how do I stop Mail app for previewing the picture attachment in email body? And SparkMail vs Mac Mail

[TrancyGoose]

This is the reason I use SparkMail, I want to see attachments as Icon and be able to view them when I click and choose to view them.
It seems to be ridiculous that Apple has not done anything about it like it is a setting that needs to be added.

There used to be a solution, with a terminal command back in the day, but that one is not working.

I remember command was this:

defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool yes

And also, what do you guys use for your email? Spark or Mail? Going to pick these two, since they seem to dominate.

 

[chabig]

In the old days of slow and expensive networks, it made sense to be able to choose whether or not to download and display attachments. Today, not so much.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I am currently using Mail, My main personal email accounts are iCloud based. I like the security of Mail app. I also like that the Mail app offers very good viewing on the Apple watch.

 

[gilby101]

I want to see attachments as Icon and be able to view them when I click and choose to view them.

Part of the problem is that there are multiple ways that stuff, apart from the main text (often formatted html), can be included in the mail message. We tend to think of everything being an attachment. You can see the structure of the message with View - Message - Raw Source.

I have "Load remote content in messages" unticked. That is in Preference - Viewing. That takes care of images that are linked in the text.

I have not had to anything to stop automatic display of PDF attachments which are in the raw sources like this example where the PDF is a separate part of the message:

--Boundary.1611655025
Content-Type: application/pdf; name="TRPB_1_1607503978.pdf"
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="TRPB_1_1607503978.pdf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

JVBERi0xLjYNCiVET0MxIFJlc291cmNlR1VJRD1DMzk0MDY4MjQwNjg0NkJBODcwMjU5OUI2MTZE
RjZBNQ0KJURPQzEgUmVzb3VyY2VHVUlEPTAzN0MzNkM1RkE4MjQzMzA4NjYzNTQ0RDkxMTE2MThE
DQol4uPkDQoxIDAgb2JqDQo8PCAvVHlwZSAvUGFnZQ0KL1BhcmVudCAzIDAgUg0KL1Jlc291cmNl
....

Photos can be attached in a similar way, but often (depending on the sender mail application) JPEG 'attachments' are explicitly part of the message. For example this snippet is part of the html formatted text and explicitly says the images are to be viewed inline:

Here are some photos:</div><div class=3D""><br class=3D""></div><div=
class=3D""><img apple-inline=3D"yes" =
id=3D"C355E99C-A2C3-4695-91C9-C1CFD607A4E7" =
src=3D"cid:E7A84E7B-C42E-4D32-A6E0-BF9E549C7EAC" class=3D""></div><div =
class=3D""><br class=3D""></div><div class=3D""><img apple-inline=3D"yes" =
id=3D"B98670AB-A431-4B08-9836-32DCF1F517D9" =
src=3D"cid:6A92EA8F-E1C6-461C-9161-389CDC011D75" class=3D""></div><div =
class=3D"">

with the JPEGs later in the raw message.

The sending mail app determines what is in the message and how it is intended to be viewed by the recipient.

The receiving mail app determines how it is viewed - and that may or may not be how the sender intended.

As far as I can tell, Apple Mail is pretty good at displaying messages as the sender intended. Even if that is not what you prefer!

 

[TrancyGoose]

In the old days of slow and expensive networks, it made sense to be able to choose whether or not to download and display attachments. Today, not so much.

But what if I am meeting multiple emails, I want to glance at a text without showing people around me the PDFs that are sent to me? I am saying, it's is something that should be a choice, I am not against this in principle, but, it must be a choice.

 

[TrancyGoose]

I am currently using Mail, My main personal email accounts are iCloud based. I like the security of Mail app. I also like that the Mail app offers very good viewing on the Apple watch.

I agree on the security side, I do. But show or not show, should be a simple choice in preferences... Otherwise, I would always prefer a stock app over anything third party.