Why do email attachments take forever to download

[guitar1969]

I am starting to notice how bad the surface is at downloading email message attachments. Everytime I get an email with an attachment, and want to forward or reply, I get a message that the email message needs to finish downloading first. Then the downloading can take anywhere fro 30sec to a minute for small little pdfs, like 50k or so. My internet connection is fine and my wifi speeds are fine otherwise.

Is this just another poor implementation on the Mail app?

 

[J515OP]

The mail app isn't great but isn't bad either. I would call it basic or simple. So it is hard to tell if it has real issues or just doesn't do much. I haven't had this issue so I am not sure that it is the app itself. Hopefully as others chime in we will get a sense if this is common or if the issue is specific to something on your Surface that might be corrected.

 

[ArnoldC]

True, also on Windows Phone. It is not downloading the attachment yet, because you still have to go to each to download and save.
Sent from my Windows Phone 8S by HTC using Board Express

 

[bosamar]

I praying for great leaps in the mail app for future updates. I'll have to test mine to see what results I get.

 

[J515OP]

I did a test and I think I see what you are saying. I think Arnold also was onto what you are saying. When receiving a file with an attachment it does not automatically download attachments or pictures in the email body. You need to touch the attachment to download it for viewing or sending.

If you do not touch to download and try to forward you get the message that the "Attachment has not finished downloading." It isn't actually downloading so the message is sort of misleading. If you never do anything to download it it will never "finish" downloading. You can either touch "Continue Downloading" at this point (which isn't really continuing) to start the download or back out and touch the attachment in the file to download the attachment before forwarding.

This behavior is standard in mail apps and is intended to prevent viruses and also save data on mobile connections. What it should say is "Download and forward the attachment" or "Continue without attachment" or something of that nature.

From the time I selected "Continue download" it took about 3 seconds for a 2.5MB file to download over a 20Mb/s or so connection. So it was perfectly reasonable. If this is the point where you are saying the download takes forever then I don't have that issue.

Try clicking to download the attachment before forwarding or click "Continue downloading" after clicking forward to start the download of the attachment. This download should happen in a mater of seconds depending on you connection speed and attachment size.

 

[guitar1969]

I did a test and I think I see what you are saying. I think Arnold also was onto what you are saying. When receiving a file with an attachment it does not automatically download attachments or pictures in the email body. You need to touch the attachment to download it for viewing or sending.

If you do not touch to download and try to forward you get the message that the "Attachment has not finished downloading." It isn't actually downloading so the message is sort of misleading. If you never do anything to download it it will never "finish" downloading. You can either touch "Continue Downloading" at this point (which isn't really continuing) to start the download or back out and touch the attachment in the file to download the attachment before forwarding.

This behavior is standard in mail apps and is intended to prevent viruses and also save data on mobile connections. What it should say is "Download and forward the attachment" or "Continue without attachment" or something of that nature.

From the time I selected "Continue download" it took about 3 seconds for a 2.5MB file to download over a 20Mb/s or so connection. So it was perfectly reasonable. If this is the point where you are saying the download takes forever then I don't have that issue.

Try clicking to download the attachment before forwarding or click "Continue downloading" after clicking forward to start the download of the attachment. This download should happen in a mater of seconds depending on you connection speed and attachment size.

Its not that. After I click an attachment to download it is really slow downloading. The mail app sucks and is the source of a lot of issues for me. Still can't get POP email. I heard a rumor that MS has an Outlook for RT but it has not been decided whether they are gonna release it. Hope they do as the mail app is the weak link on the Surface.

 

[ArnoldC]

When I'm mobile, I don't use public WiFi but my phone (both HTC Android and Windows) to tether my Surface RT. Which means I'm getting like 2-3Mbps (yes, that's how slow our internet in this country is) on the road. I have no problems downloading email attachments at this speed.

I use Outlook 2013 on my Acer S3, but the Mail app on the Surface RT allows me to do what I have to do- read emails, forward, reply, etc. It doesn't suck for me. I use IMAP, which is a superior protocol, on both Outlook 2013 and Mail app. My email host (Brinkster) offers both POP3 and IMAP, but I choose IMAP.

 

[gpstrucker]

I have to download attachments almost daily and haven't noticed any issue with the download speed. I am normally doing this via the hotspot function of my phone.

 

[J515OP]

Its not that. After I click an attachment to download it is really slow downloading. The mail app sucks and is the source of a lot of issues for me. Still can't get POP email. I heard a rumor that MS has an Outlook for RT but it has not been decided whether they are gonna release it. Hope they do as the mail app is the weak link on the Surface.

In that case maybe we can figure out if there is another issue causing the problem. It sounds like 3 of us don't have problems with slow downloads of email attachments through the mail app. There may be other things to try first but possibly cutting to the chase with a refresh of your Surface is in order.

 

[SopranoSV]

Well, as far as slow downloading I would blame it on your internet provider. I have 1 Hotmail account and several GMail accounts and all of them work flawlessly. Shall we stop asking for a laptop-mail-client experience on a tablet? Have you tried sending multiple images/pictures from an iPad?

 

[bosamar]

I tested a few attachments ranging in size from 100K to 22MB and all loaded fine. All my WiFi spots are relatively very fast.

 

[RonNitro]

If only there were a better email client for Exchange users.

TouchDown app for Windows in the Windows Store

Yes, a total shill, but at least we let you DL all the attachments at once.