AOL Attachments
From time to time, AOL subscribers experience difficulty reading our emails. We have researched into the matter and discovered that there may be several causes of the problem. We have compiled our research below. We hope that one of these suggestions offer a fix for you. Please let us know immediately if your problem persists.
Our emails are typically HyperText Markup Language (HTML) documents. This allows us to format our messages much like a webpage where we utilize tables and images. AOL will sometimes encode or compress our HTML formatted email. In which case, when you open our email, you may see the first 20 words of our message and a link to an attachment. There are three possible formats for the attachment: MIME, ZIP or SIT. Each type of format will need some decoding or decompressing to be useful. Listed below are the steps to decode or decompress each type of attachment.
There may be a way to bypass this conversion step by modifying your AOL download preferences. However, this is not full-proof, as AOL will more often encode HTML emails into MIME regardless of your download settings.
(1) Set your AOL Download Preferences to display images on download. When you select this preference, AOL will open and display graphics files as you download them.
To set download preferences:
On the My AOL menu on the AOL toolbar, click Preferences
In the Preferences window, click Download
Select your download preferences
Click OK
Set Display images on download
(2) Set your AOL Download Preferences to automatically decompress files at sign-off. When you select this preference, AOL will expand any zip files you downloaded during your AOL session as you sign off. Then find the decompressed file located in your download folder and click on it to open.
To set download preferences:
On the My AOL menu on the AOL toolbar, click Preferences
In the Preferences window, click Download
Select your download preferences
Click OK
Set Automatically decompress files at sign-off
(3) MIME or Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (.MME or .MIM)
On AOL, when you receive a MIME-encoded attachment, first click Download Now and let AOL automatically convert the attachment back to its original binary format.
If AOL was unable to decode the MIME file, first click Download Now and use a MIME decoder software program to convert it. You can obtain a MIME decoder program at Keyword: MIME. AOL provides a list of programs to decode MIME files for both PC and Mac users. After you've decoded the MIME file you may need to decompress it. Instructions are provided below.
(4) Zipped or Compressed Files (.ZIP)
Sometimes the attachment file is zipped or compressed. Zipped files allow a number of files to fit in one attachment or to reduce one very large file to a smaller size. Compressed files download faster and save storage space, but they must be decompressed before you can use them.
Most compressed Windows files end with a .ZIP file extension and most compressed Mac files end in a .SIT file extension, and these compression formats are often not cross-platform compatible. For example, AOL Windows software cannot generally decompress Macintosh .SIT files.
When you sign off, AOL will automatically decompress zipped files you have downloaded, unless you have turned this feature off in your download preferences.
To set download preferences:
On the My AOL menu on the AOL toolbar, click Preferences
In the Preferences window, click Download
Select your download preferences
Click OK
Set Automatically decompress files at sign-off
To decompress downloaded files manually:
On the My Files menu on the AOL toolbar, click Download Manager
In the Download Manager window, click Show Files Downloaded
Select the file you want to decompress and click Decompress
To find and download third-party software for other compressing or decompressing needs, go to keyword: WINZIP
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