Outlook 2003 unable to decode some attachments

[Martin Smith]

I have an install of Outlook that is unable to decode attachments from
two sources. Al that is displayed is the encoded text.

The mail comes into our mail server and hits a mailing list from which
it is distributed. In this case there are three recipients. Two of the
recipients get the attachment one doesn't. In each case the Outlook
settings appear identical. The attachment is a Word document.

At this point I'm a bit lost as most options seem to be encoding on
outgoing mail. I haven't approached the sender to check their settings
and all but this one Outlook installation gets the mail correctly.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

I have an install of Outlook that is unable to decode attachments from two
sources. Al that is displayed is the encoded text.

The mail comes into our mail server and hits a mailing list from which it is
distributed. In this case there are three recipients. Two of the recipients
get the attachment one doesn't. In each case the Outlook settings appear
identical. The attachment is a Word document.

If two people get the message and attachments correctly and one doesn't, then
the one who doesn't has the problem. The most common cause of what you're
seeing is the scanning of incoming messages with an antiviirus scanner, a
process that doesn't increase your safety and can ruin your incoming mail.
Have the person with the problem uninstall his or her AV program and reinstall
it without any mail scanning. Then try again. If the behavior different
then?

 

[Martin Smith]

If two people get the message and attachments correctly and one
doesn't, then the one who doesn't has the problem. The most common
cause of what you're seeing is the scanning of incoming messages with
an antiviirus scanner, a process that doesn't increase your safety and
can ruin your incoming mail. Have the person with the problem uninstall
his or her AV program and reinstall it without any mail scanning. Then
try again. If the behavior different then?

I would agree that the problem lies local to the user who isn't getting
the attachment.

I'll disable the AV entirely although to my knowledge there is no
scanning of incoming mail enabled.