A challenge for Apple techies

[Evilguppy]

My husband has an iPad Air and a MacBook Pro.
Since we both work together, we both get the same work related emails with the same file attachments.
They usually come in Word format.
I have no problem opening them from my iPhone 6 plus, my MacBook Air or my iPad Air 2.

But though we are both on the same mailing list and my email comes with the file attachment with the blue W icon, his comes with his instead:



And he's unable to open it.
At first he thought he was supposed to open it with Evernote, since that's the Evernote icon, but it doesn't work, there's nothing there, it's not a file. He has tried to open it from his iPad and his MacBook Pro.

Does anyone know what could possibly be causing this? Again, we are both on the same email list, we are both emailed the same material at the same time from the same computer. Also, his email reaches him usually 15 minutes after mine arrives.

Any idea as to how to fix this?

 

[Bigeric23]

This might be worth a read:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5136244?start=0&tstart=0

 

[Evilguppy]

This might be worth a read:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5136244?start=0&tstart=0

I still don't understand why he's having this happen but I'm not. Also the people sending out the emails aren't willing to change their format, so he still needs a way to fix it on his end.
I foresee a trip to the genius bar, tomorrow.

 

[Just_Me_D]

That's very strange, especially if your devices are configured identically, minus the Apple IDs, of course. A quick fix for him would be to install Outlook Mail from the Office for Mac suite and maybe the new Outlook Mail app on his iOS device.

 

[Evilguppy]

That's very strange, especially if your devices are configured identically, minus the Apple IDs, of course. A quick fix for him would be to install Outlook Mail from the Office for Mac suite and maybe the new Outlook Mail app on his iOS device.

Oooooh boy. Hmmmm.
I just gave him your suggestion, and he flatly declared "NO. I don't want MS products. It's bad enough I have to put up with Google stuff."

Sooo... Thanks for the help.
First we're going to do a side by side comparison of all our respective settings, just to be sure, then we'll probably make an appt with the genius bar.
On top of it we're leaving Thursday on a job, his iPad HAS to be able to open these attachments. *sigh*

 

[zerog46]

I'm guessing if they are sending word docs he needs word to open them.


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[HankAZ]

I'm guessing if they are sending word docs he needs word to open them.

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Pages should be able to open Word files (both .doc and .docx).

 

[Evilguppy]

Pages should be able to open Word files (both .doc and .docx).

Yes, that's what we both have, but only I can open them, it's really weird.

 

[Evilguppy]

That's very strange, especially if your devices are configured identically, minus the Apple IDs, of course. A quick fix for him would be to install Outlook Mail from the Office for Mac suite and maybe the new Outlook Mail app on his iOS device.

Aha!
I had forgotten that I got an Outlook email account a while back to use as back up address for iCloud.
I never use it, but I have it and it's enabled on my iPad.
And that's why I can open those files and he can't, right?
Stubborn old bear is adamant that he doesn't want to get an Outlook account.
I guess when he gets fed up with not being able to open attachments, he will, lol.

 

[FFR]

Winmail.dat attachments have nothing to do with iOS 8 or the model iPhone or iPad in use. They originate from MS Outlook/Exchange on Windows systems.

It's all about the settings the sender of the email has configured in MS Outllook (or MS Exchange Server). To avoid sending such troublesome attachments to non-Microsoft Outlook email users the sender needs to configure Outlook to send emails as either plain text or HTML, but not Rich Text format; as described here:

http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/richtext.htm

If the sender continues to send emails containing winmail.dat attachments then the receiver of the emails can use one of the many apps, plugins or other email services that can handle winmail.dat attachments. The Apple Mail app (on iOS or OS X) does not handle them natively, you need to install an app.

You can read more about here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNEF


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[Evilguppy]

Winmail.dat attachments have nothing to do with iOS 8 or the model iPhone or iPad in use. They originate from MS Outlook/Exchange on Windows systems.

It's all about the settings the sender of the email has configured in MS Outllook (or MS Exchange Server). To avoid sending such troublesome attachments to non-Microsoft Outlook email users the sender needs to configure Outlook to send emails as either plain text or HTML, but not Rich Text format; as described here:

What is the Winmail.dat file? - HowTo-Outlook

If the sender continues to send emails containing winmail.dat attachments then the receiver of the emails can use one of the many apps, plugins or other email services that can handle winmail.dat attachments. The Apple Mail app (on iOS or OS X) does not handle them natively, you need to install an app.

You can read more about here:
Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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Thanks, FFR, that's helps a lot.

 

[FFR]

Thanks, FFR, that's helps a lot.

Anytime


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