Mac Mail Do Not Download Attachments

by

Nowadays, multiple Mac users have discovered the Mail app, which has stopped showing attachments. But, when you upgrade to Mac OS Sierra, manually it's not possible to remove the attachment files. In addition, existing email messages with attachments may appear as if the email attachments. None: Mail doesn’t download any of these attachments. So as you can see, if you pick “Recent,” Mail will not automatically download all of those types of attachments older than 15 months.

Mail User Guide

You can include photos, documents, and more when you write messages.

When you attach images or PDF documents, you can mark them up in Mail before you send your message.

Include photos and other files in emails

In the Mail app on your Mac, do any of the following:

  • Click the Attach button in the toolbar, locate a file (you may need to click the sidebar button to see additional folders), select it, then click Choose File.

    You can also drag files from the desktop, the Finder, or an app into your message.

  • For photos, click the Photo Browser button in the toolbar, then drag a photo into your message. You can also take a photo or scan documents, or add a sketch, using your nearby iPhone or iPad.

By default, Mail inserts images at their actual size. If different sizes are available, you can choose one from the pop-up menu located on the right side of the message header.

Send large email attachments using Mail Drop

You can use Mail Drop to send files that exceed the maximum size allowed by your email account provider. Mail Drop uploads large attachments to iCloud, where they’re encrypted and stored for up to 30 days.

  • If you have an iCloud account and you’re signed in to iCloud when you click Send, Mail automatically sends the attachments using Mail Drop. Mail Drop attachments don’t count against your iCloud storage.

  • If you don’t have an iCloud account, or if you’re not signed in, Mail asks you whether to use Mail Drop (to always use Mail Drop select “Don’t ask again for this account”).

If a recipient uses Mail in OS X 10.10 or later, the attachments are included in your message. For other recipients, your message includes links for downloading the attachments, and their expiration date.

You can turn Mail Drop on or off for an account. Choose Mail > Preferences, click Accounts, select the account, click Advanced, then select or deselect “Send large attachments with Mail Drop.”

See the Apple Support article Mail Drop limits.

Put email attachments at the end of messages

In the Mail app on your Mac, do one of the following:

  • For the current message: Choose Edit > Attachments > Insert Attachments at End of Message.

  • For all messages: From the Message viewer, choose Edit > Attachments > Always Insert Attachments at End of Message (a checkmark shows it’s on).

Include or exclude email attachments in replies

In the Mail app on your Mac, do one of the following:

  • Include or exclude original attachments in a reply: In the toolbar of the message window, click the Include Attachment button or the Exclude Attachment button .

  • Include or exclude original attachments in all replies: From the Message viewer, choose Edit > Attachments > Include Original Attachments in Reply (a checkmark shows it’s on). To turn it off and exclude attachments, choose the command again (the checkmark is removed).

Send email attachments to Windows users

In the Mail app on your Mac, try these suggestions:

  • Send Windows-friendly attachments. To do so for all messages, choose Edit > Attachments, then select Always Send Windows-Friendly Attachments. For a specific message, click the Attach button in the toolbar of the new message window, then select Send Windows-Friendly Attachments (if you don’t see the checkbox, click Options in the bottom corner).

  • Send documents as PDFs instead of in their original format.

  • Use filename extensions (such as .docx for a Microsoft Word document).

  • If the recipient sees two attachments (such as “MyFile” and “._MyFile”), the recipient can ignore the file with the underscore (such as “._MyFile”).

Mac Mail Not Receiving Mail

To display an attachment (such as a one-page PDF document or an image) as an icon, Control-click the attachment in your message, then choose View as Icon. To show the attachment again, Control-click it, then choose View in Place.

Global Nav Open Menu Global Nav Close Menu; Apple; Shopping Bag +. We offer open-source (Linux/Unix) virtual machines (VDIs) for VirtualBox, we install and make them ready-to-use VirtualBox images for you. From here you can download and attach the VDI image to your VirtualBox and use it. We offer images for both architectures 32bit and 64bit, you can download for free for both architectures. Mac os x boot image download.

If the message size shown on the left side of the message header is red, the attachments are causing your message to exceed size limits set by your email account provider. Try reducing the number or size of attachments or use Mail Drop.

See alsoEmail a webpage shared from Safari in Mail on Mac

Finding my Mac a bit slow and not able to run as smoothly as I’d have liked, I decided to shoot out the clutter. While cleaning up the storage hogging files and also discovering the tricks to keep them at bay, I came to know that the stock Mail app was playing the villainous role.

By default, Apple’s email app automatically download all the recent attachments (up to 15 months old) regardless of their importance. As I like to manage storage smartly, I found this feature unnecessary. And hence, I decided to completely stop Mac’s Mail app from downloading attachments automatically.

Should you also want to disable this auto-downloading feature, follow along as I walk you through the quick steps!

How to Prevent Mac’s Mail App from Downloading Attachments Automatically

Cannot open mail on mac

Step #1. Launch Mail app on your Mac.

Mac Mail Can't Download Attachments

Step #2. Now, click on the Mail menu at the top left and choose Preferences.

Step #3. Next, ensure that the Accounts tab is selected. Then, choose the email account which attachments you no longer want to download automatically.

Mac Mail Do Not Download Attachments

Step #4. Click on the drop-down menu next to Download Attachments.

Step #5. Next up, you have three options:

  • All: Automatically download all the attachments
  • Recent: Download only the attachments, which are less than 15 months old
  • None: Prevent the app from downloading the attached items automatically

Select “None” if you want to have complete control over which attached a file to download and which one to ignore.

You can configure the download attachment drop-down menu of all of your email accounts based on your requirement. Once you’ve perfectly customized it, quit the setting.

That’s pretty much it!

Wrapping up…

So, that’s how you can prevent the Mail app from cluttering the storage on your macOS device. One of the simplest tricks to help the Mac run smoothly is to smartly keep the junk files away.

If you ignore them, they will keep piling up in the background and eventually slow down your device. Therefore, never let them have a free run.

You might want to read these articles as well as:

Mac Mail Do Not Preview Attachments

Did you find this hands-on guide helpful? Do not forget to share your valuable feedback.

Mac Mail Do Not Download Attachments Offline

The founder of iGeeksBlog, Dhvanesh, is an Apple aficionado, who cannot stand even a slight innuendo about Apple products. He dons the cap of editor-in-chief to make sure that articles match the quality standard before they are published.

Mac Mail Do Not Download Attachments Free

  • https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
  • https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
  • https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
  • https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/