MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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I have a weird IT problem. Have tried lots of things from internet searches, but nothing I have tried as a result works.
The problem is that sometimes Word or PDF attachments will not open and I get the message that the file is corrupted and cannot be opened. With Word files, they can sometimes be repaired, but look odd afterwards, more often they cannot. With the PDF files, they either do not open, or have whole sections of the page blanked out. If I look on-line at the server (or on my phone) I can see that the attachments are OK, so it is something that is happening when they download to my PC. As a test, I can send myself the same file 5 times; sometimes it comes through OK and sometimes not.
PC is running Windows 10 with MS Office 2010. Have MacAfee running in background. Run a full virus check and no issues. Have run a Windows Registry Check and that also came back all clear with no issues. No issues with free disc space and C drive does not need defragged.
This is driving me crazy as I am often unable to read key attachments to E-mail without recourse to my phone. Anyone got any ideas?
I'd get rid of MacAfee and work from there, but then I'd also expect it to be reporting anything it does.
Thanks, scotroutes - but I don't think it is that simple. I have used Macafee for years without issue and it is not removing the attachments. They are still there, just unreadable. It's not as if they are being quarantined. Also sometime the same attachment comes through OK, sometimes not. With pdfs, it can be that all of a page is gone or anything from 20%, 50% or 80% up to 100% of content can be accessed
get rid of MacAfee
Very good advice, that is my normal advice when people have weird issues!
OK, I have tried turning off MacAfee (real-time scanning and Firewall). Has not solved the problem - it is still happening
Try turning off email scanning in MacAfee (assuming Outlook 2010 is your email client and attachments are being scanned).
it is Glenn, but turning it off has made no difference
Try a different email client. eg Mozilla Thunderbird. Or some sort of webmail.
it is Glenn, but turning it off has made no difference
I'd be suspecting a problem with Outlook then - test a different email client as per CraigW's suggestion to prove this.
If true, then try a repair/re-installation of Office/Outlook. It might be worth considering an upgrade to a later version of Office.
You're using Outlook 2010 as the email client and this is where the corruption is, yes?
What's the server? Are you talking about a work Exchange server or Hotmail or something else?
When you "check online" on your phone, is that just using a web browser?
I have run repair on MS Office and it has made no difference
Cougar, my emails come to a commercial server that I use for my business which is a dns server - does that make sense? If I check email attachments in my phone, they are ok, so I guess that is accessing that server directly (if I delete things there they never reach my PC so I guess so). But the same email attachments are sometimes corrupted after they are downloaded to my PC
this happens with me as well using Outlook 365 and Win10. On the phone they appear to be fine, but on the laptop when opening them up they seem to corrupt. We believe it's down to a syncing issue with off-line desktops for us - i.e. our desktops don;t really sit on our laptops, it's a cached version since it was last connected to the server either directly of via a VPN. I find closing them and r-opening them a few time once re-connected they fix themselves.
Does it do it, if the docs are saved to your C drive (but not a re-directed one)?
Sui
You’re using Outlook 2010 as the email client... yes?
...
When you “check online” on your phone, is that just using a web browser?
Sui, no. If a file is corrupted when I receive it, then it stays that way if I forward it to someone else, or if I save it to C drive and then try to open it. If I forward same problem email from the dns server, then it can be opened and attachments read without a problem
Cougar, sorry, I’m not very IT literate!
Things are ok if I log onto the controldns server that hosts my email from my PC if I do this using a web Browser and logging in,
or
from my phone email which I think from when I set it up effectively does it through a web browser (Ie for phone I put in server address and password to the email setup wizard)
Firstly, I'd say that if you're not using Exchange then consider an email client other than Outlook. Outlook is great as an Exchange client, but as a regular Internet email client not so much. I haven't used anything other than webmail for years (outside of Outlook for work) but if I were to go back to a full-fat client I'd probably go to Thunderbird.
https://www.windowscentral.com/best-email-apps-windows-10
Secondly, are you using cached mode? See here:
What I'd normally suggest is to enable Cached Mode but disable it for shared / public folders.
It's possible that the cache is corrupted. You can rebuild it by:
1) With reference to the above, click "open file location." This should open an Explorer window with the .OST cache file highlighted.
2) Close Outlook. Wait a few seconds more for it to 'properly' close.
3) Go to the Explorer window, rename the .OST file.
4) Ensure you're connected to the VPN as appropriate, restart Outlook. This should pull all your mail back down and rebuild Outlook's cache. NB: this may take quite some time, just leave it to do its thing. If it doesn't auto-sync, shift-F9 will force a send/receive.
Oh, and whilst we're here let's rule out disk corruption. (TBH, my first thought was that your hard disk might be dying, but you'd surely see other symptoms if that were the case.)
Open "This PC," right-click on the C: drive and pick Properties. Go to the Tools tab and click Check.
Once that's completed, open an elevated command prompt (hit Start, type 'cmd' but don't press Enter, right-click Command Prompt in the search results and choose Run as Administrator. In the command prompt window, enter sfc /scannow
Thanks, Cougar. A lot to think about there (for me anyway.... (: )
One last Q before I try this, if I gave all my historic emails in outlook folders and I move to a new email cliyas suggested, I guess they will stay in Outlook, and I would need to access them separately from things coming into the new client?
I’ll run the suggested fixes tonight’ in case it takes a while - got a lot on today. Many thanks
Did the check of C Drive. No errors detected and then when I ran the sfc/scannnow routine, after it finished I got the message 'Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations' so I guess that means my hard disc is OK?
if I gave all my historic emails in outlook folders and I move to a new email cliyas suggested, I guess they will stay in Outlook, and I would need to access them separately from things coming into the new client?
It depends entirely on how you've got it set up. If you're using SMTP with it set to delete from server once it's retrieved then yes, but by the sounds of things you're not doing that (you wouldn't be able to access them on the phone if you were).
I guess that means my hard disc is OK?
Seemingly so, yes. Cool.