Mail attachments (photos) get chopped!

Question

Level 1

8 points

Mail attachments (photos) get chopped!

I have a problem where I send an email using Mail with a few photos attached and when its received, only the first photo comes through and the rest are cut off. One might come through only half way.

I am guessing that maybe I have exceeded my memory allowance on Mail. (think I am at about 3 gigs now). I should say, that I am using POP mail, not .Mac.

I had this problem a few years ago using Entourage when I hit 3 gigs and had to trash a few years of emails in the sent box.

Any help would be great - thanks...

iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Dec 30, 2006 6:53 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 30, 2006 8:16 PM in response to timaylen

The size of an account's Sent mailbox in Mail or with any email client used has no effect on this but the Mail.app does have a recommended mailbox size limit. The recommended mailbox size limit for Tiger Mail is 2 GB.

The Mail.app does not use a single database file to store all data as does Entourage. The Mail.app uses individual mailboxes in mbox format to store data so there is no overall size limit for all Mail.app data - only a recommended mailbox size limit for each mailbox.

A message is moved to the account's Sent mailbox only after it is successfully sent by the SMTP server used by the email account.

Since the Mail.app displays photo attachments inline or viewed in place within the body of the message, are any of the attached photos cut off when viewing the sent message?

Do you know which email client the recipient is using? Although the Mail.app displays all photo attachments inline or viewed in place within the body of the message by default, depending on the recipient's email client and available preference settings, such attachments may appear inline or viewed in place within the body of the message when the message is opened by the recipient (as with the Mail.app when receiving such attachments) or as attached files only which must be opened separately to be viewed for which the sender has no control over.

Are you using RTF for message composition along with a Signature?

If you are using RTF for message composition, as a first step try using Plain Text instead to see if this resolves it.

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Answer 2

timaylen Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 30, 2006 8:32 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Its pretty much everyone that receives an email from me (with attachments) that his happens, so I would guess webmail, POP mail etc, plus I sent it to my Yahoo, and saw the attachments cut off.

No, the photos appear whole and complete in the email in the Sent Mail folder.

I use Plain Text for the reason that when I use Rich Text, I get responses from people that say my attachments are difficult to save as single files. (Windows users drive me crazy!)

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Answer 3

Dec 30, 2006 8:44 PM in response to timaylen

Are you adding all photo attachments or any attachments below all message text?

Since you have no control over if photo attachments appear inline or viewed in placed or as attached files only when opened by a recipient, there is no reason to add photo attachments within or between message text.

You can also zip all photo attachments via the Finder and attach the zip archive to the message.

This is the first post I've seen here reporting this type of problem.

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Answer 4

timaylen Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 30, 2006 8:56 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Sometimes I have text in the email, and other times not. Done a few tests and it doesn't make a difference if there is text or not.

I know, this is very strange and have had many years of flawless Apple Mail.

So, my Sent box with a size of 3 gigs is okay?

I haven't changed anything in my prefs - this just happened a few days ago without warning.....

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Answer 5

Dec 30, 2006 9:09 PM in response to timaylen

So, my Sent box with a size of 3 gigs is okay?

No it isn't OK. Although this has nothing to do with your reported problem, as previously provided the recommended mailbox size limit for Tiger Mail is 2 GB.

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Answer 6

timaylen Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 30, 2006 9:27 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Right, sorry I missed that from your first response. Have deleted all my attachment emails in my sent box.

Please let me know if you can think of a reason why this might be happening - appreciate yout time spent already.

Will check back tomorrow....

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Answer 7

Dec 30, 2006 11:26 PM in response to timaylen

Sometimes I have text in the email, and other times not.
Done a few tests and it doesn't make a difference if there
is text or not.

Shouldn't make any difference if there is any text or not. What I provided regarding text was:

Since you have no control over if photo attachments appear inline or viewed in placed or as attached files only when opened by a recipient, there is no reason to add photo attachments within or between message text.

There is nothing available in Mail.app prefs that has any effect on this and this is the first post I've seen here reporting this type of problem so I'm not sure why this is happening.

Are you accessing more than one email account and SMTP server with the Mail.app?

If so, try sending the same from a different account and SMTP server.

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Answer 8

timaylen Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 31, 2006 9:12 AM in response to Allan Sampson

Yes, I have three email accounts all accessing different servers. I tried using a different account and that doesn't make a difference.

(A few minutes later) I just used an alternate SMTP server and it went through.

Wow - thanks for your help, I never guessed that might be the problem. My IP has a few servers so I picked one of the lesser known ones and the email went through in full.

At least this exercise has caused me to clean out 2 gigs of attachments from my Sent box and I thank you again for your assistance.

Regards, Tim

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