Sierra Mail - Remove Attachments doesn't work!

Open your web mail click on gear icon in case if you have created any filters please disable them , I have click on help some reasons are given if emails are not downloading correctly .

Oh ! I have never heard about Hostgator or Squirel , I am not sure for that but your problem still persists so sad . I have seen you posted the thread in October 10 , and almost three months have gone still there is no solution for it 😢

Here is a work around I have been using till Apple gets there act together on this - if at all.

1. In Mail create a mail box and call it repairs (or whatever suits you)

2. Open this email in TextEdit - you will find the file at User < Library < Mail < V4 < at this point you will be presented with a bunch of files with alpha numeric names so find the one that contains all your mail boxes and click on the repairs.mbox - again click in the alpha numeric file in the repairs.mbox then Data which will lead to a bunch of numbered folders which you will have to check thru till you find one that holds a messages and attachments folder - open the messages file and you will see a source file with a .emix extension - open this in Test Edit

3. Scroll down the text file to find the attachments (Like the italics below) there will be one of these for each attachment at various spots in the source file - then select and delete.

--Apple-Mail=_2A281AD4-F080-48A9-B1C8-A356E65059B6

Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

Content-Disposition: inline;

filename=Email-Signature_II.png

Content-Type: image/png;

name="Email-Signature_II.png"

Content-Id: <AC7F8922-63F3-44B6-ACC0-F7256C7F9727@BigPond>

4. Once done go back in mail move the email that used to contain the attachment to your archive file or where ever you want

I know it seems long winded but once you find it once and reopen TextEdit it will take you straight to the right spot making it easy each time

Hope this helps

1. Your assumption regarding placing the email to repairs mail box first is correct

2. No need to quit mail

3. I use Pathfinder as a finder replacement which will also search Library files so it is good you have a short cut but after doing it the first time and if you don't use TextEdit a lot when you open TextEdit to do this it will show the last string.

4. Once you find the section or sections that contain the attachment you delete it - forget the attachments folder and work in the source file in the message folder. I have not played with the attachment folder but you could give it a try and see what happens.

5. Once you have saved the file go to mail and move it out of the repairs mail box and place it where ever you like and when you open the email it should be intact minus the attachment or attachments.

There may be a less involved way to do this but and being a novice I have not found it but this works quickly for me as I need to remove many attachments in a days work other wise my HD will fill.

In a previous thread when mail suddenly converted emails to gibberish on removal of attachments there was a forum member "Rich in Space" who came up with a great little script to fix that problem so maybe some one talented that way could look at this one as well and provide good instruction

Ok - have done a little more on this and unfortunately while it removes the attachment the file size of the email remains the same which has got me beat and of course the purpose of removing the attachment is to save space - so will need to play further - sorry

hmmm - I don't get that when I do it my email is intact anf viewable so I am not sure what is causing that for you but as I said previously I am getting no reduction in email file size so for now until I can have another look at it I will go back to the sent method of workaround but hopefully apple will realise the issue and fix it in an up coming update.

Yes - did that when I first upgraded to Sierra

Do they take note?

I doubt it

This is a *very* annoying problem. Workaround (apply a filter) developed for OS X 10.10 no longer works. Makes you pine for the days of Eudora (if not Pine itself). Please, Apple, fix this!!

Maybe this thread is dedicated to a subproblem, but in its entirety, Mail's inability to handle the deleting of attachments concerns both incoming and outgoing messages.