This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Identical accounts behave differently

  • 4 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by kramster

kramster
kramster
more options

I have been working on this weird problem for two days now. I have a PHP application that creates a PDF file and then emails it as an attachment. In my Thunderbird client (v24.5.0) I have four accounts which are set up identically apart from the mail server, username, password, etc. In fact everything else is default. When I send the email to two of these accounts, it arrives as intended, with the PDF attachment. When I send the email to the other two accounts (the same ISP) there is no PDF - I get embedded binary instead. I closed down the client, sent the email to one of these latter addresses and used the ISP's webmail to see what was on the server - the PDF was there. I restarted Thunderbird and downloaded - no attachment! I then downloaded a different client (Sylpheed) and configured it for one of the offending addresses - the email arrived with the PDF intact. I had left the email on the server. I then forwarded the email with the attachment to myseld at the same address and closed down Sylpheed. Back in Thunderbird I received 2 emails - the original with no attachment, just binary embedded, and the same email forwarded via Sylpheed which does have the attachment. I downloaded TB Lite and get the same result - no PDF, just embedded binary. Can anyone explain to me this different behaviour with identical accounts in the same client (and how to fix it)?

I have been working on this weird problem for two days now. I have a PHP application that creates a PDF file and then emails it as an attachment. In my Thunderbird client (v24.5.0) I have four accounts which are set up identically apart from the mail server, username, password, etc. In fact everything else is default. When I send the email to two of these accounts, it arrives as intended, with the PDF attachment. When I send the email to the other two accounts (the same ISP) there is no PDF - I get embedded binary instead. I closed down the client, sent the email to one of these latter addresses and used the ISP's webmail to see what was on the server - the PDF was there. I restarted Thunderbird and downloaded - no attachment! I then downloaded a different client (Sylpheed) and configured it for one of the offending addresses - the email arrived with the PDF intact. I had left the email on the server. I then forwarded the email with the attachment to myseld at the same address and closed down Sylpheed. Back in Thunderbird I received 2 emails - the original with no attachment, just binary embedded, and the same email forwarded via Sylpheed which does have the attachment. I downloaded TB Lite and get the same result - no PDF, just embedded binary. Can anyone explain to me this different behaviour with identical accounts in the same client (and how to fix it)?

All Replies (4)

Matt
Matt
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

set mail.server.default.fetch_by_chunks to false in the config editor and see how you go. Some mail servers are not entirely truthful about attachment sizes.

see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/config-editor

kramster
kramster Question owner
more options

Hi Matt,

Thanks for trying. changing mail.server.default.fetch_by_chunks made no difference. I doubted that it would as one of my tests was to send the email to a different address form which I forwarded it to the account in question, the email passing through that same server and arriving with the attachment. It's only when the email is received directly from source (via that server) that I have the probem.

Mark

Matt
Matt
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

I had my doubts that is would be helpful, but you sounded like you had tried about everything

Painful, but the only way i see to get to a result is open two identical mails, one successful and the other a failure in notepad and check for what is different. Paying particular attention to the mime types.

kramster
kramster Question owner
more options

Hi Matt, I've been out of action for a while and have just returned to this problem. I've sent the same PDF to two of my email addresses - one worked, the other didn't - the PDF ended up as binary in the body of the email. I can't see where the headers differ so I've put them on my server:

http://blackpixel.com.au/site/failed.txt and http://blackpixel.com.au/site/succeeded.txt

Can you spot anything?