Fascinate stock email app & attachments

[astraelraen]

I put this on XDA as well, but seeing as this forum has more posts maybe there will be a better/quicker answer here.

I have found that using the stock email app doesn't allow you to "open" or attach PDF files to emails.

I have three email accounts connected to the stock email app, Exchange, Gmail and Hotmail.

1) If I send an Excel or Word document to any of these accounts I get the option to "save" or "open" the attachment. However, if I send a PDF document to any of these accounts the only option is to the "save" the file. Then I have to go find it using a file manager before I can open it. I have tried Adobe PDF viewer & Thinkfree that comes on the device and neither will allow me to open PDFs in the email app.

2) The stock email application will not allow me to attach any files other than pictures. When I click attach it brings up the file manager (it appears to be the stock "my files" application) which allows me to view the SD card and won't show any other file types other than picture types. I have multiple PDFs on the SD card in various folders and NONE of them show up as being able to be attached to the email.

The weird part is that if I use the "Gmail" email application (the one that only allows gmail accounts) I can open PDFs straight from the Gmail application without saving first. I can also attach any file type using this application.

Does the stock email application suck this bad? My two co-workers with Dincs have no problem doing either of the above things.

 

[Cory Streater]

Does the stock email application suck this bad?

It really does, yes. Are you willing to try Touchdown for Exchange and K9 for POP/IMAP? I know it blows, but both of those apps are a million times better than the crippled messaging app that came with the Galaxy.

 

[jack22182]

Quick question: is the stock email app the same for all Android devices, or do the email apps/features vary by phone or manufacturer? Do Droid users have the same email limitations and problems?

 

[astraelraen]

I tried Touchdown, Maildroid & K9. They all attach all file types & open files directly from the email.

Touchdown is pretty sweet, but it is 20 bucks and isn't very asthetically pleasing. I'm having issues getting K9 to work completely for the exchange server. Maildroid doesn't seem to support exchange 2003 yet and I can't get my exchange mail at all.

 

[astraelraen]

Quick question: is the stock email app the same for all Android devices, or do the email apps/features vary by phone or manufacturer? Do Droid users have the same email limitations and problems?

I know the incredible uses a different stock mail app. can the HTC mail app be used on the fascinate? Anyone have a guess?

 

[Cory Streater]

Quick question: is the stock email app the same for all Android devices, or do the email apps/features vary by phone or manufacturer? Do Droid users have the same email limitations and problems?

They all include their own flavor of messaging.

I know the incredible uses a different stock mail app. can the HTC mail app be used on the fascinate? Anyone have a guess?

No. Its tightly integrated into HTC Sense.

 

[astraelraen]

touchdown seems be very powerful, but it doesn't feel as if it is as well integrated into the phone as well as the stock apps are. It seems as if it takes the contacts, calender
, etc and makes them its "own" then tries to integrate them into android.

The stock app seems like out just lets android do its thing and pulls the necessary information it needs from android.

I don't particularly care for the touchdown calender or widget. I was using "android agenda widget" and it was perfect for my needs. But, it doesn't seem to support touchdown, at least not the free version of the widget.

 

[Cory Streater]

Yeah the widget support for Touchdown calendar isn't great. I ended up programming one of my LauncherPro dock icons to open it up on demand. However, the benefits and flaws that Touchdown provides/fixes far outweigh the eye candy of the stock app. Not being able to do something as simple as attach a PDF just makes the stock app totally unusable for me.

 

[astraelraen]

The issue actually appears to be related to what program the email app will allow you to use to find attachments.

The stock mail program appears to use My Files, but it only allows you to see picture files. The Gmail program will only use "Gallery" to find attach files if you don't have a file explorer installed.

I have Astro installed and if you use the Gmail program and try to attach something it will ask you if you want to use Astro or the Gallery. I then went and uninstalled Astro and went back to attach a file through the Gmail App and it only allowed me to use the Gallery app to look for attachments.

So the problem actually DOES exist in the Gmail app, but the Gmail app will let you use other file explorers to look for attachments.

I just cant see how that got past whatever process they use in developing their app.... How can you design a mail app that doesn't allow you to attach anything but picture files.... I mean thats just ridiculous lol

Thanks for the help.

 

[astraelraen]

So I emailed samsung to ask if this was intentional or not. They didn't give me a real good answer but here is what they said.

"Thank you for your inquiry. With the SCH-I500 mobile phone, you can only attach picture file types. If you would like to attach other files such as PDF files, you need to download an application through the android market for PDF application."

To me, that sounds like this was intentional and the stock mail app will never have the ability to attach anything other than pictures. Which is pretty much unacceptable in my opinion.

I wonder if you remove the "My Files" application if the stock mail app will try to default to another file explorer to look for attachments.

Anyone tried to delete/rename "My Files?"