have you installed the mac version of adobe reader?

Matt said

have you installed the mac version of adobe reader?

Yes Matt,

PDFs work in most* other cases.

Further information:

I can drag the email from drafts to inbox and it works fine. I can check the PDF document then drag in back into drafts, add my comments and send. So I now have a workaround. I'd still like it to work though...

• The other place I've found where PDF are not working properly is in Firefox. PDF documents embedded in pages from one particular website cannot be opened. It works in Safari though.

Thunderbird > preferences > attachments and delete any reference you see there to PDF files.

Matt said

Thunderbird > preferences > attachments and delete any reference you see there to PDF files.

Hi Matt,

Am I correct in saying that, were I to do that, PDFs would then be saved to the desktop? Current action is "Use Preview". Is there another way to set that action? I specifically do not want to save these documents to the desktop.

By deleting the action, you kick in a process of establishing a new action when you open a PDF attachment. Where your given a save or open with option and you get to select the right program etc. I prefer this over fiddling with the existing information as adobe and others periodically change say the path to the application. so fiddling with the "action" does not find to helper application. Deleting the action forces things back to identifying the application.

I have deleted actions for PDFs as Matt recommended.

Now: when I open a message in drafts that has the attached file (the attached file appears in the attachments window as filename.pdf BTW) and then double click the attachment I get a dialogue called "Opening nsmail.dms".

Since this is not a PDF I'm not surprised that I can't open it with Preview.

If I save the file to downloads and change the file extension to .pdf then it opens OK with Preview and it is indeed a properly formatted pdf.

The question is: why does it work if the message is in the Inbox but doesn't work if the message is in Drafts?

Gayner said

The question is: why does it work if the message is in the Inbox but doesn't work if the message is in Drafts?

You are editing it in drafts, your reading it in the inbox.

Further news.

If I send the email from drafts and then open it from the sent folder then I can open the attachment.

So: Works OK if the message is in Inbox Works OK if the message is in Sent Doesn't work if the message is in Drafts

@Matt Isn't it so that an attached file is attached at send not when writing? EDIT Just checked I'm wrong.

Further news.

If I "Edit As New Message" from the Sent folder I can't open the attachment.

So am I right to state that: if the message is in the state of 'editing' then I cannot open the attachment but if it is in the state of 'reading' then I can?

The above is not true when running the Windows version of Thunderbird. In that case I can open the attachment when 'editing'.

Is there any news?

No change in Thunderbird 45.0