Excel file changes into dat file when sending it by email Thread poster: Gudrun Wolfrath
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Usually there are no problems in sending files. But once in a while an Excel file is received by the recipient as a dat file. How can this happen?
Thank you for your answers,
Gudrun
| | | | Ana Malovrh 
Slovenia
Local time: 22:59
German to Slovenian
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| double full-stop | Apr 2, 2013 |
Hi Gudrun,
it can happen, if you formulate the name of the file in a way that it has two full-stops before the extention (e.g. ..doc, or ..xls etc.)
But maybe there are other causes as well.
| | | | Gudrun Wolfrath
Germany
Local time: 22:59
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | Thank you GerSi. | Apr 2, 2013 |
No, there is no double full-stop.
Strangely enough this never happens when I use my web.de account, but sometimes when I use my "normal" account (which comes with my package from my service provider, I don't use Outlook or the like).
Gudrun
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 22:59
Member
French to English
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SITE LOCALIZER | Similar problem here, but no answer! | Apr 2, 2013 |
I too have encountered this, though not even with an Excel file, but with files of all sorts of formats, including .doc, .pdf, and .jpg.
It has only ever happened (I think) with one particular customer, who also says that it has never happened with any other translator.
I too am beginning to suspect it comes from my ISP, as the attachments were fine when I recovered the exact same message via Gmail — but it was recovered from my Wanadoo pop account in the first... See more I too have encountered this, though not even with an Excel file, but with files of all sorts of formats, including .doc, .pdf, and .jpg.
It has only ever happened (I think) with one particular customer, who also says that it has never happened with any other translator.
I too am beginning to suspect it comes from my ISP, as the attachments were fine when I recovered the exact same message via Gmail — but it was recovered from my Wanadoo pop account in the first place, so I'm far from sure why recovering it by that more roundabout route worked better!
One thing I noticed: the size of the .dat file did indeed correspond to the size of the original file; I suppose it might be interesting to see what would happen if I took the .dat file and simply changed the extension? If I can find the most recent one again, I'll try that and report back. ▲ Collapse
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Gudrun Wolfrath
Germany
Local time: 22:59
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | Thank you Tony. | Apr 2, 2013 |
Seems like a mystery, especially since it happens only every now and then.
In my case it is a French client who tells me that, but I suppose it does not matter where the client is located, does it?
Gudrun
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 22:59
Member
French to English
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SITE LOCALIZER | Mine was not in France | Apr 2, 2013 |
Gudrun Wolfrath wrote:
In my case it is a French client who tells me that, but I suppose it does not matter where the client is located, does it?
I shouldn't imagine so; mine was NL. Though I did wonder if it was some peculiar incompatibility between their ISP and my own; or perhaps more likely with their e-mail client. But like you say, it is such a rare occurrence, it is hard to see if there is any pattern to it. 
By the way, I use Thunderbird for e-mail, don't know if that may have some bearing on it...
[Edited at 2013-04-02 10:51 GMT]
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 22:59
Member
French to English
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | Aha! Maybe some light is shed... | Apr 2, 2013 |
I did find back one of the old files, which came through as winmail.dat
I changed the extension to .pdf (what it should have been), but when I tried to open it using Acrobat, it came back with an error message; it seemed to recognize that it was meant to be a .pdf file, but said that it was probably corrupted in some way — possibly due to failed decoding of an e-mail message.
So it looks as if it may indeed be a problem at the receiving end with the e-m... See more I did find back one of the old files, which came through as winmail.dat
I changed the extension to .pdf (what it should have been), but when I tried to open it using Acrobat, it came back with an error message; it seemed to recognize that it was meant to be a .pdf file, but said that it was probably corrupted in some way — possibly due to failed decoding of an e-mail message.
So it looks as if it may indeed be a problem at the receiving end with the e-mail client — though I suppose the decoding error could be due to some more general file corruption somewhere along the line.
One other thing I discovered when looking back at my old messages: the same customer sent me the same file several times, and each time the problem was the same. So although it may be a rare occurrence, it maybe isn't quite as random as I thought, and may have soemthing to do with the specific file. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Gudrun Wolfrath
Germany
Local time: 22:59
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | I use Firefox | Apr 2, 2013 |
and usually without any problems whatsoever.
Gudrun
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| Possible workaround? | Apr 2, 2013 |
How about zipping the troublesome file? Does this help?
| | | | Gudrun Wolfrath
Germany
Local time: 22:59
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | Thanks Stanislav. | Apr 2, 2013 |
Good idea. This time I used my account on www.web.de, which worked perfectly.
It was my usual ISP account which delivered something illegible (i.e. a dat file).
Which ZIP program do you use? Maybe I try this nex time.
Gudrun
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Stanislav Pokorny wrote:
How about zipping the troublesome file? Does this help?
That's what I do in case of troublesome files...  ^^^^
Edited for typo!
[Edited at 2013-04-02 12:05 GMT]
| | | | Gudrun Wolfrath
Germany
Local time: 22:59
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I am relieved to have a workaround (or two meanwhile with the ZIP option).
Gudrun
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