# Mac Mail Receiving  'mime-attachment'



## RLK (Oct 23, 2005)

Hi there,

I am using the most recent version of OS X (10.4.2) 
and for email I am using Mac Mail.

I am receiving email in the form of a mime-attachment (I have a screen shot of it...wish I was able to insert it into this post).  
This mime-attachment has only come from *one* person (my brother, who also uses a Mac).

Oddly, when I used to have a PC (bleech, I'm SO happy to now be a Mac OS X user...it *rocks*!) I always got his emails completely readable and normal.  I did have to, from Outlook Express (that I used on the PC), send him plain text emails...but, always received his emails with no problem.

Now, I am a Mac user, too and the only way I can read his 'mime-attachment' is by going to the web and reading my mail on my providers website.

When I've mentioned this to him, he has successfully messed with some preferences a few times and fixed it so that his emails came through normally.  But, each time, for some mysterious reason, it eventually goes back to just the blank message body except for the little 'mime-attachment' that I can not open ("Mail couldnt find an application to open the attachment mime-attachment-7. Would you like to save the file to disk?") and it asks if I'd like to 'choose an application'.

Sorry for the lengthy query, I just tried to be thorough in order to help you help me!!!

many thanx in advance,
Robin


----------



## symphonix (Oct 23, 2005)

- Do you have the filename of the attachment?
- Do you know what mail program your brother uses?

A common one I often see is that when the sender is using Outlook or Outlook express, that program can sometimes package the email into a file called "winmail.dat". This can be corrected by turning off the "send as rich text" option next to your name in the sender's Outlook address book.


----------



## RLK (Oct 23, 2005)

symphonix said:
			
		

> - Do you have the filename of the attachment?
> - Do you know what mail program your brother uses?
> 
> A common one I often see is that when the sender is using Outlook or Outlook express, that program can sometimes package the email into a file called "winmail.dat". This can be corrected by turning off the "send as rich text" option next to your name in the sender's Outlook address book.



Thank you so much, _symphonix_, for responding to my query!

I do not know (although I certainly can find out) what mail program Scott uses.  
I have attached an image of the exact attachment that I am referring to.  Unfortunately, all I know is that it is called "mime-attachment", I'm new to Mac so I'm not sure how to determine the file name other than simply what it is called.  If you mean the file extension...I'm not sure.

I don't think he uses Outlook or OE.  

It is so strange that this seems to be some bizarre anomaly.  I found very little on this subject when I did a web search to solve my issue.  Which, of course, is why I ended up here, in hopes that some helpful, more knowledgeable person could unravel the mystery for me!

thanks again for any further assistance you or anyone is willing to provide!

aloha-Robin


----------



## vaeads (Mar 6, 2006)

Seems that I have a similar problem in OSX mail with mime attachments. Apparently, when I send a photo or graphic (mainly jpegs) to other mac users, they receive a mime attachment in which they cannot open.

Also, when a photo is sent to my email via cingular mobile phone, it comes through as a mime attachment that photoshop (or any other program) does not 
recognize. all that i can do is take a screen shot and that compromises the image quality.

Any of you know what I can do about this? Thanks.


----------



## bakoenin (Mar 14, 2006)

I have the same problem. Different people who send an e-mail to a colleague using a mac mini and Mail.

When I find a solution, I will post it here.


----------



## RLK (Mar 14, 2006)

Most excellent!  Thanx.  My only "solution" has been to use a utility (TextWrangler) to open the little critter (mime-attachment) from the one person that I get them from (my brother).

thanx!
Robin


----------



## gdekadt (Mar 30, 2006)

A-ha!

Just had a mime-attachment in an email - turns out to be a simpe thing to open the little feller. 

It seems that there was a Word doc in there somewhere. Good ole TextWrangler. By adding ".doc" to the file it opens up nicely at least in TextEdit: I'd rather chew off a limb than let Word itself start up.  

Some of the content seems to have gone - but hey - I reckon it's superfluous stuff - must check this out...

It's been a LONG time since I've had any such a problems.


----------



## Milumik (May 12, 2006)

sending an e-mail with a Word or Excel Attachment and a Signature will create a mail with text, attachment, and mime-attachment. If the Signature is formatted, it creates a mime-attachment.html wich opens in Safari showing the text after the inserted Word-File an the Signature. If the Mail is sent as Plain Text, it creates a 'mime-attachment.txt' which opens in TextEdit. This only seems to happen the first time after starting Mail.app. I can compose exactly the same Mail twice. The first one will arrive as described, the following will arrive correctly. After restarting Mail.app: same problem! Even in Web-Mail it appears as described. We all use Macs and Mail 2.0.7 and even if i send an email to my own account it seems to be the same problem.

this only happens if the attachment is not placed at the end of the text.

Example:

text 1
attachment 1 (Word)
text 2
attachement 2 (Excel)
text 3
signature

will create (sometimes...):
text 1
attachment 1 (Word)
mime-attachment.html (contains text 2)
attachment 2 (Excel)
mime-attachment-1.html (contains text 3 and Signature)

i 've tested this with Word, Excel and JPEG Files. The JPEG worked fine.

thanks for any suggestions!


----------



## andyq (Oct 1, 2008)

Thanks for that last post. At least it allowed me to figure out the problem, working with a colleague in New York.

But I'm appalled that many colleagues would NOT have been receiving my e-mails as correctly intended.

And two years after the last problem was reported and the same thing is happening! Sometimes Mail Sucks!

To resummarize (what I think is happening):

I use an automatic signature that places my signature above quoted text.

If I send an e-mail using Mail from my mac (os x 10.5.5) to a PC, if I put an excel or word attachment in the middle of the e-mail, all text after that is put in a .txt file attachment.

If I put the attachment at the very end of the e-mail, there is no problem.

Anyone find a solution for this? For now, I'm going to put all attachments at the bottom of my e-mails.


----------



## Satcomer (Oct 1, 2008)

Wow I never heard of that problem before. Maybe something over at MacWindows could help. I hope you find an answer.


----------

