Why can't I open some attachments?

Attachments are opened by other programs on your computer, not by your email software. This allows people to send and receive many kinds of files, like word processor documents, videos, and sounds, but it means that you need to have the program that created the file-or a program that can view files of that type-on your computer.

For example, if your friend has sent you a document created by the latest version of Microsoft Word and you are using an old version of WordPerfect, you may not be able to read the document. In such cases, ask the sender to try to convert the file to a format your computer can handle before resending the attachment.

If you have a program that can open the file type, the problem may be that that the sender isn't using MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) to encode attachments. If you receive a file encoded with another protocol-the two most popular ones other than MIME are BinHex and UUEncode-you will need to have the person resend the attachment encoded in MIME.

Other questions about attachments:

• Introduction to attachments
• What is a file attachment?
• Can all Juno members send and receive attachments?
• How do I attach a file to an email message?
• Why can't some recipients receive attachments I send to them?
• How large can my attachments be?
• Why does an attachment look garbled or unreadable?
• How do I forward an attachment?
• Why can't I open some attachments?
• How do I turn a picture into an attachment?
• Why can't I print some attachments?
• How do I open or save an attachment?
• Why do messages with attachments take longer to send or receive?
• How do I check an attachment for viruses?
• I received a message referring to something called "MIME." What is MIME?
• Another Juno member can't open the attachment I sent them (This message is in MIME format).