Windows Mail app won't download attachements. Help please?

TheBoyConor

Hello wonderful people,

I have a laptop with Windows 10 with the Mail app. I have 2 accounts set up on it. A gmail account and my Microsoft Exchange work account from my employer.

The Gmail works perfectly and downloads attachments no problem.

However, the exchange account while it sends receives mails fine, cannot open attachments. It says download failed. I have enabled all downloads, checked the account settings are correct time and again, reinstalled and reset the app several times to no avail.

When I log in to the webmail version of my work email, I can download attachments no problem.

What's more, I have another personal desktop at home with Win 10 and Mail, and my work exchange email works perfectly on that!

This seems to be an issue with this specific instance of the Windows Mail app on this laptop and its interface with the exchange server.

TLDR As I said, Mail on my home desktop works fine with this account, Mail on my laptop works perfectly with Mail on my laptop, but for some reason the Microsoft exchange work account will not.

Has anyone any experience of this and any idea how I might resolve it?

Also, my work IT dept flat out refused to advise or help me as it is my own laptop.

smuggler.ie

Does it load headers only or full message content except attachments.



Lately come across case , where on outlook app, mail start only loading headers - manually change Send/Receive>>Download preferences>>Full items. Reason remain unknown as user could switched it or related to lack of bandwith

Win Mail is strip off version of outlook so could be similar, however not using, can't be sure. Something like right click on the folder and change the sync setting from Headers Only to All Messages

TheBoyConor

Yes, it is downloading the actual email message fine and you can see that there are attachements and the size of them in kB. However, the icon stays as a blank rectangle and doesn't appear as the PDF or Word doc icon as is usual. When you click on it to download or view it just stays as downloading for ages and then eventually a message says download failed or cannot download attachments.

I have checked the download external content, images etc and that is OK.

It is a strange one to be honest. And both my laptop and desktop are basically a carbon copy of eachother as I set up my laptop a few weeks back by cloning my desktop's SSD so everything is identical with respect to software an versions. Yet the laptop just won't download the email attachments.

smuggler.ie

What size is attachment(s)?


not 100% but think there was 25MB limit

Scratch that if loading OK on other machine.

TheBoyConor

Yep, they are small attachements. on various emails there are ones that are 14KB and 3MB.

Downloads fine on the other PC

smuggler.ie

seen this?
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/all/windows-10-mail-attachments-download-failed/7104aa1f-2e08-49c5-8164-f53d16176d17

TheBoyConor

I had looked at that already and there is no fix identified in it. I've also looked at other Microsoft help threads and the issue seems to be a known issue, but I have not found any of the threads to have a fix for it unfortunately.

TheBoyConor

For what it's worth, I notice that there is no issue with sending attachements in emails. Send attachments can be received and viewed no problem by my recipients, so this is also a one-way problem with received items only.

smuggler.ie

Does same happen if you double click messages first to open in full and then right click>>save attachment?

TheBoyConor

Yeah if you open it out into its own window and right click and download, it just does as before, keeps circling saying downloading and then just fails eventually if left alone.

smuggler.ie

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Yeah if you open it out into its own window and right click and download, it just does as before, keeps circling saying downloading and then just fails eventually if left alone.

Wait..."downloading" means it was not retrieved from server in first place. If attachment would be within message wouldn't it just prompt you to save to directory.
Can you forward message to you Gmail account and see if it gets it in same app

TheBoyConor

Well yeah, that's what I normally would have thought. As you say, it suggests it wasn't downloaded along with the message to be gin with. However, I have ensured several times now that the download external content and images option in the settings is selected.

Interesting idea on forwarding it to my gmail. I did this just now and it goes through and I can download and view perfectly fine through the Gmail account on the same Mail app! However when I then go into the sent items on my work MS exchange account, the attachment in the email sent to my Gmail still has the same issue - blank icon and won't download and cannot view.

All very strange. I wonder should I just give up on it. It must be some bug. But then why is my desktop working fine with the EXACT SAME set up. I have checked several times now and all settings and app versions, windows versions are all IDENTICAL

smuggler.ie

it is weird indeed...
could be profile corruption, perhaps..

If willing to play, try to remove that account from computer. Ensure you have local admin account available.
If you signed in with MS account, you might need to sign out from it and sign in with local admin account instead.

If you signed with local account(admin), you should be able remove MS account from within MAIL or through Settings>>Accounts>>Email & accounts


Be sure to mind your data

TheBoyConor

Local admin account on the laptop and the desktop.

I already tried yesterday what you said there, removing the Exchange email account both through Mail and in Windows Settings.
No joy. Same craic.

smuggler.ie

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Local admin account on the laptop and the desktop.

I already tried yesterday what you said there, removing the Exchange email account both through Mail and in Windows Settings.
No joy. Same craic.

Sorry then, don't know what else to suggest. Never liked this MAIL ...

Use other client, you on business O365 >> Outlook

TheBoyConor

I can't use outlook for some reason. I try the manual set up for the account and I enter the exact same MS exchange server details, username, domain, password etc that I do in mail but for some reason, it will not work at all in Outlook. gives back some error . I tried several times so I am definitely sure the settings and details are correct.

I also asked my IT department to advise me on setting up outlook on my own laptop and they refused to entertain the idea as it was my own personal laptop.

I wonder have they done something behind the scenes to intentionally block me or prevent me from downloading attachments? Far fetched but if they are so impersonal to not even discuss it in any shape I wouldn't put it past them to intentionally do something to frustrate me.

smuggler.ie

TheBoyConor wrote: »

I can't use outlook for some reason. I try the manual set up for the account and I enter the exact same MS exchange server details, username, domain, password etc that I do in mail but for some reason, it will not work at all in Outlook. gives back some error . I tried several times so I am definitely sure the settings and details are correct.

I also asked my IT department to advise me on setting up outlook on my own laptop and they refused to entertain the idea as it was my own personal laptop.

I wonder have they done something behind the scenes to intentionally block me or prevent me from downloading attachments? Far fetched but if they are so impersonal to even discuss it in any shape I wouldn't put it past them to intentionally do something to frustrate me.

Depend on company policy's, restrictions could be in place, but then you most likely would not be able to forward mail with attached doc's nor receive them on other computer bar work. Other-ways is not much of a restriction
What error you get?
In outlook you don't have to manually enter any server details - it pulls all by default settings, providing you go correctly through wizard - "Work or school account"
What license you hold - Business premium, other?

TheBoyConor

That is right.

I have tried outlook letting it set up automatically which didn't work, then I tried doing it manually with the Exchange, Pre-2013 exchange, and IMAP methods. Nothing works. it just says "Something went wrong, couldn't connect to the server"

smuggler.ie

TheBoyConor wrote: »

That is right.

I have tried outlook letting it set up automatically which didn't work, then I tried doing it manually with the Exchange, Pre-2013 exchange, and IMAP methods. Nothing works. it just says "Something went wrong, couldn't connect to the server"

1. SARA
2. Online repair Office from Control panel>Programs

3. Completely uninstall office and reinstall directly from O365


What license you hold?


providing your license is above Exchange (online only) and installation is legit.

spurious

The old Hotmail used to have a setting to prevent downloading attachments, but I can't see anything similar in the new setup.

TheBoyConor

Well tbh with you my office licence, like my Windows licence is probably not quite the full 100% legit and above board. Registry keys massaged here or there.

I could understand why that might affect outlook.

But I can't see why that would be an issue affecting Mail when the exact same setup is on my desktop and mail works fine and my laptop is made from an exact clone of my desktop's SSD.

I really would rather use mail rather than outlook though at the end of the day.

smuggler.ie

Work lic would/should be legit but might not entitle you for full office install. SARA and reinstall will require O365 login. Your IT/company should assist with it. Business licenses allow up to 5 installs.
As for win10 not activated - don't think related.

TheBoyConor

See I don't have a work licence for 365. As far as I know the organisation aren't using 365. IT dept will help with nothing. "not my job" type characters.

Anyway, for some unknown reason, it has randomly decided to just start working fine, so all is well. Hopefully it stays that way.

Anyway, I thank you all for your advice and time.

sheepsh4gger

TheBoyConor wrote: »

I can't use outlook for some reason. I try the manual set up for the account and I enter the exact same MS exchange server details, username, domain, password etc that I do in mail but for some reason, it will not work at all in Outlook. gives back some error . I tried several times so I am definitely sure the settings and details are correct.

I also asked my IT department to advise me on setting up outlook on my own laptop and they refused to entertain the idea as it was my own personal laptop.

I wonder have they done something behind the scenes to intentionally block me or prevent me from downloading attachments? Far fetched but if they are so impersonal to not even discuss it in any shape I wouldn't put it past them to intentionally do something to frustrate me.

It's people who behave like you who are the reason why data leaks out of companies. When your home laptop gets stolen or infected with malware they have no control over it. You should not go against them, there's a good reason for them to refuse this. You don't even try to get in their shoes and understand how they think - you're ignorant.


>they refused to entertain the idea as it was my own personal laptop.
Because you're going to leave your laptop behind in a pub and someone will get your company and customer data.
You will install some trash software from Softpedia on your laptop with no security updates since 2012 and get hijacked buy a spam bot to send ED advertisements.


What you can do is ask the company to buy you an Android phone or Google Chromebook. These devices can be remotely managed so say if you lose your laptop it will be erased remotely. That's the only way to do it correctly.


>some error
What is the error for dog's sake, have you even Googled it?
I bet it's some boomer version of outlook from 2007 - these older versions are NOT SECURE because they don't support modern encryption. For example you won't be able to use Gmail with Ouhouse 2007 from June because the crypto is out of date.


>I wouldn't put it past them to intentionally do something to frustrate me.
Sure they did... they probably have better things to do.
It depends how the mail server is set up. It could be that you can only connect to it from within the company network so would need VPN set up.


Either get it done through I.T. properly or don't do it.


This is why I hate dealing with Irish businesses. The employees have absolutely no understanding of security. It's one thing if they get hacked, another when all of their customers data gets leaked in the process.