktop, then highlight, press enter, right-arrow and select .dat and change to .pdf