jpg attachments to e-mail will not open

Hi

I use Mozilla Thunderbird for e-mail.

Two weeks ago I suddenly became unable to open any .jpg attachments coming in with e-mails. Before that they all opened properly, into either Serif Photoplus or Arcsoft Photostudio. A message now pops up saying "format is invalid or not supported."

jpg attachments to the old e-mails stored in my inbox still open without any problems. It's only new arrivals that can't be opened.

I've tried re-naming them, moving them to desktop and opening from there, but no luck. The only way I've been able to open the pictures is to send them to myself at AOL, on my second computer, when they open without problem.

Operating system is Windows XP.

Please does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

Susie

 

Check your Firewall settings. Also check the advanced settings in Thunderbird to see if their is anything there.

 

Thanks, I've already checked the Firewall and Thunderbird options, and can't find anything.



Susie

 

If you save the attached jpg to disk can you open the saved file using either of the programs you mentioned?

 

No, I can't open the things anywhere, anyhow.

It seems to me that something is getting at them on the way into my mail box. All the old attachments still open fine.

I've tried sending some of the new ones to my other computer, to my AOL account, and they're arriving as .mim files and can't be opened either, or unzipped.

Susie

 

Two things i can think of to check:
1. Go to your options menu and click on the advanced icon. Is it set to block 3rd party images?
2. Also in your options menu go to attachments, is there a rule for jpg's? If so is it correct?

 

No, it's not set to block 3rd party images, and also no, there isn't a rule for jpgs.

Susie

 

I did a quick search on that file extension and this is what i found.

I found this at the following site
http://www.seniormag.com/compcorner/definitions/ext/biglistm.htm
It sounds like the problem may be originating from the sender of the mail and not on your end. Just a thought...

 

Thanks, but it's all e-mails from several different people that are affected.

Also, I've tried unzipping the .mim files which were created when I forwarded the original messages to my AOL account, and that doesn't work either.

 

Are you trying to use the built in windows zip function or do you have winzip or some other compression program?

I don't think that the built in windows "zip" program can do the job. If you aren't using a seperate program i would recomend izarc, it is freeware and should uncompress/decode the .mim extension files.

http://www.izsoft.dir.bg/download.htm

 

Thanks - I've been using JustZIPit on one computer, and Winzip on the either. Neither will unzip the .mim files.

Susie

 

Can you open one if the problem files in a text editor?
If you can does it have a header like this?

Or just a bunch of text like this?

 

If I try to open it in Wordpad, it's just a row of little boxes.

In Word, it comes out like this:

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I don't think the problem is on your end. I use thunderbird and it doesn't automatically encode incoming or outgoing messages.
Everything that i have read on the subject has been related to AOL. Basically, AOL has trouble sending data in the form of pictures movies etc (binary files). To compensate for that they use an encoding technique to encode those file types (e-mail attachments) into large text files (MIME files or our problem child .mim files) As I understand it (I don't use AOL) this encoding and decoding happens behind the scenes for AOL users, but causes problems when sent to people outside of AOL.
Accordingly every solution that i have stumbled across simply said to use one of the programs previously mentioned (izarc, winzip, etc) to unencode the file.
In looking at the text you posted it does not look like a encoded file format, it looks like part of a binary file. Long winded story and explanation short, I think the attachements are getting corrupted somehow before they get to you due to this encoding and unencoding.
This .mim file extesion should actually have several files encoded with in it.
It may be that other isp's do this encoding on there own networks as well. I don't know for sure.

 

First, apologies for long delay in thanking you for your help - I forgot I'd posted the thread.

The problem went away as suddenly as it arrived, all on its own!

Susie