winmail.dat issue

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1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#150244 16-Jul-2014 11:07

Hi Guys

Im seeing that dreaded wimmail.dat issue on a Samsung Tab4
I know its an issue caused by outlook(usually) , & only a few senders will being giving this issue, but I need this to work.

An Android email clients that can correctly decode & open these attachments ? K9 cant

I'd prefer not to have to install a separate Wimmail.dat extractor app on the tablet

Cheers

nzgeek

618 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1090241 16-Jul-2014 20:23

I can't help with advice on email clients, but hopefully I can give you some info that'll point you in the right direction.

The winmail.dat file is sent when Outlook is configured to compose messages as RTF (rich text format), rather than the more standard HTML or plain text. The file itself is a Microsoft-created Transport-Neutral Encoding Format (TNEF) container, which contains the RTF file that makes up the body the email. The option to send as RTF appears to be missing from the ribbon in Outlook 2007, so you should only get these attachments from people who haven't updated their version of Office in the last 7 or so years.

When you're looking at email clients, the bit you want to look for is the ability to view Outlook rich text format emails, or the ability to handle TNEF. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like K9 supports TNEF, and the Wikipedia page on TNEF only lists 2 apps that handle the file, neither of which is an email client. Hopefully you'll find something, but you may need to resort to a standalone viewer.

Dynamic

3866 posts

Uber Geek

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#1090244 16-Jul-2014 20:27

It's like to be one particular sender. Have them email you in Plain Text format. I believe that than be 'forced' by them configuring an Outlook Contact for you that has that setting.

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