Sometimes, the INBOX view of the myUSI email client shows that there is an attachment that doesn’t appear to be attached when you click on the message. This is often seen from messages sent from the Blackboard Administrator. In this screenshot of the INBOX view of a typical Blackboard Administrator message, you’ll notice the paperclip that appears to indicate an attachment.

Now look at a screenshot of of that same message once it is clicked on.

You’ll notice that there is no attachment link listed at the bottom of the actual test message.

Unfortunately, those messages are broken. There really isn’t an attachment associated with the message, but when it was sent, the software that created the message marked it as a MIME/multipart message.

These tags tell the receiving email that the message has multiple parts and some of those parts include multimedia (attachments like pictures, files, etc). Unfortunately the sending software is wrong, it says that all of the messages are MIME/Multipart even though they aren’t. If a message doesn’t contain attachments it should be set as Text/Plain or some other Text format (HTML, etc.).

The second part of the problem comes because the myUSI email client sees the MIME/multipart field set in the email header (which is read to create the INBOX view) and thinks that the full message has an attachment (as it is supposed to when that flag is set). When it sees this, it displays a paperclip in the INBOX view. When you click on the message to display it, the full email message is read and it doesn’t have an attachment to display so it doesn’t show one.

It is confusing.

The only way you will see that you have a full attachment for sure is to click on messages that are indicated to have an attachment in the INBOX view.

If the message truly has an attachment, you will see a box at the bottom of the message with a link that will allow you to download and view it.