This attachment appears to be empty.....

[sky1174]

I got email with .eml attachment when I try to open the attachment pop up message appear "This attachment appears to be empty......"

I use :
1. Win 7 Pro
2. TB ver 7.01
3. Kaspersky AV ( Email+Spam AV disable)

If I try the same email+attachement with Outlook, everything Find.

Any Solution ?

Thanks

[tanstaafl]

Use "view -> message source" or control-U to look at the raw message source and see whether it really is empty or not. If it is empty, look at the original message on the mail server using webmail (a browser) and see whats different.

[sky1174]

If I open it from Webmail, everything fine, I can Open the attachment(.eml file) and read/open its excel file. I simulate the case with OE and everything fine.
So the problem is on TB. Thanks

[tanstaafl]

What is the Content-type header near the subject, the Content-type headers for any other sections you find, and the headers for the attachment (in a good copy of the message)?

Is all of that also present in the Thunderbird copy of the message?

[sky1174]

Here is the source, I got this email from Mdaemon server. Ok if I open this email from Webmail and OE.

From - Wed Nov 02 16:00:21 2011
X-Account-Key: account6
X-UIDL: MD50000104595:MSG:67501:30185780:1766999120
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 10000000
X-Mozilla-Keys:
Return-Path: <>
Received: from ptabc.com by ptabc.com
(with RAW) (MDaemon PRO v9.5.6)
for <admins@ptabc.com>; Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:52:45 +0700
Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:52:45 +0700
From: MDaemon@ptabc.com
Reply-To: xxx@ptabc.com
Precedence: bulk
X-MDSend-Notifications-To: [trash]
Subject: Warning: tutu@ptabc.com - User unknown!
To: admins@ptabc.com
X-MDaemon-Deliver-To: admins@ptabc.com
Message-ID: <MDAEMON0019201111021452.AA5245984@ptabc.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
X-Actual-From: MDaemon@ptabc.com
X-Return-Path: <>
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="1102-1452-45-PART-BREAK"
X-MDAV-Processed: mailserver.ptabc.com, Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:52:47 +0700

The following data may contain sections which represent BASE64 encoded
file attachments. These sections will be unreadable without MIME aware
tools. Seek your system administrator if you need help extracting any
files which may be embedded within this message.

--1102-1452-45-PART-BREAK
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

tutu@ptabc.com - no such user here.

Message was sent by xxx@ptabc.com.

There is no user by that name at this server.
: Message contains [1] file attachments

--1102-1452-45-PART-BREAK
Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name="md75000001811.eml"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

UmV0dXJuLXBhdGg6IDxpdmFuQHB0dGRwLmNvbT4NCkF1dGhlbnRpY2F0aW9u
LVJlc3VsdHM6IG1haWxzZXJ2ZXIucHR0ZHAuY29tDQoJc210cC5tYWlsPWl2
YW5AcHR0ZHAuY29tOyBhdXRoPXBhc3MNClJlY2VpdmVkOiBmcm9tIFsxOTIu...............................

[tanstaafl]

Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name="md75000001811.eml" caused a problem. The Content-Type: header is used to tell the email client what type of thing it is, so that the email client knows how to display it. application/octet-stream is a brain dead description - all it says is that it has 8bit bytes. It should have been Content-Type: message/rfc822; name="md75000001811.eml", telling the email client that the attachment was a email message.

I suspect the reason Outlook Express opened the attachment is because it ignored the Content-Type: header and relied upon the filename extension to determine what it is. Thunderbird is stricter about standards compliance so it didn't fallback to that when it got a essentially useless Content-Type: header.

IMHO Thunderbird should have asked what utility you want to use to display that attachment.

[sky1174]

Thanks tanstaafl, so any solution ? when I still use TB 2.3 everything is fine just having problem on ver 5 and 7

[tanstaafl]

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Actions_for_a ... e_approach . However, I don't recommend it as its a security risk.

If you try to open the attachment with 7.0.1 does it give you an opportunity to browse to a viewer (and remember that choice)? If you mainly have this problem with .eml files one workaround would be to tell it to use Outlook Express to open application/octet-stream files.

[MGreg0]

If I may. I've found the same issue, when having default view in TB 5 and + the message view in google style.
Once set up/update TB to higher version, it is proposing to change the the default view of reading message.

Once on the message and this message been move to an other folder (woking imap). I got exacly the the error message.

Therefore, my workaround is to click on more, then choose "view using classic reader" a new window/tab open, then I can open my attachment.

Issue for me is link to the new email view introduce in TB 5+.

Kind Regards,

Greg