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Pictures in MacMail

post #1 of 29
1/25/11 at 2:51pm
Thread Starter 
As of three days ago, pictures arriving in MacMail have not been showing up. Instead, there are small blue boxes with a question mark inside. Does anyone know what happened or what I did to cause this or what I can do to get the pictures to show up?

Thanks
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post #2 of 29
1/25/11 at 10:41pm
What format(s) were those pictures?
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post #3 of 29
1/26/11 at 6:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sequitur View Post

As of three days ago, pictures arriving in MacMail have not been showing up. Instead, there are small blue boxes with a question mark inside. Does anyone know what happened or what I did to cause this or what I can do to get the pictures to show up?

Thanks

I assume that you are talking about HTML mail. The pictures are probably linked images that are not downloading from the server. Make sure that you have Display remote images in HTML messages checked under the Viewing tab of the Mail preferences pane.
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post #4 of 29
1/26/11 at 11:39am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Me View Post

I assume that you are talking about HTML mail. The pictures are probably linked images that are not downloading from the server. Make sure that you have Display remote images in HTML messages checked under the Viewing tab of the Mail preferences pane.

Got all excited thinking this would remedy the situation. Alas, it was already checked.No joy, but thanks for trying to help.
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post #5 of 29
1/26/11 at 8:19pm
Thread Starter 
To view pictures as a slideshow:

Click the Quick Look button in the message header area.

To view the slideshow in full screen, press Option and click the Quick Look button

Mail Help suggests the above; however, the Quick button doesn't appear in the message header of the emails (supposedly) containing pictures. Very frustrating as I normally receive quite a few pix from correspondence. None open.
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post #6 of 29
1/27/11 at 5:37am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rokcet Scientist View Post

What format(s) were those pictures?

How can I tell? All I receive are those small blue boxes with the question marks - nothing to indicate anything about them. The pix are from several sources so the problem must be at my end. Very frustrating.
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post #7 of 29
1/27/11 at 11:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sequitur View Post

How can I tell? All I receive are those small blue boxes with the question marks - nothing to indicate anything about them. The pix are from several sources so the problem must be at my end. Very frustrating.

Two questions:

Is the mail with missing images all from the same person, by any chance?

And, would it be possible to email the sender(s) and ask what format the images were, or if they were links?

There are three possibilities that I know of: invalid link, Mail plugins are having problems for some reason (you might try a reinstall) or Mail is seeing the messages in question as Junk, in which case it won't display images.
They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.
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They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.
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post #8 of 29
1/27/11 at 11:42am
Also, try this: open the misbehaving email and hit "Forward" and see if the images display in the forwarded version. Header weirdness that gets resolved on copy? Don't really know.
They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.
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They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.
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post #9 of 29
1/27/11 at 6:30pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by addabox View Post

Also, try this: open the misbehaving email and hit "Forward" and see if the images display in the forwarded version. Header weirdness that gets resolved on copy? Don't really know.

They're from different sources; Forwarding doesn't make them appear; I asked several sources, but they were forwarding the pix (and were able to open them) and didn't know the formats.

What is mystifying is that they were opening up four or five days ago.

"Mail plugins are having problems for some reason (you might try a reinstall)". How do I do that?
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post #10 of 29
1/27/11 at 7:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sequitur View Post

...

"Mail plugins are having problems for some reason (you might try a reinstall)". How do I do that?

The only Mail plugins on your system are those that you installed. Did you install any Mail plugins?
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post #11 of 29
1/27/11 at 7:49pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Me View Post

The only Mail plugins on your system are those that you installed. Did you install any Mail plugins?

Not knowingly.
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post #12 of 29
1/27/11 at 9:45pm
So if I get this straight: you received apparent, but invisible image files, or links, (sounds like an HTML document with embedded images and links) from what is ultimately an unknown source and they behave weirdly?

Man, I wouldn't touch those with a 10 foot pole!
Trash that mail, good, and run some checks for malware. Just to be sure.

It's porn, right?

So if you're really hard-up ( ) to see them no matter what, here's what I would try: quit the Mail application, start up Safari or Firefox etc., and access your mail account via webmail. If they are images they MAY show up there. They're still just as suspect, though!

Your Windows pals you got it from have probably been infected.

OR it could simply be a crummily built HTML document. And Apple applications, as a rule, are less tolerant of non-adherence to standards than Windows applications, as a rule, are. They are more picky eaters, you could say. They spit stuff out quicker than others do. That's why webpages that misbehave in Safari sometimes do work in Firefox or Chrome.
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post #13 of 29
1/28/11 at 7:01am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rokcet Scientist View Post

So if I get this straight: you received apparent, but invisible image files, or links, (sounds like an HTML document with embedded images and links) from what is ultimately an unknown source and they behave weirdly?

Man, I wouldn't touch those with a 10 foot pole!
Trash that mail, good, and run some checks for malware. Just to be sure.

It's porn, right?

Definitely NOT porn. It's coming from several sources who would NEVER send risque stuff. The text is still there and it has nothing to do with porn. Only the pix are shown as the small blue boxes.
An example: Text and .PPS of Spanish military routine are okay. Still pix of the soldiers are NOT.
another example: a picture of an All Terrain Vehicle came through as a small blue box.

I just went back and checked. All of this started on the same day: January 17, 2011. Pix were coming through fine until that date.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rokcet Scientist View Post

Windows pals you got it from have probably been infected.

I would think the same; however, this started at the same time from about five correspondents. Five infected correspondents from various places in the US is too much of a coincidence. No, I think whatever is happening is on my side of the fence.
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post #14 of 29
1/28/11 at 8:31am
Thread Starter 
Rokcet Scientist,

You gave me an idea: I looked at my ISP, Comcast. That's where the problem starts, evidently. The pix show up there in a small blue box with question mark. Any idea of how I can change that situation?
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post #15 of 29
1/28/11 at 10:19am
Some other ideas.

1. Are you getting the Show Images button?

2. Are your images listed as attachments?

3. Have you viewed the raw source of the questionable messages? And if you did are the images in the source? (large groups of random characters)

4. If none of the above are true check with you ISP. You ISP may have tightened their spam/malware filtering and is stripping off your attachments.
What goes online stays online. What is online will become public.
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What goes online stays online. What is online will become public.
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post #16 of 29
1/29/11 at 6:30am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by aresee View Post

Some other ideas.

1. Are you getting the Show Images button?

2. Are your images listed as attachments?

3. Have you viewed the raw source of the questionable messages? And if you did are the images in the source? (large groups of random characters)

4. If none of the above are true check with you ISP. You ISP may have tightened their spam/malware filtering and is stripping off your attachments.

1. No
2.No
3. How do you do that?
4. Called Comcast. Problem shows up on my Comcast email. Comcast says 'not their problem, try re-installing Java'. How do I do that?
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post #17 of 29
1/29/11 at 1:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by aresee
Some other ideas.

1. Are you getting the Show Images button?

2. Are your images listed as attachments?

3. Have you viewed the raw source of the questionable messages? And if you did are the images in the source? (large groups of random characters)

4. If none of the above are true check with you ISP. You ISP may have tightened their spam/malware filtering and is stripping off your attachments.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sequitur View Post

1. No
2.No
3. How do you do that?
4. Called Comcast. Problem shows up on my Comcast email. Comcast says 'not their problem, try re-installing Java'. How do I do that?

1. Mail is not finding any link to an image. (I made an error on the button. I should had said "Load Images".)
2.Mail is not finding a properly encoded image attachment. The next step will see if there is an improperly encoded message.
3. To see the raw message, in Mail select the message and then View>>Message>>Raw Source. The image (and any other attachment) will show as a very large block of random characters.
4. Java!?? What does Java have to do with viewing images in emails? Nothing. You got the run around.

You mentioned Comcast. Can you see the images if you use Comcasts' web portal to read your email?

You were also mentioning military images. Are your correspondents in the same organization? Or umbrella organization? It is possible that the images are being stripped out for security reasons when the messages leave the organizations internal net. I also had a problem many, many years ago where the US Military used only a vendors proprietary encoding instead of the open net standards. If your correspondents are in the same organization it is possible that their IT department upgraded their email system and failed to enable the proper encoding. (Very unlikely in this day and age though.)

Oh, the blue box, it's a place holder
What goes online stays online. What is online will become public.
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What goes online stays online. What is online will become public.
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post #18 of 29
1/29/11 at 3:12pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by aresee View Post

1. Mail is not finding any link to an image. (I made an error on the button. I should had said "Load Images".)
2.Mail is not finding a properly encoded image attachment. The next step will see if there is an improperly encoded message.
3. To see the raw message, in Mail select the message and then View>>Message>>Raw Source. The image (and any other attachment) will show as a very large block of random characters.
4. Java!?? What does Java have to do with viewing images in emails? Nothing. You got the run around.

You mentioned Comcast. Can you see the images if you use Comcasts' web portal to read your email?

You were also mentioning military images. Are your correspondents in the same organization? Or umbrella organization? It is possible that the images are being stripped out for security reasons when the messages leave the organizations internal net. I also had a problem many, many years ago where the US Military used only a vendors proprietary encoding instead of the open net standards. If your correspondents are in the same organization it is possible that their IT department upgraded their email system and failed to enable the proper encoding. (Very unlikely in this day and age though.)

Oh, the blue box, it's a place holder

Can't see the image using Comcasts' web portal to read my email. Only the blue box.

This is the raw message I get in MacMail:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: J
Subject: Fw: Fw: River dance with boots and rifles


*Subject:* River dance with boots and rifles

[image:
http://www.incredimail.com/app/?tag=..._re&lang=3D9&=
version=3D6254831&setup_id=3D7&aff_id=3D1&addon=3D IncrediMail&upn=3DBD26B81=
5-D465-48EB-A605-5B9B7136E5DB]<http://www.incredimail.com/app/?tag=3Ddispla=
y_picture_click_me_re&lang=3D9&version=3D6254831&s etup_id=3D7&aff_id=3D1&ad=
don=3DIncrediMail&upn=3DBD26B815-D465-48EB-A605-5B9B7136E5DB>

The above image is just a blue box.

Great display of precision by a combined
Spanish military band and drill team. Keep in mind, the rifles are U.S.
made Garand M-1's weighing 9 pounds each and the drill is being performed
on ICE!!

When that one fellow goes on his own -
YOU'VE NEVER SEEN A RIFLE SPUN THAT FAST!

Just a very fine performance. Turn your
sound on.


http://sorisomail.com/email/16993/ex...m-espectaculo=
-imperdivel.html
<http://sorisomail.com/email/16993/ex...-um-espectacu=
lo-imperdivel.html>
--------
Now I see that the image was something other than the military band; however, I continue to get the blue boxes in other emails.
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post #19 of 29
1/29/11 at 6:03pm
The problem is simple. The problematic message is not the original. It appears to be a second-generation forwarded email. The original message was composed using IncrediMail, a Windows-based email client that is devoted to composing HTML mail. The result is exactly what one expects when the power to create HTML mail is placed in the hands of rank amateurs--annoying typefaces, graphics, and animations.

There is another downside to HTML mail. It is difficult to forward HTML messages while preserving their content--especially when they include links to external files. Those links are easily broken when the messages are forwarded. The blue question mark placeholder is the result of a broken link to a standard IncrediMail graphics or animation file.

The person who originated the message wanted to share a video of the Presentation of Arms by a Spanish Army honor guard. You may view the video at this link.
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post #20 of 29
1/29/11 at 7:45pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Me View Post

The problem is simple. The problematic message is not the original. It appears to be a second-generation forwarded email. The original message was composed using IncrediMail, a Windows-based email client that is devoted to composing HTML mail. The result is exactly what one expects when the power to create HTML mail is placed in the hands of rank amateurs--annoying typefaces, graphics, and animations.

There is another downside to HTML mail. It is difficult to forward HTML messages while preserving their content--especially when they include links to external files. Those links are easily broken when the messages are forwarded. The blue question mark placeholder is the result of a broken link to a standard IncrediMail graphics or animation file.

The person who originated the message wanted to share a video of the Presentation of Arms by a Spanish Army honor guard. You may view the video at this link.

I understand your explanation for this particular email; however, everything in the email worked with the exception of the 'incredimail' stuff and I recognized that when I went to Mail;view;message;raw source.; check out the last sentence in my post.

This was probably a bad example to illustrate the problem. However, I'm still getting the blue question mark placeholders in email from several other people. They do not include any 'incredimail' junk. If that was the only bluebox, I wouldn't be concerned

This is another example; however, the blue boxes are coming from Florida International University:
--- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Subject: SIGNS
To:

--0016364d265bdc581e049af00dda
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<br><br>
<div class=3D"gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From:=
</div>
<div class=3D"gmail_quote">Subject: SIGNS<br>To: <br><br><br><br><br></div>
<div class=3D"gmail_quote">--I =A0I&#=
39; =A0P
<div class=3D"gmail_quote">
<div style=3D"WORD-WRAP: break-word"><br>
<div><span style=3D"TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; BORDER-COLLAPSE=
: separate; FONT: medium 'Times New Roman'; WHITE-SPACE: normal; LE=
TTER-SPACING: normal; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); WORD-SPACING: 0px">
<div style=3D"MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; DIRECTION: ltr; COLOR: rgb(0=
,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px">
<div style=3D"MARGIN: 0px">
<div style=3D"MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-=
SIZE: 12pt">
<div style=3D"MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-=
SIZE: 12pt">
<div style=3D"MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'times new roman', 'new=
york', times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<table border=3D"0" cellspacing=3D"0" cellpadding=3D"0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign=3D"top"><br><br>
<blockquote style=3D"BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5=
px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px">
<div style=3D"MARGIN: 0px">
<div style=3D"MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-=
SIZE: 10pt">
<div style=3D"MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-=
SIZE: 10pt">
<div style=3D"MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: 'times new roman', 'new=
york', times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<div style=3D"MARGIN: 0px">
<div style=3D"MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style=3D"LINE-HEIG=
HT: 18px; FONT-FAMILY: serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><img src=3D"http://mail.goog=
le.com/a/fiu.edu/?ui=3D2&amp;ik=3Dd7b1c2feac&amp;view=3Datt&amp;th= 3D12dcdc=
a7b3ba2351&amp;attid=3D0.13&amp;disp=3Demb&amp;rea lattid=3D850ad905884fca12=
_0.1.1&amp;zw"></span><br>
<span style=3D"LINE-HEIGHT: 18px; FONT-FAMILY: serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><br>=
<span><img src=3D"http://mail.google.com/a/fiu.edu/?ui=3D2&amp;ik=3Dd7b1c2f=
eac&amp;view=3Datt&amp;th=3D12dcdca7b3ba2351&amp;a ttid=3D0.10&amp;disp=3Dem=
b&amp;realattid=3D850ad905884fca12_0.1.2&amp;zw" ></span><br>
<br><span><img src=3D"http://mail.google.com/a/fiu.edu/?ui=3D2&amp;ik=3Dd7b=
1c2feac&amp;view=3Datt&amp;th=3D12dcdca7b3ba2351&a mp;attid=3D0.2&amp;disp=
=3Demb&amp;realattid=3D850ad905884fca12_0.1.3&amp; zw"></span><br><br><span>=
<img src=3D"http://mail.google.com/a/fiu.edu/?ui=3D2&amp;ik=3Dd7b1c2feac&am=
p;view=3Datt&amp;th=3D12dcdca7b3ba2351&amp;attid=3 D0.4&amp;disp=3Demb&amp;r=
ealattid=3D850ad905884fca12_0.1.4&amp;zw"></span><br>

This continues on in the same vein, but I didn't want to dump all that into AI.
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post #21 of 29
1/29/11 at 11:27pm
This is another forwarded HTML message. IncrediMail is not your problem, per se. The problem is HTML mail--forwarded HTML mail to be precise.
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post #22 of 29
1/30/11 at 5:39am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Me View Post

This is another forwarded HTML message. IncrediMail is not your problem, per se. The problem is HTML mail--forwarded HTML mail to be precise.

Gotcha. Can it be resolved? Why did the problem start happening all of a sudden and from several sources?

BTW, thanks guys for working with me. TGF AI.
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post #23 of 29
1/30/11 at 7:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sequitur View Post

Gotcha. Can it be resolved? Why did the problem start happening all of a sudden and from several sources?

BTW, thanks guys for working with me. TGF AI.

That's just it. I don't believe that it "just started," at least not on your end. The problem is that your friends are forwarding HTML mail to you. In the process, they are breaking links within the body of the message. There is no way that links broken in this way could have ever worked on your end.
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post #24 of 29
1/30/11 at 7:11am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Me View Post

That's just it. I don't believe that it "just started," at least not on your end. The problem is that your friends are forwarding HTML mail to you. In the process, they are breaking links within the body of the message. There is no way that links broken in this way could have ever worked on your end.

What can I say (or do in my case) to them to avoid the problem? Possibly I'm doing the same thing when I send out or forward emails. How can I recognize this before I send emails? There is at least one correspondent who says she can't open my email pix.
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post #25 of 29
1/30/11 at 7:21am
Thread Starter 
It has occurred to me that when I get email from sites like 'ebates bonus offer' that end up in Junk Mail, they have the blue box placeholders. However, if I press "Load Images", those placeholders turn into pix. why can't that be done in other email that I want to open pix?
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post #26 of 29
1/30/11 at 7:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sequitur View Post

What can I say (or do in my case) to them to avoid the problem? Possibly I'm doing the same thing when I send out or forward emails. How can I recognize this before I send emails? There is at least one correspondent who says she can't open my email pix.

It's not always about you. If you receive a message with the links broken as above, then the linked graphics cannot be downloaded, period. If you send HTML mail which I recommend against, then your message should get through OK if it looks OK before you send it. However, there is no guarantee. As for your correspondent, her email client determines what she sees. There is no way to diagnose or fix the "problem" without access to both of your systems.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sequitur View Post

It has occurred to me that when I get email from sites like 'ebates bonus offer' that end up in Junk Mail, they have the blue box placeholders. However, if I press "Load Images", those placeholders turn into pix. why can't that be done in other email that I want to open pix?

Apples and oranges. Links in junk mail are intact but are blocked by Mail. Pressing "Load Images" unblocks the links.

Your OP is a completely different situation. When your problematic messages were forwarded to you, extra characters were inserted into the links by the email client of at least one of the persons who forwarded the message. When I examined your message, I found carriage returns and equal signs ("=") that, when removed, allow access to the linked video. I could not find which specific silly IntelliMail graphics or animations were included, but I was able to determine that the placeholders were for IntelliMail crap.
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post #27 of 29
1/30/11 at 9:15pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Me View Post

It's not always about you. If you receive a message with the links broken as above, then the linked graphics cannot be downloaded, period. If you send HTML mail which I recommend against, then your message should get through OK if it looks OK before you send it. However, there is no guarantee. As for your correspondent, her email client determines what she sees. There is no way to diagnose or fix the "problem" without access to both of your systems.

Apples and oranges. Links in junk mail are intact but are blocked by Mail. Pressing "Load Images" unblocks the links.

Your OP is a completely different situation. When your problematic messages were forwarded to you, extra characters were inserted into the links by the email client of at least one of the persons who forwarded the message. When I examined your message, I found carriage returns and equal signs ("=") that, when removed, allow access to the linked video. I could not find which specific silly IntelliMail graphics or animations were included, but I was able to determine that the placeholders were for IntelliMail crap.

Thanks. At least now, I won't obsess over those placeholders.
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post #28 of 29
6/8/12 at 8:29am

Old thread, but if anyone else is having this problem and has Little Snitch installed, that could be the culprit. Open Little Snitch config and remove and 'deny rules' for Mac Mail, then when you run Mail again you'll get asked if you want external connections for individual emails. Allow the ones you want 'until quit'.

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post #29 of 29
8/23/12 at 6:36am

I created an HTML signature for my boss. Before it was working quite well ... no problem. But a few days ago, some of the images that I embedded now show boxes with question mark. When she sends emails to me using the HTML signature, I can see the images ( I view the emails using yahoo mail and outlook ). But when she composes emails using the HTML signature, blue boxes with question marks appears ( I did remote pc to see for myself ). I checked all the links and they are ok. I'm getting frustrated at fixing this. Can somebody help me?

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