Emails received with PDF attachment show up with winmail.dat file instead of PDF file

[DPS]

Since about a month ago, it looks like emails coming in from certain contacts with a PDF attachment are coming up with a WINMAIL.DAT file instead of the PDF attachment. From other postings, this appears to be an issue from mail sent using Outlook RTF (rich text format) however I was receiving those PDF attachments fine for several months before starting to experience this issue about a month ago. Other recipients of the email don't have an issue but I appear to be the only one with a "bell.net" address, leading me to believe this is an issue with the Bell email servers.

Whether I'm using my mobile (iphone) or accessing my mail through WebMail (on both PC or Mac), I only get the WINMAIL.DAT attachment instead of the PDF file.

From memory, this also appears to coincide with the "new" Webmail application from Bell...could be coincidence but suspect the changes may be related.

[JoeV]

Thank you for the suggested fix to the 'winmail.dat problem' .... but unfortunately this fix does not appear to work for me and likely others. I have sent emails that include PDF attachments from my work using the Outlook app to my personal Bell email (xxx@sympatico.ca) in both the HTML and plain text format .... and yet these attachments arrive in my Bell Inbox as winmail.dat files. So, my problem accessing PDF attachments in (Outlook) emails sent to my Bell account remains ....

[Paladin]

The problem is always on the sending side for this, it is outlook which adds these attachments...

The way to disable this is slightly different from one version of outlook to the next, can you please try the procedures suggested here:

https://capsulecrm.com/support/setup-and-configuration/microsoft-tnef/

Good luck and have a nice day!

[JoeV · Accepted solution]

Well ... I have succeeded to send a PDF attachment from my Outlook 2016 work email and receive it, also as PDF, in my personal Bell email. It appears that changing one's settings to HTML in Outlook Options > Mail > Compose messages and Outlook Options > Mail > Message Format is not sufficient. Regardless these settings ... your PDF will be received as a winmail.dat file by the recipient/contact unless you explicitly 'disable winmail.dat' for this recipient/contact. If you have a pre-existing entry for the recipient in your list of contacts ... then begin by deleting this entry. Next compose an email to the recipient; select & right-click the email address in the To: field; select 'open outlook properties' and in the field 'internet format' select 'send plain text only'. This procedure is also explained here https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/email/outlook/prevent-winmaildat/ . By sending the email and then opening it in your 'sent items' box you can create a new contact (properly defined to receive plain text / PDFs) for future use. Good luck!

[Paladin]

That's very good news!

I was tempted to suggest looking into the contact information as well as I had heard about this in the past but I thought that my memory was playing tricks on me as I could not find anything about it when I searched...

I wanted to check into this after work (we use outlook too) but you beat me to it... 😉

Have a nice day!