Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Applications > Cannot attach/view files in mail!

Cannot attach/view files in mail!
Thread Tools
richwig83
Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: London
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 14, 2008, 06:29 AM
 
Hi guys,
Just tried to attach a picture into a mail message and all it shows it a little blue box with a question mark in it. It doesn't matter what sort of file it is i wont show up!!

Also if im looking back thru my old emails none of the attachments show in the message but they can be opened so they do exist!

Hope someone can shed some light on this.

Im running Leopard with Gmail(IMAP)

Thanks
Rich
MacBook Pro 2.2 i7 | 4GB | 128GB SSD ~ 500GB+2TB Externals ~ iPhone 4 32GB
Canon 5DII | EF 24-105mm IS USM | EF 100-400mm L IS USM | 50mm 1.8mkII
iMac | Mac Mini | 42" Panasonic LED HDTV | PS3
     
JKT
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: London, UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 14, 2008, 11:08 AM
 
The icon means that Mail is unable to find the correct plug-in to display the attachments. Why this is the case and how you fix it, on the other hand, is not something I can say. Perhaps deleting the Launchservices cache would work? Easiest way to do so is to log out of your account then log back in, but hold down the shift key as you do so until your desktop has loaded - if you look in the Trash, you will see a number of caches and other files there. Note, this is called a safe login. As well as clearing the caches it also disables any third party software, fonts and plug-ins so that your account is running Apple only software. If you find it helps, log back out and back in again to restore the third party software to its operational state. If the problem comes back again, then you have a third party conflict with the system.
     
TETENAL
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: FFM
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 14, 2008, 11:31 AM
 
Originally Posted by JKT View Post
The icon means that Mail is unable to find the correct plug-in to display the attachments.
No, that's not what it means.

The blue box with the question mark means that images are not displayed. Either because they are non local images in an HTML message and you have displaying them turn off in the preferences, or because they are large attachments that are not yet downloaded (that takes some time after all). Maybe there are other reasons why Mail would not display images, but those are the two I encountered.
     
JKT
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: London, UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 14, 2008, 12:16 PM
 
Natch, I was thinking of the blue lego block icon with the question mark that you get in WebKit browsers when it can't find the right plug-in.
     
richwig83  (op)
Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: London
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 14, 2008, 04:50 PM
 
Originally Posted by JKT View Post
The icon means that Mail is unable to find the correct plug-in to display the attachments. Why this is the case and how you fix it, on the other hand, is not something I can say. Perhaps deleting the Launchservices cache would work? Easiest way to do so is to log out of your account then log back in, but hold down the shift key as you do so until your desktop has loaded - if you look in the Trash, you will see a number of caches and other files there. Note, this is called a safe login. As well as clearing the caches it also disables any third party software, fonts and plug-ins so that your account is running Apple only software. If you find it helps, log back out and back in again to restore the third party software to its operational state. If the problem comes back again, then you have a third party conflict with the system.
The safe login appears to do nothing, and there isn't anything in trash after ive done this.

The files i'm trying to attach are local so that's not the issue, and also the emails that i have received that have attachments can be opened, they just are not displayed in the message as they should be!

This is what im getting...

Anymore suggestions

Thanks
Rich
MacBook Pro 2.2 i7 | 4GB | 128GB SSD ~ 500GB+2TB Externals ~ iPhone 4 32GB
Canon 5DII | EF 24-105mm IS USM | EF 100-400mm L IS USM | 50mm 1.8mkII
iMac | Mac Mini | 42" Panasonic LED HDTV | PS3
     
TETENAL
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: FFM
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 14, 2008, 05:53 PM
 
Oops. So I was wrong and JKT was right. I'd like to apologize to him.

I don't think Mail uses Internet plug-ins. And I hope it doesn't (for annoyance and security reasons). If a HTML message embeds some fancy content you will have to live with the fact that it is not displayed inline.
     
richwig83  (op)
Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: London
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 14, 2008, 06:22 PM
 
Originally Posted by TETENAL View Post
Oops. So I was wrong and JKT was right. I'd like to apologize to him.

I don't think Mail uses Internet plug-ins. And I hope it doesn't (for annoyance and security reasons). If a HTML message embeds some fancy content you will have to live with the fact that it is not displayed inline.
Its not fancy content, that email screen shot its what i get when i try and attach a JPEG to an email!!!

Its bizarre isnt it!

Rich
MacBook Pro 2.2 i7 | 4GB | 128GB SSD ~ 500GB+2TB Externals ~ iPhone 4 32GB
Canon 5DII | EF 24-105mm IS USM | EF 100-400mm L IS USM | 50mm 1.8mkII
iMac | Mac Mini | 42" Panasonic LED HDTV | PS3
     
JKT
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: London, UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 14, 2008, 07:13 PM
 
Originally Posted by TETENAL View Post
Oops. So I was wrong and JKT was right. I'd like to apologize to him.

I don't think Mail uses Internet plug-ins. And I hope it doesn't (for annoyance and security reasons). If a HTML message embeds some fancy content you will have to live with the fact that it is not displayed inline.
No problem, from the description, it could have been either of the white question marks on a blue background icons.

Mail might not use any internet plug-ins, but what it will use is Quicktime to display its content. richwig83, have you done anything to any Quicktime folders in your System and/or Library folders, or installed any new codecs or media players recently?
     
richwig83  (op)
Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: London
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 14, 2008, 07:26 PM
 
Not that im aware of!!
MacBook Pro 2.2 i7 | 4GB | 128GB SSD ~ 500GB+2TB Externals ~ iPhone 4 32GB
Canon 5DII | EF 24-105mm IS USM | EF 100-400mm L IS USM | 50mm 1.8mkII
iMac | Mac Mini | 42" Panasonic LED HDTV | PS3
     
JKT
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: London, UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 14, 2008, 07:30 PM
 
If you create a new user account (as a test), do you get the same problem with Mail in that account?
     
richwig83  (op)
Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: London
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 14, 2008, 07:39 PM
 
Originally Posted by JKT View Post
If you create a new user account (as a test), do you get the same problem with Mail in that account?
Same problem... i just cant understand why it doesnt show the JPEG as it should do!

Rich
MacBook Pro 2.2 i7 | 4GB | 128GB SSD ~ 500GB+2TB Externals ~ iPhone 4 32GB
Canon 5DII | EF 24-105mm IS USM | EF 100-400mm L IS USM | 50mm 1.8mkII
iMac | Mac Mini | 42" Panasonic LED HDTV | PS3
     
richwig83  (op)
Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: London
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 15, 2008, 11:53 AM
 
MacBook Pro 2.2 i7 | 4GB | 128GB SSD ~ 500GB+2TB Externals ~ iPhone 4 32GB
Canon 5DII | EF 24-105mm IS USM | EF 100-400mm L IS USM | 50mm 1.8mkII
iMac | Mac Mini | 42" Panasonic LED HDTV | PS3
     
richwig83  (op)
Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: London
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 16, 2008, 02:40 PM
 
Bump,

Someone must know whats causing this??

Thanks
Rich
MacBook Pro 2.2 i7 | 4GB | 128GB SSD ~ 500GB+2TB Externals ~ iPhone 4 32GB
Canon 5DII | EF 24-105mm IS USM | EF 100-400mm L IS USM | 50mm 1.8mkII
iMac | Mac Mini | 42" Panasonic LED HDTV | PS3
     
JKT
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: London, UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 16, 2008, 09:56 PM
 
I've already posted what is the likely cause, but it is how you solve it that you need to find the answer for. Personally, I would probably take the easy route of either (a) reinstalling the latest combined system update for whichever version of OS X you are running to see if that solves it, then (b) an archive and install if (a) doesn't work. But someone else might have a better idea of what to do next, or a Google search might turn up something. If you have any third party codecs or Quicktime plug-ins installed, you might try removing those first (reboot to ensure they are unloaded as well) to see if it is down to a software conflict.
     
stoneage
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: In your blind spot.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 25, 2008, 11:02 AM
 
I also, cannot drag and drop or attach a file to Mail on my iMac (10.5.2). My MacBook is working fine. I will try a 'test' user account later.
W....liar or idiot? Pick two.
     
richwig83  (op)
Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: London
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 25, 2008, 11:23 AM
 
In the end I just ended up doing a reinstall of leopard! Never managed to find out exactly why it would never work!
MacBook Pro 2.2 i7 | 4GB | 128GB SSD ~ 500GB+2TB Externals ~ iPhone 4 32GB
Canon 5DII | EF 24-105mm IS USM | EF 100-400mm L IS USM | 50mm 1.8mkII
iMac | Mac Mini | 42" Panasonic LED HDTV | PS3
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 11:16 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,