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Mac OS X Mail Problem: Attached Images Show Up Embedded In Outlook & Other Clients

I’ve had this problem for a while, that Mac OS X Mail (the native mail client in OS X) sends emails that other email clients don’t recognize as attachments, but as embedded pictures. This has been really frustrating, because if I’m sending an image to a client that needs to be saved on the client’s computer, he or she is unable to do so because the image is not a “real attachment”.

So, here are the facts: Wether an image is embedded in the email or not, it’s still an attachment. Thus, OS X Mail does nothing wrong when it embeds the image, other clients simply doesn’t want to understand that it’s still an attachment. The clients (read: “Outlook”) offer no way to save the image other than to right click it inside the email, but that only generates a .bmp that’s scaled down to the email size in pixel width.

Please note that it doesn’t matter if you click the Attachment button in the main taskbar or simply drag the images to the email body.

The solution:
The reason my images were getting embedded was because I was using some signatures with colors in them. As soon as you set the font, a color or similar, Mail turns the email into a “Rich Text” email, which basically means it’s a HTML email. So when you attach images to such an email, Mail generates an tag for that image, thus embedding it into the email itself. You can avoid this easily by just using Plain Text emails (see screenshot).

You can also try to simply don’t use any formatting in the email, including your signature.

Hope this helps. :)

By Isaac Keyet Posted in Blogging, Bugtracking, Personal, Tutorials, Work

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15 Responses to “Mac OS X Mail Problem: Attached Images Show Up Embedded In Outlook & Other Clients”


  1. Samson Cranford Says:

    Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

  2. Isaac Keyet Says:

    You're welcome! :)

  3. Frank Says:

    THANKS! SO SIMPLE BUT SO DIFFICULT :)

  4. Isaac Keyet Says:

    I know. Stupid Mail :)

  5. Marix Says:

    Its taken me 7 months to get this right! My whole office is happy too! especially client service who uses pc :)

  6. gerard Says:

    you're the man, great solution!!!

  7. Kiddle3 Says:

    Thank you so much, very informative!

  8. Fernando Says:

    Here another problem, my sign with this configuration appear as attachment :(

  9. Smith Says:

    Oh Thank God.. You da Man!

  10. Isaac Keyet Says:

    test

  11. MartinaMaas Says:

    Sometimes it’s really that simple, isn’t it? I feel a little stupid for not thinking of this myself/earlier, though.

  12. Isaac Keyet Says:

    Yeah, it's that simple :)

  13. Melanie Says:

    So helpful, Thank you

  14. Zan Says:

    Ok, but clearly Microsoft has solved the problem of being able to have rich text and html emails that ALSO allow attachments to deliver properly, whereas MAC has NOT solved this problem effectively. I love MAC, but why haven't they set this up properly? I hate to see Microsoft solve something that MAC hasn't!

  15. Isaac Keyet Says:

    I'm 100% with you.

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