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Receiving winmail.dat attachment in Outlook 2016 Windows 10

Anonymous
2019-01-11T19:09:58+00:00

Yes, I've read the plethora of questions and replies and know that it is supposedly an issue with the sending of emails using RTF or TNEF that apparently has something to do with Outlook 365 Exchange Server using Active Sync (or something like that).

The problem is that I shouldn't have to ask a CUSTOMERto try and change settings that they didn't setup in the first place to correct an issue that is being caused by Microsoft.

When is Microsoft either going to fix the issue that clearly started in November 2018 with Outlook 365 Exchange Server with Active Sync so it correctly sends attachments, OR, update Outlook 2016 (windows 10 OS) so it can correctly read the attachment?

They are able to read the attachments correctly so it has to have something to do with an update or ????

The current solution is to use my webmail client (Yahoo Small Business Email, I almost never use it) to open the email, and I can individually download the files. It shows each file in the list of attachments, including all the embedded graphics along with the winmail.dat file. PDF's seem to download just fine, most other formats (like excel) download as "Untitled" with no file extension and the file type is "invalid/octed-stream", which fortunately I just rename the file and give it the correct extension (like .xlsx, etc.) and it opens just fine. I can view all the files within the webmail client without any issues as well.

This is NOT an acceptable workaround long term. After many resent emails and lots of frustration I found myself here and even went as far to suggest the change to my CUSTOMER. He didn't want to mess with any settings as "the IT guy doesn't want us to change anything as we don't have that problem".

Please Microsoft .... fix it! For the first time I'm thinking of ditching Outlook and seeing what else is out there.

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-01-11T20:06:35+00:00

    I am using Outlook 2016 Desktop software and when my customers that use Microsoft Outlook 365 Exchange Server with Active Sync send attachments they are named "winmail.dat" when I receive the email in Outlook 2016 (desktop software).

    If I try and open a file that is supposed to be a PDF in Acrobat it won't open.

    When I look at the email using the yahoo small business web client (yahoo webmail), it shows all the files that are part of that email, including the jpg, png, etc., that are supposed to be embedded in the email, plus the attachments, and also a webmail.dat file.

    Thank you!

    Kurt

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-01-18T04:09:10+00:00

    I'm having the same frustrating issue and not an IT person to resolve it.  Just purchased Microsoft Office 2 weeks ago and have spend hours trying to resolve this....HELP!

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-01-14T18:08:09+00:00

    Thank you Diane and Shyamal for your replies, BUT, this seems like it is a Microsoft issue as the issues started in early July 2018 and have become more pronounced as of late (every since they started using their mobile phones for email as well in October 2018).

    They have Surface Pro's and when the email is sent when they're docked it seems to be fine, but since many of them are often away from their desks they use it in tablet mode. That is when we have the problems.

    Plus if they include anyone within their company on the email the attachments always come through just fine.

    It is surprising that Microsoft expects me to tell my Customer to change their settings, especially when I can at get the attachments with a webmail interface. I would expect Microsoft to make Outlook 2016 at least as powerful as webmail.

    Or maybe this is just a way to get users of Outlook 2016 to update to Outlook 2019 or Office 365.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-01-12T21:35:35+00:00

    I asked support about this and they aren't aware of any bugs specific to

    this problem.

    If the sender uses RTF message format and allows it to the internet, then yes, a winmail.dat file is created, but any version of Outlook desktop software will be able to handle it - unless the winmail.dat file is corrupted.

    What do you use for antivirus software? Does it scan your email?

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-01-11T19:19:57+00:00

    Hi Kurt,

    Are the attachments in a file named winmail.dat in Outlook desktop software? Outlook definitely should be able to decide them. (I will look into it.)

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