Strange problem with email attachments

[TPS Test]

Wonder if anyone can help with this please?

I have a colleague who sends me reports in excel on a regular basis. These are sent as email attachments.

I use Windows XP and Outlook as an email program, he uses either a desktop running Vista or a laptop using Windows 7 (both use Live Mail as the email program)

If he sends the message with attachment from the laptop then everything is ok, however if he sends the same message from the desktop then the attachment doesn't transmit properly and the body of the email message is corrupted with large amounts of seemingly random characters.

Difficult to explain in any more detail but I wondered if anyone could advise what may be causing this and how it can be overcome?

Thanks

 

[SBOnline]

It might be worth checking if it is just emails he sends to you from his desktop that are arriving in this way. If other recipients are getting random characters etc then I would suggest it is more likely to be a problem with his email program.

Its certainly not anything I have heard of before.

 

[RemoteTechs]

Is it just the attachment that doesn't display or the body of the e-mail as well?
Does the sender have antivirus and e-mail scanning software on the desktop PC?

 

[TPS Test]

Thaks for the replies,
As far as I know I am the only one he sends Excel attachments to, I could try and get him to send a test email to another recipient and see if the problem reproduces.

Remote Techs :-

When it happens there is an icon in the attachments area of the email but not the expected excel one. The body of the email is then corrupted with a large number of random characters like this

T25lRERMLmNvbSBpcyBhd2Vzb21lLiBnbyBjaGVjayBpdCBvdXQgaHR0cDovL29uZWRkbC5jb20=

Although some of the intended text from the body of the email he sent does appear in places (mixed in with the random characters.

 

[Walk-IT]

It sounds like the excel file is being embedded in the body of the email, the random characters are actually the content of the excel file.

How is he sending the file?

If he does it from the email client by 'Adding Attachment' this shouldn't happen, if he is doing it directly from Excel then ask him to try creating a new email first, and use the 'Add Attachment/Add File' option in that email.

 

[TPS Test]

Not sure how he is doing it but the confusing thing is that he can send the same message from his laptop without this happening.

This suggests to me that the problem does not lie with the message format but with some issue regarding the set up of his desktop/software.

 

[Posilan]

When it happens there is an icon in the attachments area of the email but not the expected excel one.

Is the attachment that is showing called "Winmail.dat" by any chance?

If it is, try opening it with this utility:

http://www.kopf.com.br/winmail/

Steve

 

[TPS Test]

Thanks for the link Posilan, I foolishly deleted the rogue email so I can't remember if it is Winmail.dat that appeared.

Next time it happens I will try this and see if it helps.

Still can't understand what the underlying cause is though

 

[Posilan]

Thanks for the link Posilan, I foolishly deleted the rogue email so I can't remember if it is Winmail.dat that appeared.

Next time it happens I will try this and see if it helps.

Still can't understand what the underlying cause is though

If it is winmail.dat, it's a normally found on older versions on Outlook where there is an attatchment and the sender uses rich text format.

Occasionally the email doesn't decode properly keeping the attachment embedded in the winmail.dat file.

Steve

 

[Walk-IT]

Still can't understand what the underlying cause is though

The underlying cause will be a difference in the setup of Office between laptop and desktop (and the differing operating systems of each).

Do both machines have the same version of Office installed?
Has Outlook been installed on either/both machines?

If he is sending directly from Excel using File-->Send To, what options are available? If there is a Mail Recipient (As attachment) get him to try using that option.

It appears to be a problem where the spreadsheet is being embedded in the email rather than sent as an attachment, get him to try the Attachment options as stated and see if that solves your problems.

 

[andygambles]

Most probably as has been suggested it is the "Rich Text" setting.

Try getting him to change this to HTML or Plain Text. Normally in the email program Tools > Options > Mail Format. May be slightly different depending on Email program/version.

 

[Annawatson]

Is it possible that he isn't attaching the excel file as an attachment but is instead inserting it into the message body somehow. I don't use Live Mail so I don't know if that's a possibility.