Why is Outlook 2013 now truncating attachments file names???

What exactly gets truncated from the file name?
What was the name before and what does it turn to?

Which message format are you using? HTML, Plain Text or Rich Text?

In case of Rich Text, switch your message format to HTML.

Hello,

here is an example from a test: If I drag a file named "one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen.docx" onto the message to add it as an attachment, the name of the file changes to "one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen    .docx", verbatim - I pasted the file name as Outlook truncated it.

I am already using HTML.

How funny...

Hello,

 

Thank you for posting on Microsoft Community.

 

Any file with a long name when dragged and dropped into an Outlook email – the filename will be truncated. However, when you select the file and insert it into Outlook 2013 it will show the full name of the file. This is how it works with long name files being dragged and dropped.

 

Hope the above information answers your query. Let us know if you need any other information.

 

Thank you.

Thank you for your answer. I am not sure I fully understand what you described: are you making a distinction between "an Outlook email" and "Outlook 2013"? If so, could you please further describe what the difference is? Also, I may be mistaken, but I think the truncation behavior appeared from a certain moment on, perhaps as a result of some Win 8.1 or Office/OL 2013 update? Could you please direct me to any KB, Technet or other "official" document describing why, where and when filename truncation occurs? I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks. S.C. (MCSE-NT, MCP XP)

Dear Mohan,

I have the same problem, and like sfcsfcsfc, I am waiting for your answer to his last question.

I had to updgrade to Win 8.1 a week ago, and installed the latest version of Office365.

Since then, dragging and dropping files into Outlook emails that I'm composing leads to the file names being truncated. The files that I refer to are usually over 80 characters long and because of their content it is important that they do not get truncated.

Inserting them using a dialog screen makes the files end up correctly, but it does not make any sense to me why this does work and dragging and dropping does not. Especially since it worked fine for years when I was still in Win7 (with Office365).

Very, very annoying, as using the Insert->Attachement dialog screen is leading to hours of extra work for me on a weekly basis!

Looking forward to hear from you.

Dear Mohan,

I have the same problem, and like sfcsfcsfc, I am waiting for your answer to his last question.

I had to updgrade to Win 8.1 a week ago, and installed the latest version of Office365.

Since then, dragging and dropping files into Outlook emails that I'm composing leads to the file names being truncated. The files that I refer to are usually over 80 characters long and because of their content it is important that they do not get truncated.

Inserting them using a dialog screen makes the files end up correctly, but it does not make any sense to me why this does work and dragging and dropping does not. Especially since it worked fine for years when I was still in Win7 (with Office365).

Very, very annoying, as using the Insert->Attachement dialog screen is leading to hours of extra work for me on a weekly basis!

Looking forward to hear from you.

Hello,

 

Thank you for posting on Microsoft Community.

 

To add more clarity to my previous post: any file with a long name when dragged and dropped into an Outlook 2013 email – the filename will be truncated. However, when you select the file and insert it into Outlook 2013 (Using the Insert > Object > Create from File > Browse to the file location, selecting the file and adding it to the email) it will show the full name of the file. This is how it works with long name files being dragged and dropped into Outlook 2013.

 

Hope the above information answers your query. Let us know if you need any other information.

 

Thank you.

Hello Mohan,

Thank you for repeating your previous reply.

However, this is not answering the question from sfcsfcsfc.

Allow me to quote that here again:

"Also, I may be mistaken, but I think the truncation behavior appeared from a certain moment on, perhaps as a result of some Win 8.1 or Office/OL 2013 update? Could you please direct me to any KB, Technet or other "official" document describing why, where and when filename truncation occurs? I look forward to hearing from you."

And allow me add similar questions in my own words: why the hell is this all of a sudden happening now I updated to Win8.1? It wasn't an issue with Win7, so this is clearly a bug and a big step back for drag-and-drop-heavy user like me. How and when is Microsoft planning to fix this bug?

Looking forward to your answers.

Support is aware of it - it's apparently due to a design change in Windows 8. The recommendation is to copy and paste instead of drag and drop (or use Insert). 

The issue is with OUTLOOK.COM. It has been present since the switch to the funky giant icons that stand in for file attachments. Since the icons are all a fixed width, the file names that are embedded in the icons are truncated at that width. Please advise how to DISPLAY long file names in attachments to OUTLOOK.COM messages that have ALREADY BEEN sent or received. This is also an issue when composing an email message and attaching files, as those attachments are indicated with the same fixed-width icons.

This thread is about Outlook 2013 - the problem it discusses exists in all account types (and appears to be fixed in Windows 10/Outlook 2016). 

Truncated names in the outlook.com interface are just in the display - when the message is sent, the attachment name is not truncated. I'm not aware of a way to see the full name in the web interface. You'd need to download it to see the full name.