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Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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Summary: Due to complexity of attachments in emails, changes you've made to a document that was emailed to you can disappear.

Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

Naturally there are a lot of ways that things can go wrong and disappear, but dealing with documents that have been emailed to you as an attachment adds another small layer of complexity.

You may think you're just editing a document, but you're also editing the email that it came in. And that's where things can get confusing.

For the record, I'll be referring to Outlook. This discussion applies mostly to email programs like Outlook and Outlook Express, but the principals may apply to other email programs as well. Similarly, I'll be using Microsoft Word and a word processing document as the example attachment, but the concepts apply regardless of the type of document attached.

An attachment is nothing more than a specially formatted part of an email message. Outlook knows that it's special, so it shows as an attachment icon rather than the illegible specially coded mess that attachments are actually stored as.

When you open an attachment, say by double clicking on its icon, Outlook decodes the attachment from the email and writes it to a temporary location. Then a program such as Word is used to view or edit the temporary copy.

Note the repeated use of the word "temporary". When you close Word, the temporary file is deleted by Outlook. The original remains encoded within the email, but the temporary copy that you were actually viewing is gone.

So, what if you made changes to the document you were viewing?

First, you'll have to save the changes to the temporary copy in Word. If you make a change and then go to close Word, then it will first ask you if you want to save the changes you've made.

As I said earlier, when you close the attachment, the temporary file you were looking at is deleted. However, Outlook will notice that the document has been changed. Before deleting the temporary file, it will update the attachment within the open email message.

Lastly, when you go to close that email message, Outlook will ask you "Do you want to save changes?". This can be confusing, because to all outward appearances the email message hasn't changed. But in fact it has, because you made changes to the attachment that is part of the message. If you don't save changes at this point, those changes to the attachment will be lost.

What if the message wasn't open? Well, it had to be open in order to open the attachment in Word. If you close the message before you close Word you lose the possibility of updating the attachment in the message. Outlook will usually warn you if you're about to do this.

The good news is that if you've closed the message and Outlook can't update it, it also doesn't know that it needs to delete the temporary file when Word closes. So you may be still able to find the document by searching in your temporary folders.

Finally, my recommendation is actually very simple: avoid all this. Just don't do it that way.

Instead, if you need to edit a document that has arrived as an attachment, use "Save Attachment" to save it to disk first. Put it in "My Documents" or some other place that you'll remember. Edit it to your heart's content without worrying about Outlook, and open messages and/or temporary files. Then, when you need to send it to someone else or reply to the person that sent it in the first place, just attach your new copy of the document to your message.

Related:

Article C2145 - August 2, 2004

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Recent Comments
16 Comments

It's easy to go into this trap if you edit the attachement in the reading pane (without opening the message). This way Outlook won't notice the changes in the attachement and you lost them. Worst is if the attachement is another e-mail message. I could not find the corresponding temporary file, or it was blocked by Outlook and deleted when I exited Outlook.

Posted by: Paulo Nunes at October 30, 2008 2:02 AM

I had the same problem with a word attachment
this was what I did
FROM DOS
1)cd C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\
2)dir /A /S *.doc
3)copy "filename.doc" c:
4)enjoy!!!

Posted by: Francesco at November 11, 2008 6:53 AM

Francesco, you are a lifesaver! This worked - except that I had to change the directory to Temporary Internet Files and then the Outlook folder (OLKxx). I never knew you could recover modified Outlook attachments. Strange that they don't show up in Windows Explorer but appear in the DOS file list. Thank you so much!

Posted by: Vicki Berenson at February 25, 2009 12:26 PM

I never though it would ever happened to me. i opened word document from my e-mail to finish the paper I was working on and closed it without saving in on my hard drive. I was devasted, 6 hours of work went waste! I was trying to locate it by all means possible, searched tepm files, word recovery files and couldn't find it. I downloaded couple of free document recovery programs but it didn't help.I followed the instructions posted by Francesco, found the file in DOS list, but it didn't copy. Then i decided to purchase EASEUS Data Recovery and it found and restored my lost data! So happy!

Posted by: Anna at April 15, 2009 11:50 PM

Does anyone know Microsofts "Official" stance on this...is this a feature or a bug? I've got users who seem to operate this way on a regular basis and this behavior causes them difficulty. I understand there's a "don't do it that way" work around but was wondering what the official response was.

I don't know that there's an official position. However I can say that everything is operating as expected and by design. It's more a matter of understanding how documents are being handled in email that sometimes confuses people.
- Leo
13-May-2009

Posted by: Craig at May 11, 2009 10:03 AM

If users are aware of the pitfalls of editing an email attachment without saving it to disk, then don't cry me a river.
You were aware of the pitfalls of editing an attachment inside a email but choose not to practice safe computing habits.
Sort of like repeating hitting your thumb with a hammer.
If it hurts, practice your hammering skills.
Maybe users should purhase I.D.10.T insurance.

Posted by: Jerry Rawson at May 13, 2009 1:45 PM

This is great!
I made changes in the attachement of the e-mail, forgetting that I did not save it to computer, but at least I clicked save several times during work. When I realised that, after I just closed the document, I felt so bad because I've been working on it a few hours.

Downloading the Handy Recovery 4.0 solved all my problems so easy that I still can not believe. Just read the tips at the beginning and you will need a few minutes to get the file you need. And the best thing is filter which helps you to find it even by name.

Posted by: Zeljka at July 19, 2009 4:58 AM

I spent half a day editing a brochure under very tight deadlines when I discovered all of my edits disappeared because I had edited the document that was attached to email. In an absolute, utter panic, I searched online for a solution and ended up on this (Ask-Leo) page. You are my saviour, Leo! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I found the doc in my temp directory. Phew!

Posted by: Cathy mertl at September 10, 2009 9:16 AM

This feature quit working for a couple of users in our company. they are no longer able to save the attachment with edits. It opens as Read Only. I can't duplicate it on my PC. Any idea how to turn it back on?

Not offhand - could be several things. But they can always save a copy to a location of their own choice which would read/write.
Leo
01-Oct-2009

Posted by: Rhonda at September 30, 2009 6:21 AM

Hi Ronda, the attachements are opening as Read-Only because they are opened from the Preview Pane. If you double-click on the email and then open the docs, you can make changes to them.

Posted by: Tan C at October 5, 2009 9:26 AM

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