Attachment Problem

[omega0401]

I have a friend that is sending me an attachment in an e-mail but when it is in my inbox, there is no icon that shows it has an attachment. When I open the e-mail, it looks as though the attachment is embedded in the e-mail but the attachment also shows up at the bottom along with 2 other attachments that says slideshow.gif and saveimages.gif. Every e-mail I get is the same way. I can download all 3 files.

The file I need is a jpg file of a document but it is too small. When I enlarge it, it is unreadable.

I use Yahoo and my friend is using hotmail, UK version.

Has anyone seen this kind of behavior where no attachment icon displays in the inbox and two other files comes along with the intended file?

[Roderunner]

Ask the sender to try zipping them first with http://www.filehippo.com/download_7zip_32/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[omega0401]

Ask the sender to try zipping them first with http://www.filehippo.com/download_7zip_32/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I wish I could. She is not that technical and would probably not want to try it. That would be a good test to try out though. It still puzzles me why Yahoo mail doesn't think there is an attachment and where those extra files came from.

[Roderunner]

Tell your friend, all she has to do after installing 7Zip, is to right click the file, select 'Compress and email' but make these settings changes before hitting OK.

Untitled.jpg

[HansV]

Windows XP and all later Windows versions have the ability to create zip files built in: simply right-click the file in Windows Explorer and select Send to | Compressed folder from the context menu. Adding an attachment is quite easy in Hotmail, there's a button for it right above the area where you compose the e-mail.

[stuck]

She is not that technical...It still puzzles me why Yahoo mail doesn't think there is an attachment

Here's a theory ... Perhaps she is simply copying and pasting the JPG image into the message as she types, rather than actually attaching the file? If you're not technical you probably would think that by pasting you are 'attaching', whereas Yahoo mail can and does distinguish between these two actions.

Ken
PS no idea where the extra (gif) files are coming from, unless it is again a side effect of there being a non-technical user on the other end

[omega0401]

Update
I looked at her email and I failed to notice there were two printed ads. At the bottom it said, *Get Windows Live Mail to create your own photo e-mails* which was one big link. The other was at the top that said, *Play slideshow, Save all photos, Want to save all these photos at once? Learn how Online pictures are available for 30 days* which had two tiny icons for Play and Save. Those were the 2 extra attachments, which Yahoo mail did not determine had any attachments.

I don't know much about Windows Live Mail but right now I don't like it. To make things worse, I click on Play Slideshow and it opened another tab and displayed the intended document I needed which seems to be stored on SKYDRIVE. Clicked on it a few times and then it hung my browser! I was using Microsoft's Internet Explorer at work which, admittedly is a very old browser (version 7). We're in the dark ages where I work.

When I download the attachment I wanted, I now realize I'm actually downloading the thumbnail not the actual document I need which I believe is stored on Skydrive.

If anyone wants to fill in the blanks where I might have missed, please do so. I think I have to sign up for it which I haven't.

I still find it strange that Yahoo mail did not recognized those attachments. Windows Live Mail must be doing something different with it.

It appears that hotmail uk uses Windows Live Mail. My other hotmail address does not use it.

[stuck]

It appears that hotmail uk uses Windows Live Mail. My other hotmail address does not use it.

Hotmail (.co.uk or .com) is a mail server that you can reach via a browser (IE/Firefox/whatever). Windows Live Mail is a mail client that can talk to the Hotmail server as well as others. So I deduce that your friend is using WLM as her mail client, which is why you are receiving messages branded with WLM. Whereas you don't use WLM, you access Hotmail some other way.

Regardless of that, are you saying that when you use the

tiny icons for ... Save

all you get is a thumbnail?

Ken
PS I don't use WLM so this is the blind leading the blind

[omega0401]

Ken, you are correct. When I get attachments, I normally download them and everything is okay. That's what I've always been used to. But with WLM I have to be careful because the attachment is NOT the document I want. It is a thumbnail image of the attachment embedded in the email. If I want the actual document I have to click on the image embedded in the email and it asked me if I want to save it which I do. It appears everything is okay. I just don't like the way WLM does things. To me, it is not a standard way of doing things. For instance, Yahoo seems to not recognize attachments that were created by WLM.

Some people will fall into the trap (like I did) that clicking on the attachment to download it, is what I want. No. You have to click on the image embedded in the email and that's the one you save. Apparently, my friend is the first person I've corresponded with that uses WLM.

Microsoft always has to be different.

[stuck]

I know I don't use WLM but from the little I do know of it I don't think WLM handles attachments in this way by default, i.e. using Skydrive to hold the file. I suspect it is the way WLM is being used by your (non-technical) friend.

WLM must have a featured (as pointed out by yourself) to "create your own photo e-mails", which uses Skydrive to hold the actual files. I'd guess it does this because photos can be large files and if you send several of them the size of the attachments might exceed a recipients mailbox limit, in which case the email will bounce. Using Skydrive means the recipient can view them remotely, as a slideshow, without having to download them all. Fine for sharing photos, not so practical for what you want, sending a file from a to b.

Ken

[omega0401]

Ken you make a good point. Some mail servers won't allow you to store emails with large amounts of attachments so WLM, instead of attachments, uses links to file that are stored in their cloud, SkyDrive. I don't use WLM but I hope that it gives the sender the opportunity to use attachments for a few or small files and use the cloud for many or larger files. I'm not sure if my non-technical friends knows if there is a choice or not.

Now that I have somewhat of an idea of what WLM is trying to do, I know what to look out for and download the correct file.

Thanks everyone!

[stuckling1]

it gives the sender the opportunity to use attachments for a few or small files and use the cloud for many or larger files.

This is exactly what Live Mail does

[omega0401]

Another strange problem. Now she sent an email and it has those two extra attachments but those images are not seen in the body of the email. The Play slideshow and Save Images links are not at the top of the email. The embedded photo in the body of the email is not clickable. So how do I download the file? I'm stuck with the thumbnail attachment. This time I am at home using FF v11 and IE v9 with the same results. I do not like WLM!!!

[stuck]

The embedded photo in the body of the email is not clickable.

Try RIGHT clicking on the photo, is there some sort of Save option?

Ken

[HansV]

I ordinarily don't use Windows Live Mail, but as a test I used it to send a photo e-mail from my Hotmail account to another e-mail account.
When I opened the message I received in Outlook, left-clicking the image took me to SkyDrive. Right-clicking offered two options: Copy and Save as Picture...

x1128.png

Outlook doesn't "see" any attachments in the e-mail.

[omega0401]

Ken, right clicking on the embedded image allows you to save the image but it's just the same one as the attachments, same size (8.2 kb) and dimension

Hans, with Yahoo mail it doesn't see the attachments either when viewing the inbox. There is no paperclip icon to show there are attachments. But, when I open up the email, at the bottom it says 3 attachments! Maybe the email wasn't sent correctly because all the other emails she sent allowed me to either left click on the embedded image or click on a link at the top to save it from Skydrive. Now I can't do either of those. I just get a thumbnail image embedded in the body.

When I go to her other emails, left clicking the image does not take me to a Skydrive website. Instead, an Open dialog box opens up with the choice to open it or save it and that works. And if I click on the View Slideshow link near the top of the email, that takes me to SkyDrive to view the slideshow but in this case it is only one photo.

I just created a screen copy and I've attached it here with personal information redacted. The slideshow and saveimages attachments usually mean those images are embedded in the body but as you can see it isn't there or is somehow hidden.

If this is any help, when I left click an drag over the area at the top where the play slideshow should be, there's a very tiny dark block about 1 character in size gets hilighted. Almost like something was hiding there.

WLM Problem.jpg