Why can't I view attachments to Emails?

[rtalderson]

Peter1986 ... you are a star!

I was having the same problem as everybody else in this thread. I tried everything, including a full factory reset which was a MAJOR pain the rear because now I have to reinstall and re-customise my tablet. I wish that I'd found this thread before I did that.

Oh well.

It's working now, and it's all thanks to you.

THANK YOU!

 

[HeathC42]

Many thanks for this. Totally resolved the problem I was trying to fix.

 

[skeptc]

Make sure that Polaris has not stopped. Go to application manager and scroll to stopped applications. That fixed my problem.

 

[Chris Fallows]

Peter, you are a genius. I have had this problem for weeks and have been hitting my head against the wall. Back in business again. Thanks. Chris

 

[LachlanHoward]

I'm having the same problem on Samsung Galaxy S6 trying to access live.com.au attachments using Exchange ActiveSync. Downloading the attachment just creates a 0kb file.

Im also unable to download attachments on my HTC One M8 using Exchange ActiveSync.

I cant help but think this may be a change that has been made on the server causing the problem or maybe an update my phones have installed? Desperately looking for a solution to this.

 

[Lisa2728]

Peter, I did what you suggested, and it worked. However, now another huge problem has occurred. Every time I delete my emails (using the IMAP server), they reappear in my inbox 2 seconds later. So I keep receiving notifications of "new" emails, but they are not new. They are the emails I just deleted. I didn't have this problem using the Outlook server, but with that server I was unable to open attachments. This is ridiculous, because this problem just mysteriously occurred within the past 3 weeks.

 

[anon(9733840)]

Peter1986,

With which e-mail app are you doing this? Because with the default app there is no option for the manual setup. And if i try this with the outlook app, it says this:

"Log in error, select the right service and try again."


It seems that more people have this problem for the past weeks, strange thing is, with an iphone i can download mail attachments...

 

[peterpan783]

OK, I’ve read all the previous postings and was frustrated as everyone else not being able to open any attachments from the stock email application. I will have to disagree that it is an Outlook/Exchange problem. I don’t think so and here is why.

I’ve had my Samsung Galaxy S5 for almost 2 years now and NEVER had an issue opening any sort of attachments from the stock email app on my phone UNTIL I decided to update my android version from the original 4.4.2 Kitkat to the latest Lollipop. I was being lazy and following the rule, if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. I had to do successive updates since the newest was now 5.1.1 Lollipop with 5.0 in the middle. So I made a backup of my data, and then performed 2 successive system upgrades.

My email app was always configured as Exchange Active sync and attachments opened perfectly well. It wasn’t until I decided to update my android that it got broken. I got the same symptoms as everyone else. I got the email list on my inbox, I could see the paper clips showing the attachments, I could open the messages and it would say the file name and whatever size it was, I could tap on it and “download” it and I would see it “download” all the way to 100% but when trying to open it or checking for the file at the download location I would only find a name with 0 bytes in size. This happened regardless of file extension. It happened with pdf, it happened with jpg, it happened with ANY type of file. Simply they were not being saved properly.

I suspected a permissions issue, but that would make no sense. If there are permission issues writing to that folder, the application cannot write anything there, so we wouldn’t have any files whatsoever, and we are indeed getting files written there, but they are empty. So this problem is a communication issue between the email app and the exchange servers. The email app cannot download the attachments properly. It goes as far as getting ready to save the file and creates the name for it, but it cannot retrieve the actual contents. In my opinion, this is a 200% problem of the stock email app and NOT Exchange.

Just to prove it, I downloaded and installed Blue Mail, configured it as an exchange account and I was able to download all my emails, save every attachment and preview them normally, inside and outside of the email app, without any tinkering of any sort, so that makes it obvious that the Exchange servers are working properly. If the problem was on the Outlook/Exchange side, then we would have the SAME issue with multiple email clients, and it is not the case.

I must point out to all those who have had difficulty opening the attachments and have downloaded different types of apps to handle the files, all that is useless when the problem is not with who opens the file but the files themselves. No application will ever open a 0 byte size file because it’s empty, corrupted, not good. It cannot interpret the data properly because there is nothing to interpret.

So, I used the IMAP settings recommended by peter1986 and it worked perfectly fine. I could open everything normally. This is a workaround to get by while they fix the original problem, though. There is no reason why the accounts configured using Exchange Activesync shouldn’t work.

We must also consider that in a client-server relationship, it is always the server the one that dictates HOW the client must connect and what parameters to use. It is the client that has to conform to server settings and specifications, not the other way round. So, if one particular client cannot connect to the server for whatever reason while other clients can, the problem to fix is on the client side. The fact that other email clients could connect to the Exchange server and work normally, but not the stock email app points to the email app as the culprit.

So, if any Samsung engineers are reading this forum, there is an issue with stock email app NOT retrieving email attachments properly from accounts connected via Exchange servers. The new Lollipop update broke something there and it needs to be fixed.

 

[peter1986]

Re: Cannot View Attachments to Emails

Waw you explained everything clearly. It's true now it's in the hand of samsung to fix it. When I talked with them they ended up blaming outlook. It's true it all started not working all of a sudden and it's when the update was made. I haven't downloaded blue mail yet, but this would be the perfect example to show them it's their email app and other the server. I'll try to contact them and telling them that. If someone else can call them as well it would be good. Maybe I'll make them read what you wrote too

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[anon(9733840)]

Re: Cannot View Attachments to Emails

Finally, i got the annoying problem fixed thanks to Peterpan783. I noticed that more people have this problems since recent times, my suspicion is that an update caused this, or that there is something wrong with the mail servers.

It was the Samsung S5, of an friend, it would perfectly open attachments with the stock e-mail app, for a long time, but then suddenly it just wouldn't. I asked my friend if he did something special with it, he said that he got a message, and after that it wouldn't work. My suspicion is, that it was an update. But my friend disagrees, but isn't that sure about his disagreement. This same problem was also with his Iphone 6, but he doesn't remember getting any message.

When i saw an attachment, it would say what size it was, when i want to open it, it would download to 100%, but after trying to open the successfully download attachment, it would say that it has 0KB and that the file is not valid. The problems was with 2 mobiles (Iphone 6 and Samsung S5) but with the Iphone 4s not, i scratched my head. Why would it not work with 2 different mobiles and with one it would?

Things that i tried:
- Remove mail account, and then add it again.
- Try to change the attachment size limit, but it was already set to unlimited
- Instead of the stock mail app, try the Outlook app, no success.
- Tried what: "Peter1986" said on the second page of this thread. Try to add the mail manually (IMAP), but couldn't do it in the stock mail app since there is no option to add it manually, tried in the Outlook app, and there was an option to add it manually but after typing the mail and password it just wouldn't accept it because it would say this: "Log in error, select the right service and try again."

How did i fixed it? , i downloaded the Blue Mail app, entered my e-mail and password to add it, and it works.

 

[LachlanHoward]

Looks like this bug has been fixed, I can now download attachments using the stock email client and exchange active sync.

 

[Gwe4]

Re: Cannot View Attachments to Emails

I had the same problem. I figured out that it was a Gmail update. I had to go to Settings >applications>application manager >gmail>more>Uninstall update.
That fixed the issue by going back to the original install. The next time it automatically updated the issue was gone. Perhaps they fixed the glitch or it reinstalled properly.

 

[tugavoa]

Hi All
I have the same issue and just with one particular sender and both with pdf and word docs being blank.
I have just emailed myself a pdf file and it's fine.
Iam using the stock email app on a note 4 v5.1.1
I am pretty sure this has to do with the sender's security certificate as not long ago their it support resolved the problem and it worked fine for a couple of days.
Are you people having the issue with all emails with attachment or is it just selective.
Iam using the adobe pdf reader and ms office on my samsung.

 

[Linda Fredian]

Hi, I had the same problem since the new Marshmallow update. All I did was clear cache and data, and now I can download pictures from Gmail.

However now I can't send or receive pictures in Messages.

 

[ddowiat]

I experience the same problem right now, almost 1 year after your discussion.

The solution suggested by Peter1986... works, but it implies changing email protocol from Exchange Active Sync to IMAP. That makes attachment opening possible, but you can not sync your calender and contacts via IMAP.

I tried also to install other mail apps, like the BlueMail, suggested by some of you. It also doesn't work, if you choose Exchange Active Sync (EAS) as the account type. The same with Android/Samsung stock mail application, Outlook mobile and Gmail - so it's not the problem of any app. There must be an malfunction of Outlook.com via EAS (BTW: I use EAS also with my work mail account and there aren't any problems with attachments).

Does anybody found in the mean time any solution, how to view/open attachments using the EAS?

Otherwise I would have to use 2 separate apps - one syncing calnder/contacts via EAS, an other one for e-mails.

Regards
ddowiat

 

[Riasaul]

OK, I’ve read all the previous postings and was frustrated as everyone else not being able to open any attachments from the stock email application. I will have to disagree that it is an Outlook/Exchange problem. I don’t think so and here is why.

I’ve had my Samsung Galaxy S5 for almost 2 years now and NEVER had an issue opening any sort of attachments from the stock email app on my phone UNTIL I decided to update my android version from the original 4.4.2 Kitkat to the latest Lollipop. I was being lazy and following the rule, if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. I had to do successive updates since the newest was now 5.1.1 Lollipop with 5.0 in the middle. So I made a backup of my data, and then performed 2 successive system upgrades.

My email app was always configured as Exchange Active sync and attachments opened perfectly well. It wasn’t until I decided to update my android that it got broken. I got the same symptoms as everyone else. I got the email list on my inbox, I could see the paper clips showing the attachments, I could open the messages and it would say the file name and whatever size it was, I could tap on it and “download” it and I would see it “download” all the way to 100% but when trying to open it or checking for the file at the download location I would only find a name with 0 bytes in size. This happened regardless of file extension. It happened with pdf, it happened with jpg, it happened with ANY type of file. Simply they were not being saved properly.

I suspected a permissions issue, but that would make no sense. If there are permission issues writing to that folder, the application cannot write anything there, so we wouldn’t have any files whatsoever, and we are indeed getting files written there, but they are empty. So this problem is a communication issue between the email app and the exchange servers. The email app cannot download the attachments properly. It goes as far as getting ready to save the file and creates the name for it, but it cannot retrieve the actual contents. In my opinion, this is a 200% problem of the stock email app and NOT Exchange.

Just to prove it, I downloaded and installed Blue Mail, configured it as an exchange account and I was able to download all my emails, save every attachment and preview them normally, inside and outside of the email app, without any tinkering of any sort, so that makes it obvious that the Exchange servers are working properly. If the problem was on the Outlook/Exchange side, then we would have the SAME issue with multiple email clients, and it is not the case.

I must point out to all those who have had difficulty opening the attachments and have downloaded different types of apps to handle the files, all that is useless when the problem is not with who opens the file but the files themselves. No application will ever open a 0 byte size file because it’s empty, corrupted, not good. It cannot interpret the data properly because there is nothing to interpret.

So, I used the IMAP settings recommended by peter1986 and it worked perfectly fine. I could open everything normally. This is a workaround to get by while they fix the original problem, though. There is no reason why the accounts configured using Exchange Activesync shouldn’t work.

We must also consider that in a client-server relationship, it is always the server the one that dictates HOW the client must connect and what parameters to use. It is the client that has to conform to server settings and specifications, not the other way round. So, if one particular client cannot connect to the server for whatever reason while other clients can, the problem to fix is on the client side. The fact that other email clients could connect to the Exchange server and work normally, but not the stock email app points to the email app as the culprit.

So, if any Samsung engineers are reading this forum, there is an issue with stock email app NOT retrieving email attachments properly from accounts connected via Exchange servers. The new Lollipop update broke something there and it needs to be fixed.

Well, I'm not sure I follow everything you said but...I'm having the exact same problems on a huawei p8 and gmail app. Could you or anyone, please, help me out with that? :/

 

[Keepingstephen]

Well, I'm not sure I follow everything you said but...I'm having the exact same problems on a huawei p8 and gmail app. Could you or anyone, please, help me out with that? :/

Same problem, just happened in Oct 2016. Read though the thread and seems like downloading and using the blue mail app is the quickest and easiest solution around the problem until an update comeso out that fixes the problem.

 

[lovebug313]

Okay so ntheodora95 you are totally right about the outlook. It has nothing to do with any apps. It's really Outlook server etc. I have finally found a solution.

1- Remove/delete that email
2- Add it again but this time go on "Manual Setup" and not "Next"
3- Choose " IMAP ACCOUNT" , put your password
4- Press on "Next" until the email is installed. DO NOT CHANGE OR TOUCH ANYTHING OF "PORT NUMBERS" / SECURITY TYPE / IMAP SERVER. Just press next next.

Only down side is that the attachement takes a while to download but at least it opens afterward. Hope that helpss.

This worked for me - thanks!

 

[Joejoe2222]

here's THE answer.
Clear your phone cache . Don't worry - follow these simple instructions exactly ;
https://motorola-global-portal.cust...prod_answer_detail/a_id/101078/p/30,6720,9197

 

[marc32301]

I just want to say thanks because I had the same problem on my S6 and you finally solve it. Many thanks again. Marc