Unable to send attachments OS X

Gary_White · Post by **Gary_White** » April 2nd, 2007, 10:18 am

I am no longer able to send attachments from one machine. I am running OS X ver 10.3.9 and Thunderbird version 1.5 (20051201). Even a single, small (50k) attachment fails. I am able to send attachments from a Windows machine (with Thunderbird) using the same Internet connection and smtp server, but not from the Mac.

There are no extensions currently installed. When I try to send the message it seems to stall with the Status: Delivering mail.. and the progress bar somwhere between 70% & 90% . Eventually I get a Send message Error "Message could not be sent because connecting to the smtp server smtp10.bellnet .ca failed....

Messages without attachments go out fine and as I mentioned no problems sending attachments from the windows machine.

Thanks for any help figuring this out

Gary

Post by **Daifne** » April 2nd, 2007, 4:24 pm

Are you using an antivirus and/or firewall on your Mac?

garyWhite · Post by **garyWhite** » April 3rd, 2007, 8:12 am

Thanks for your reply.

There is no Antivirus or firewall software on the Mac. Both the Mac and the PC (which can send attachments) go through the same router (D-Link) that I believe has some firewall capabilities.

Gary

Post by **Daifne** » April 3rd, 2007, 8:19 am

I'll leave this to a Mac expert then. :-)

Old Egidio · Post by **Old Egidio** » April 3rd, 2007, 9:08 am

Under System Preferences > Sharing > Firewall, is there anything checked?

garyWhite · Post by **garyWhite** » April 3rd, 2007, 10:16 am

No. Nothing checked under the Services, Firewall or Internet tabs.

Old Egidio · Post by **Old Egidio** » April 3rd, 2007, 11:53 am

Gary, please try to start TB on safe mode to disable all extensions and themes. See if that allows you to send the attachments via safe mode. If you can send them, then the problem could be an extension or theme. To start TB on safe mode, here are the instructions:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode

Just make sure you use this line on Terminal:

/Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/MacOS/thunderbird-bin -safe-mode

garyWhite · Post by **garyWhite** » April 4th, 2007, 6:19 am

I did try uninstalling my only extension previously, and I am using the default theme. However I just tried safe mode as you directed and am still not ble to send attachments, I'm not sure whether it is size relataed or just an attachment issue. I'll try a really long text message and a very tiny attachmeny and report back.

Thanks

Old Egidio · Post by **Old Egidio** » April 4th, 2007, 6:24 am

Gary, you're welcome.

The only other thing that comes to mind now is to create a new profile.

garyWhite · Post by **garyWhite** » April 4th, 2007, 11:45 am

I just tried creating a new account using a different email address (same smtp server) and had the same results. Regular mail goes out fine but attachments fail

Old Egidio · Post by **Old Egidio** » April 4th, 2007, 11:49 am

Gary,

I did not mean a new account. If your profile is corrupted, adding a new account won't do any good. I really meant creating an entirely new profile and using your regular settings to see if that works. To access the Profile Manager, here's the knowledge base article link: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager#Mac_OS_X

On Terminal, you'll use this entry:
/Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/MacOS/thunderbird-bin -profilemanager

If you are then able to send attachments using this new profile, we know what's causing the error.

garyWhite · Post by **garyWhite** » April 4th, 2007, 11:58 am

I don't know if this is relavent but the issue seems to be size not attachment status.

A tiny attachment of 4k just went through fine AND a separate very large text message of about 200 paragraphs failed.
Oddly very small attachments give a failed message but actually do go out. So in Summary:

- 92k attachment fails.
- 48k attachment gives error message but does arrive at destination address (but does not go to sent box)
- 4k attachment goes through successfully
- Large text message fails. I'm unsure how many k it is.

Thanks,

Gary

garyWhite · Post by **garyWhite** » April 4th, 2007, 12:19 pm

Sorry, at first I misunderstood about the profile. I have now created a new profile and am getting the same behaviour as before. The 4k attachment goes through and the 92k fails.

Thanks again,

Gary

Old Egidio · Post by **Old Egidio** » April 4th, 2007, 1:25 pm

Gary,

Clearly there is something strange about size in your TB set-up. I don't think that the Disk Space setting in your account has anything to do with this. I can't find anything in Preferences that would affect sending a large message or a message with a large attachment.

I searched the knowledge base for some clues, but don't know if this will help. Here's one article (if you haven't already tried that):

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Can_not_send_ ... ttachments

garyWhite · Post by **garyWhite** » April 4th, 2007, 2:11 pm

Thanks for that (and all your efforts). I have tried changing the timeout without success. It seems unlikely to be the smtp server because I was able to send large (3+ Meg) attachments from this machine previously, and can still send them from the Windows box (with Thunderbird) through the same connection and smtp server. I have tried a different jack in case of a line problem but that made no difference. Something has changed but I am stumped.

I'm going to try to bypass the router, if only to eliminate that as a possible contributor - but it's not a new element, I've had the same router for 2 years.

Thanks again.

Gary