[Don_S]

I sent some .jpg's to a friend.  He worked magic on them with his Apple and sent them back as email attachments.  Now I cannot open them on my XP computer.  This has happened before with a W98 computer and I eventually figured out a way to open them.  But that was then and this was now.  .

The files are listed at the bottom of the email and then below that there are thumbnails.  Several places show the option to open the files but none of them work. All these do is sit and spin.  I can let the file transfer for more than 30 minutes but it never opens.  I do not get any error messages----I just get put on hold

Can someone please tell me the secret handshake?  Thanks,

[WGH]

You might not be able to do anything with the files as sent. What is the file size (only 4-6 KB)? Your friend might have only sent the thumbnails and not the main .jpg.

Have your friend either re-send the photos or zip them in a single file using Stuffit and send as an attachment instead of a html email.

or

Drag or Copy the photos to your desktop and make sure they truly are a .jpg, if not rename them, they will either open or your will get an interesting error message.
I use irfan view to quickly view photos, it will open almost everything.

Wayne

[Don_S]

Wayne,  Here are what the attachments at the bottom of the email look like:

Files: 
 Photo1_26.jpg (39k)  Scan and Save to Computer 
 Photo2_17.jpg (35k)  Scan and Save to Computer 
 Photo3_05.jpg (55k)  Scan and Save to Computer 
 

Photos:     In this area thumbnails are displayed with the option "scan and save to computer" next to each one.  Under each one is another option "view".  The file sizes listed here are different from the ones above.  Here they are 28, 27, 31k respectively.  But nothing will open. I tried all the options. Are they just too big?

I can right click on the thumbnail and copy/paste or save but that is only the thumbnail, not the file.
 
 

[drphoto]

I agree w/ the suggestion that the files be zipped. Also when your friend does the attachment step, there is a checkbox for 'send windows friendly'.

he can zip by option-clicking on the file and choosing 'create archive of _____"

[WGH]

Looks like he just sent you the thumbnails, I've seen it before so it must be easy to goof up emailing photos on a Mac.

What is the file size of your originals?
A 1200 x 800 photo at 100 dpi is already 125k.
A 2048 x 1536 photo at 180 dpi is around 9230kb

If your friend does manage to compress the files using Stuffit, you will need the free Stuffit Expander to expand the file.
http://my.smithmicro.com/win/stuffitexpander/index.html

Wayne

[Don_S]

Wayne,  The originals were apx 2.0-2.2MB  (2600 x 1900).  They were taken using the 5mpx setting on my camera.  I find anything else gives files too big for some email providers.  They have plenty of detail for web purposes.  They are not for printing.

I would expect the final pic files to be a lot smaller.  My friend "erased" (or whatever you call it) all the background and left only the center object floating in space.   Still think I only got thumbnails?   If so, why wouldn't they open?

[Tubes 4 Ever]

This might be a stupid suggestion but have you tried sending them to another computer to see if they open? I use both Mac an PC and send quite a lot of stuff back and forth with no issues at all.
Tubes

[avta]

Don:
Try right clicking on the jpg files and select "save to desktop" or some version of that. You should be able to open a jpeg file with Windows 98. Try double-clicking the desktop file.

[WGH]

Still think I only got thumbnails?   If so, why wouldn't they open?

Yes, because you wrote "I can right click on the thumbnail and copy/paste or save but that is only the thumbnail, not the file."

But it does open, it's a thumbnail. It is linked to the new photo, but because the new photo was not included in the email the link is broken and XP just keeps looking and not finding so it just sits and spins. Now if your computer and the Mac were networked together the photo might show up, but they are not.

If you truly think you have everything, perhaps a different viewer will work. I have never used the native Windows .jpg viewer or Microsoft Paint in XP, so I don't know if it has any Mac related bugs features. Heck, you can just drag any .jpg into a blank Firefox window to view it.

[planet10]

A jpg is a jpg created on a Mac or PC... the problem lies in the mail browser -- either the one that sent them, or yours.

What mail browsers on either end?

dave

[TONEPUB]

do you have a copy of adobe reader?

If you don't its free and you can get it
from adobe.com

that should open some jpegs for you....

[Don_S]

Thanks everyone.    The thumbnail and file link being broken kind of makes sense.  That explains the sit and spin.  My friend says he reduced the file size in addition to the amount lost with what he erased.

The problem was worked around by him sending me bitmap files which I imported into my Adobe Photoshop. I did not have any problem opening the bitmap files.   Then I resaved them as .jpg files.  Lost some resolution but I will be able to live with it. 

I will try some of the other suggestions later.  Maybe someday I will connect my laptop to the internet and pull the email onto it to see if the files will open.  Normally I only use my desktop for online use.

My Browser is the latest IE whatever number they are up to now.  Not sure what my Apple friend uses.

[K.C.]

Assuming your friend is using a Mac running Mail in OS X then he simply needs to resend the files using the attach function, rather than just drag the files to the email, and select the box to send Windows Friendly Attachements.