Issue: Sometimes when using IMAP in Outlook to download messages you may notice that the attachments are disappearing when trying to open the message. By default, IMAP only downloads the headers which can cause this problem.

Affects: Windows PCs running Outlook 2007

Solution/Process:

In order to fix this go to Tools>Send/Receive>Send/Receive Settings> and then Define Send/Receive Groups. There is also a shortcut which is Ctrl+Alt+S.

When the Send/Receive Groups dialog box comes up, choose the edit button. Select your IMAP account in the left-hand pane and then under the Receive Mail Items section choose either “Download complete items” or “Use the custom behavior defined below”.

A good recommendation is to use the custom behavior and only download the complete items for the Inbox folder by selecting “Download complete item including attachments”.

Author: Keller Medlin