A few attachments are not showing up in Mail.app

[johannnn]

I just set up a gmail account in Mail.app. A few attachments are not showing in the inbox.

For example, a mail with two attachments (pictures). In Mail.app in Gmail > All mail, both attachments are shown.
In Mail.app in Inbox, only one attachment is show.

I opened both .emlx files in TextEdit and looked at the bottom. The attachments are shown as a giant pile of random text. However, the file that shows two attachments ends like this
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------=_Part_663015_1280732769.1323786961617--
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>date-sent</key>
	<real>1323786961</real>
	<key>flags</key>
	<integer>8590133249</integer>
	<key>original-mailbox</key>
	<string>(my mail, removed...)</string>
	<key>remote-id</key>
	<string>26548</string>
	<key>subject</key>
	<string>Re: johan</string>
</dict>
</plist>

And the file showing only one attachment looks like this:

EXkm8lpmsWrhBUFs6jIvx9DHXgFhv6A3BnwVASkBm+KoPSRVXgdpONZYe4Mtm67hrMQ28xTV4jjN
4nsll5i8bJm<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>date-sent</key>
	<real>1323786961</real>
	<key>flags</key>
	<integer>8590132225</integer>
	<key>original-mailbox</key>
	<string>(again I removed my mail..)</string>
	<key>remote-id</key>
	<string>6853</string>
	<key>subject</key>
	<string>Re: johan</string>
</dict>
</plist>

What could cause this? If I can't trust the app I will go back to the web UI

 

[MisterMe]

So you don't know how email attachments work? Well, there is no such thing as an attachment, per se. At least not in the sense that many people think of them. Email is likely to be 7-bit ASCII text. The files to be attached are 8-bit binary. Sent as is, the email system would destroy all but pure 7-bit ASCII text files. In order to send an 8-bit binary file through a 7-bit ASCII system, the binary file is encoded. One of if not the oldest of these coding schemes is uuencode. These schemes have been largely supplanted by MIME, but the goal is the same: Encode 8-bit binary as 7-bit ASCII (which may appear as random text) and then append it to the text of email message. Most modern email clients encode and decode attachments in a process that is [largely] transparent to the user.

However, if you have a simple email client, then the coding process may not be transparent. Sometimes thins go wrong along the way and the user receives the whole coded message. It is usually a simple process to extract the attachment. To do this, however, the whole message and not just the end is required.

 

[johannnn]

Thanks for the insightful post.

However, what is the solution to my problem? I don't know if Mail.app in Lion is considered a "simple email client", but some mails fails to show attachments in the Inbox. Still in Mail.app but in [Gmail] > All Mail, the attachments show up. Really frustrating, as I by browsing the Inbox have no idea when I miss an attachment..