More ranting on Mail

[karavite]

I really, really, really want to use Mail, but it seems to have some real issues with sending attachments that results in many PC users not being able to read attachments I send out. I really don't enjoy PC users making fun of me and my Mac, but this one is hard to defend.

I have performed an experiment using the following:
Mail on OS X 10.1.5
Entourage 10.1.0 on OS X
Outlook 9.0.0.2711 on W2000
Lotus Notes 5.0.7 on W2000

a 300k .mov file (audio)

If I send any of this file using Mail, I can receive it on Mail and it is fine. If I receive this file on a PC using Outlook or Notes, the file is not readable. Quicktime will not recognize the .mov file nor will Windows Media Player. If I send the same file using Entourage, it works perfectly on all the email applications the PC.

So what is up with this? I had the same problem with Word files and jpegs, but this seems to have been fixed in recent releases of Mail. Is it really too much to ask for Mail to handle attachments the way the rest of the world does? Please spare me complex fixes - it should work out of the box! Again, I really really like Mail - it is comfortable, pretty and easy to use, but I do need to send attachments now and again!

[Tigger]

I also had some issues with attachments, JPEGs were much bigger than they should have been. It turned out to be the resource fork IE puts onto images downloaded by it, and PC users always got two files.

Maybe this is also the problem with the .movs

I made a little Toolbar Droplet which attaches files to an email when dropped on it.
When a file has a resource fork, it will ask you if you want to delete the resource fork.

I got it here:
www.dodgethis.de/Send%20Files.sit

Maybe you want to try it.

But I really hope there will be an option to not send the resource fork in the Mail.app that comes with 10.2

(Edit - updated the link to the file

[Captain Code]

Mail has always worked for me. I've sent many files to my pc lovin friends, as well as my own pc, and have been able to open the files without any problem.

[karavite]

I'm glad it works for you, but it hasn't always worked with all attachments and it is not just me - there have been fixes - can you explain why it doesn't work for me for .mov files? Have you been sending .mov files?

Tigger - Yes, this is what happened with me - but .doc files were split into three files! This seems to be okay now, so I am assuming Apple cleaned up their act, but not completely. Beyond being annoying, these kinds of problems should not make into a final release, especially when some brand new first ever Mac user (that Apple seems to be targeting) brings home their wonderful snappy "Digitial Hub" and sends off a few pics or other files to friends and have them write back "Gee, I couldn't open them. Maybe your Mac files are unreadable by a PC..." Since Mac is low on the list, they need to be much much better - especially with anything relating to sharing files between platforms.

I mean come on- don't they test this stuff? I work in development and if we let these kinds of bugs slip by, someone would be reaming someone out. It isn't 1988 or something - people expect software that works!

[Captain Code]

I don't know why .mov files don't work for you, but I just sent one to my local email server with Mail, and downloaded it on my pc with outlook express.

I get 2 files, one which is the resource fork, and the second one being the data fork.

The data fork file will play fine for me, as I just played it.

Weird.

[karavite]

devonferns (sounds like a nice suburban neighborhood - Welcome to Devon Ferns)

Now my .mov file was not split in two, and was not readable in Outlook!!! I had the same split thing happen in the past with other files (jps and .doc among other), but that doesn't happen anymore. I don't know what is going on, but it can't be right!

[Captain Code]

Originally posted by karavite
devonferns (sounds like a nice suburban neighborhood - Welcome to Devon Ferns)

LOL

Now my .mov file was not split in two, and was not readable in Outlook!!! I had the same split thing happen in the past with other files (jps and .doc among other), but that doesn't happen anymore. I don't know what is going on, but it can't be right!

It must be a system-specific thing or something since some people have problems, while others don't. Hopfully Apple has this bug worked out soon!

[karavite]

Okay, thanks Apple for fixing the idiotic spell check in Mail in 10.2. I guess there really is a Santa Claus (sort of).

However, I still can't sent .mov files to my friends with PCs. They continue to split up into mime types, resource forks... whatever.