Sending Attachments to AOL --> Mime issue

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Level 1

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Sending Attachments to AOL --> Mime issue

This is getting really frustrating. Sending a simple jpg to AOL users simply doesn't work through Apple Mail. AOL says its Apple Mail's fault. Apple says its AOL's fault.

Attachments, wether they be jpgs, pdfs, text documents, pngs are sent perfectly to all my recipients EXCEPT for AOL users. They are converted to .mime files which none of the AOLers seem to be able to deal with.

It doesn't matter if the recipient is AOL Windows or AOL Mac.

I have an AOL account... I recieve all sorts of attachments but when I send a JPG from my Apple Mail to my AOL account it is converted to a Mime and I can't open it.

If I send a jpg from one screen name of my AOL Account to a different screen name on my AOL account it comes across perfectly.

How do I stop Apple Mail from Converting my jpgs to mime files for my AOL recipients

I have tried setting my Mail program to Plain text ... Rich Text.. I've looked through my preferences but can't find anything to change.

I have two non-AOL e-mail accounts. Gmail and SBCGlobal. I have tried both sending through both accounts to AOL and I still get the mime conversion. So I don't think it is the service provider.

Nobody seems to know the answer. Am I the only one having this problem?

Customer support is useless

Thanks

G5 Dual 2.5, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Apr 2, 2007 12:22 PM

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Answer 1

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Apr 2, 2007 12:43 PM in response to GTAK

Hi GTAK, I've always had this issue with AOL. They lay their own codec on the attachment and mangle it. Choose the file you want to send and .zip it by right clicking or control-click and choose " create archive of", then send it zipped.

-mj
macjack@gmail.com

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Answer 2

Apr 2, 2007 1:06 PM in response to GTAK

All message attachments must be encoded before being sent and decoded with received and the Mail.app uses MIME 1.0 for attachment encoding/decoding which is the internet standard.

When an email client reports an attachment included with a received message as a "mime" file, this means the recipient's email client didn't decode the attachment properly or doesn't recognize the attachment as a valid file type.

Are you including the file extension with each attachment?

Attachments, wether they be jpgs, pdfs, text documents, pngs are sent perfectly to all my recipients EXCEPT for AOL users.

This is a clear indication that the problem lies entirely and squarely with the AOL program which has always been problematic with attachments sent to and received from a non-AOL program.

Sorry but for AOL to say this problem is Apple's fault or Mail's fault is laughable and entirely wrong.

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Answer 3

Jun 26, 2007 4:32 AM in response to Allan Sampson

However... Windows users of Outlook Express, Outlook, Thunderbird etc., do not experience this problem with AOL subscribers. Similarly, I have never had a problem receiving a file attachment from an AOL subscriber. I have tried to convert small handfuls of AOL's 25.5 million worldwide subscriber base to another ISP, but they are quite happy as they are.

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