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Windows Live Mail Corrupting PDF Files when sending

I am having a problem sending PDF files from windows live mail, I have sent this particular PDF attachment to a client and they have come back and said they can't open it and yes they do have adobe reader, I have also sent it to myself and it is corrupted.  I sent it to myself (opening it in Windows Live Mail) using my webmail client and it is perfect, no problems at all.  How can I fix my windows live mail so that it doesn't corrupt my pdf files when sending.  The break apart box was never ticked.

The error message I get when I try to double click on the file is

An error exists on this page.
Acrobat may not display the page correctly.
Please contact the person who created the PDF document to correct the problem.

If I right click the attachment and go save as, I still get the same error message when opening it from where I saved it.

Thanks for any help you can give me

Hi,

 

I would like to clarify if you have tried to open the PDF file on other browser. If so, have you experienced the same issue?

 

In the meantime, please make sure you have installed the proper plug-in for your browser and reader for PDF files. You can also contact support for that reader.

 

Also, you may try reproducing again another PDF file to check if the file is really corrupted.

 

Thanks!

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I was opening the attachment with adobe reader X, I was never trying to open this file in a browser.

I was sending the PDF (which was saved as an Adobe PDF) to a client, they told me that when they received the file it did not show the information that they expected so I sent it to myself via windows live mail and the information was definitely missing from the file.  I Then sent the information to myself using a web browser and my webmail and the file came through no problems.

I have also created another file and sent that via windows live mail, it came back corrupted too.  The file is fine, windows live mail is corrupting them in the sending process.

I have also heard back from the client and the same PDF file sent via Webmail was received no problems

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The problem is caused by the encoding/decoding process that has to take place before an attachment can be sent/received.

 

In WLMail, press Ctrl-Shift-O for Options.

On the Send tab, what is your mail sending format?
If it's HTML, click the HTML Settings button. What encoding is selected?
If it's not Base 64, select Base 64 and try sending a PDF to yourself again.

Can you now open it in your PDF reader?

If this doesn't help, try zipping the file first:

  1. Locate the PDF file in Windows Explorer (Windows key + E)
  2. Right-click on it and select Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder.
  3. Right-click on the .zip file that's created and select Send to > Mail recipient.
  4. Send it to yourself.
  5. When you receive it, double-click on it and click Extract all files.


Can you now open it in your PDF reader?

 


 

Noel Burgess MVP (Ret'd)

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Thanks Noel for your help.

I tried doing the base 64 thing but it didn't work.

I tried zipping it and it did work, but it still doesn't really solve my problem of being able to send PDF files from Windows Live Mail. 

Thanks for your help, it is really appreciated.

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OK, thanks. It's a common problem, but I don't know why it happens to some users/files and not others. I just wanted to make sure that switching to Base 64 encoding didn't make any difference - binary attachments will be B64-encoded anyway.

It seems to depend on whether the attachment Content-Type is recorded as application/pdf (as it should be) or the fall-back application/octetstream, which each mail client or service will handle in its own way. Because this content type is the usual vehicle for malware, it could well be that anti-virus software submits it to extra scrutiny, with the inherent risk of corruption.  

The only sure solution that I've ever seen for affected users is to zip the file before attaching. This removes the unknowns from the equation.


Noel Burgess MVP (Ret'd)

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Last updated December 26, 2022 Views 1,378 Applies to: