Mail - High Sierra - MacBook Pro 15-inch 2,8 GHz i7 - can't open PDF attachement

Question

Level 1

50 points

Mail - High Sierra - MacBook Pro 15-inch 2,8 GHz i7 - can't open PDF attachement

Hi,

Whenever I receive PDF documents (doesn't matter if they are one or more pages) I can't open them in Mail app. I can save all of the documents in a folder and open them there though.

This is however highly inconvenient as very often messages have multiple PDF files attached and I am interested in only one of them.

When files are one page only I can see them in the message window after a while but when I try to open them by double clicking left button or by clicking the right button they disappear for a second and then show up again but nothing else happens. I had preview opened while doing it so application didn't have to start/be opened by mail app (already working in the background).

Can't be a hardware thing either as this should be pretty powerful machine.

Is there any way to make Mail app work more efficiently?

Best,

Filip

MacBook Pro TouchBar and Touch ID, macOS High Sierra (10.13.3)

Posted on Mar 16, 2018 1:40 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

chuck_3rd

Community Specialist

Mar 19, 2018 5:59 AM in response to FilipCh

Hello Filip,

Thank you reaching out in Apple Support Communities.

I see you are trying to open PDF files using the Mail app with your MacBook Pro and can only open ones that are one page. Have you checked your internet connection? This could be the reason larger files aren't loading into Preview. If you've checked this with another Wi-Fi network or are connected via ethernet to your router, try opening the files while booted into safe mode. Take a look at this article for more information about how safe mode works.

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support

Start up in safe mode

To start up in safe mode:

Start or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key. The Apple logo appears on your display. If you don't see the Apple logo, learn what to do.

Release the Shift key when you see the login window. If your startup disk is encrypted with FileVault, you might be asked to log in twice: once to unlock the startup disk, and again to log in to the Finder.

To leave safe mode, restart your Mac without pressing any keys during startup.

Let me know if you can load the files there, or if you still have the same issue.

Take care.

Reply

Answer 2

FilipCh Author

Level 1

50 points

Mar 19, 2018 5:27 AM in response to chuck_3rd

Hi Alex,

Unfortunately it didn't help. Safe mode looks bit weird and everything was laggy. The larger files did not show up in the emails at all (blank area), some of the files did show up but others were all black (screenshot attached).

Internet connection is not a problem as everything pops up in the Mail application. I just can't open the PDF from the email by double clicking. Preview doesn't start at all. The whole message goes blank for a second and then is visible again but nothing is happening. The only way to open attachment in Preview is to save all of them first from the top menu. I basically can't click on the files in the message as nothing happens.

Thank you for your help!