Automatically downloaded mail attachments

OK. For the vast majority of email messages, it is impossible to not to download the attachment with the rest of the message. This is because the attachment and text are all part of one file. The attached file is transcoded from 8-bit binary to 7-bit ASCII and appended to the host message. Most modern email clients automatically separate the attachment part of the message from the text, but old fashioned text-based email clients like the UNIX mail client do not. However, the whole file must be downloaded before its parts can be separated. Mail and most other email clients that automatically separate the attachment from the host message usually save attachments to a default directory (folder). However, the user may change this location on a case-by-case basis. However, it is impossible for Mail not to download the attachment.