For the past 3 days, when I send attachments to other people, at various email addresses, they haven't been able to open my attachments. It doesn't matter if the attachments are small or large, Word documents or powerpoints.

HELP!

Refresh.rob, please post back here so that we can investigate:

1. Your e-mail address.
2. What exactly happens when your recipients try to open the attachment?
3. Are they getting any error? If yes, post it here.
4. Does this issue only happen to recipients on a particular domain (E.g. Hotmail.com, yahoo.com)? If yes, please indicate the domain.

Dear Ricardo D.

I didn't know how to access this posting, just got it by accident tonight. Please send your responses to my email account at {removed email address} if at all possible.

Anyhow, to answer your questions, my email account is above. Whenever I send anything with a Work attachment, other Hotmail users can't open the email at all -- and I can't open it either, from my own sent file.Please email me back at {removed email address} -- I'm reposting this because when I posted it for some reason it removed my email address!!!

Here's what the error message says: Windows Live Hotmail wasn't able to complete this request. Microsoft may contact you about any issues you report.

I've reported this issue several times, but never was contacted.

Please help. This is a serious, continuing problem.

Robert Gordon

Hello Robert,

I checked your account and it appears to be working properly. Could you confirm whether your recipients receive the same error message when trying to open your attached files?

To further isolate your concern about viewing your own sent e-mails, I would need you to confirm whether you will encounter the same error condition when using another computer with a different Internet connection.

In addition, I will be unable to reply to you through e-mail as Windows Live Online Solutions Center provides support through this site only.

Hi

Following your suggestion, I opened my hotmail on another computer and sent a document to myself, which I've tried before on my home computer without success. This time the email opened without any problem and so did the attachment. I then checked my hotmail on my home computer, and that email and document both opened fine. So it seems the problem is when I send a Word attachment from my home computer.

Is there a setting on my home computer that needs to be changed? I'm looking forward to further instruction from you.

Thanks, Rob

Rob:

If an attachment cannot be opened, the problem is usually on the recipients' end and not the sender. Since you're now able to view the attachments from your home computer, you may have just encountered a temporary connectivity issue. If the problem persists, please try optimizing your browser settings and clearing your temporary Internet files. For the steps, you can refer to your browser's Help section. You may also suggest this to your recipients.

I just went into my hotmail through Internet Explorer and it worked fine. I think the problem is with Firefox, which I'm going to delete and re-install. Meanwhile, if you're interested, here's what I originally wrote in response to your post:

I cleared my Internet files as you suggested, including the cookies, the cache, browsing history and active log ins. That had no effect. I also tried entering "optimize browser settings" into the Firefox help search bar, but there was nothing found for that entry.

I don't think this is a temporary issue since it's been going on for more than a month. And, while it doesn't affect every single email, I don't think it's only on the recipient's end, since I can't open my own emails that have Word attachments when I go into my sent file and try to open them myself. It doesn't matter who I send them to.

The only time I was able to open one of those emails with a Word attachment was when I sent it from another computer. So I still think it's something with my home computer.

Rob

Hi Rob. Thank you for your response. You're right; the problem is probably with Firefox. I suggest that you contact their support team about this. I appreciate your patience about this problem.

Sorry, but it's not Firefox, I've also tried going through Safari and the same thing happens. It must be a setting in Hotmail or on my computer. Please help.

@ Rob,

To continue the investigation, can you send us a test e-mail with an attachment?  You can send it to the test account posted in the Private Data below. Please use the subject "Refresh.rob: http://windowslivehelp.com/community/t/124089.aspx" for easy tracking and make sure to reply to this post once it has been sent to notify us.

Also, for us to be able to reproduce the issue, please give us a detailed description of the issue that the recipient encounters when opening the attachment that you've sent including any error message that may have come up.

I have done as Joseph D requested in the post above and sent the email to the test account. Please let me know what the next steps are. Thanks.

Rob

Hi refresh.rob,

I checked your e-mail and we're also getting the same thing that your recipients are.

Since what you described is a Word attachment that is maybe causing this issue, have you tried using the same attachment with different e-mail address?

We’re also going to need you to provide us with a FiddlerCAP trace of your account

A FiddlerCap is a diagnostic tool, which will tell us exactly what is generating the issue you have experienced. For instructions on how to install FiddlerCap, please visit:

http://emailsupport.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5D6F5A79A79B6708!208.entry

Note: This will take a few minutes to accomplish.

Your privacy is very important to us. I want to assure you that no personal or account information will be passed in the FiddlerCap trace.

Post back here after you have sent the file to the same test account that you sent your affected e-mail to.

Thanks