Reading an Attachment

erimess · 25 Jul 2015, 01:09 PM

This is more of a "geeky computer" question than an email question but here goes...

I needed to read an email that someone sent a few months back, and discovered she sent it as an attachment. All I was getting was "Session expired, please close and re-open the page." I tried downloading it. I then tried saving it to Files with the same problem.

Finally I just right-clicked and saved it to my desktop. It's a Word document (probably 2013) and I don't have Word, but I have docx attached to Open Office Writer. So once downloaded it did open Writer, after giving me some dialog box about ASCII filters. When it opened it said the same thing "Session expired, please close and re-open the page." What? It looked like the document was open.

(In my original reply to the email I made reference to having to put it on a flash drive and open it on another computer, so I tried that too. I have an older version of Writer on the other computer. Same thing. I'm not sure how I managed to read this the first time, but I'm pretty sure it was at home with the same computers.)

Any ideas? (And no, I can't just get another copy from her.)

BritTim · 25 Jul 2015, 01:29 PM

It feels like the document contains an embedded link, probably to a web page, possibly malware.

Have you carefully checked the file with a good up to date antivirus?

I would try opening the file with Notepad and looking for http:// type links. Even better, can you find a serious techie to look at the file for you?

If you want, send me a private message, and I will give you an email address you can forward it to me as.

erimess · 25 Jul 2015, 02:39 PM

Thanks for your response, but this isn't a problem attachment. This is from a former friend of mine, and yes I know it's from her, and I've read the attachment before and know what it is. It's basically just an email from her, and for some unknown reason she chose to write it in Word and then attach it. (I even told her not to do that again.

)

Of course... there's nothing saying something on my computer doesn't think it's a bad file. I can certainly run the scanner on it. But I managed to read it the first time.

William9 · 25 Jul 2015, 03:06 PM

Sounds like the Word file is corrupted or more likely an issue with attempting to open a .docx file without having Word on your computer, It's not password protected is it?
Suggestion: try using another application to open it. I take it that you do not want to buy Word, so another option would be to use the Word online version associated with a Microsoft account, or use the Chrome extension Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides that opens and saves Word files, that is if you have a Google account. You could ask a friend with real Word on his/er machine to attempt open it. I've had better luck launching the application first, then using the open file command -- rather than double clicking in the file.
You might also try online file conversions such as ZamZar to convert to text.

erimess · 25 Jul 2015, 03:26 PM

Thanks, William. While everything you say makes sense, I've had this file open before, probably using Open Office. (Which is what I always use cause my Word is a gazillion years old and I don't use it.) Don't have an MS account and don't use (or want to use) Chrome. We have Word at work but I can't get to that til next week.

I tried double-clicking, I tried right-clicking and using "open with," I tried opening Writer first, and I've tried Notepad and Wordpad, both giving me the same message, which is odd since they'd usually give me gibberish.

I'll see what that ZamZar thing is about.

William9 · 26 Jul 2015, 12:10 AM

File corruption can happen even though you have successfully opened the file previously. Malware or something that BritTim described is also possible.

n5bb · 26 Jul 2015, 01:25 AM

We still need to determine if that email attachment contains the characters "Session expired...". Please try viewing the raw message (headers and message body in ASCII characters) and look for that character string.

If you instead see some URL link in the raw message, try refreshing your browser screen (reloading the page) when you see the "Session expired" message.

It's possible that the sender sent you a link to her browser page URL shown when she was viewing a Word document using her webmail account. I think that you may be trying to view a session page of her webmail provider, and that session has now expired.

Bill

William9 · 26 Jul 2015, 10:38 AM

That would certainly explain the difficulty.

erimess · 26 Jul 2015, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by n5bb

We still need to determine if that email attachment contains the characters "Session expired...". Please try viewing the raw message (headers and message body in ASCII characters) and look for that character string.

If you instead see some URL link in the raw message, try refreshing your browser screen (reloading the page) when you see the "Session expired" message.

Well, turns out those characters are not actually there, but I see no URL either. The basic headers and message look like this (everything in italics I replaced the text):

Received: from [xxx.xxx.xx.xx] by web161002.mail.bf1.yahoo.com via HTTP; Thu, 02 Oct 2014 16:18:45 PDT
X-Rocket-MIMEInfo: 002.001,UGxlYXNlIHJlYWQgdGhlIGF0dGFjaGVkIG1lc3NhZ2UKATABAQEB
X-Mailer: YahooMailWebService/0.8.203.696
Message-ID: <1412291924.39893.YahooMailNeo@web161002.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2014 16:18:44 -0700
From: name and email of friend
Reply-To: ditto
Subject: Please Read...
To: me
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="442175996-1280321610-1412291925=:39893"

--442175996-1280321610-1412291925=:39893
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="442175996-1165413010-1412291925=:39893"

--442175996-1165413010-1412291925=:39893
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Please read the attached message

--442175996-1165413010-1412291925=:39893
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii

<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14px"><div>Please read the attached message<br></div></div></body></html>
--442175996-1165413010-1412291925=:39893--
--442175996-1280321610-1412291925=:39893
Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document; name="File Name.docx"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="File Name.docx"

UEsDBBQABgAIAAAAIQAykW9XZgEAAKUFAAATAAgCW0NvbnRlbnRfVHlwZXNd
LnhtbCCiBAIooAACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

.... continued jibberish like this.

Quote:

It's possible that the sender sent you a link to her browser page URL shown when she was viewing a Word document using her webmail account. I think that you may be trying to view a session page of her webmail provider, and that session has now expired.

I guess this isn't making sense to me. She wrote the doc, she attached the file, and I originally downloaded it back in Oct, and put it on a flash drive to move to another computer where I could read the file. She also would have done that at work, and have shut down the computer and left by time I ever got her email. I'd more believe it just got corrupted.

BritTim · 26 Jul 2015, 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erimess

Well, turns out those characters are not actually there, but I see no URL either. The basic headers and message look like this (everything in italics I replaced the text):

Received: from [xxx.xxx.xx.xx] by web161002.mail.bf1.yahoo.com via HTTP; Thu, 02 Oct 2014 16:18:45 PDT
X-Rocket-MIMEInfo: 002.001,UGxlYXNlIHJlYWQgdGhlIGF0dGFjaGVkIG1lc3NhZ2UKATABAQEB
X-Mailer: YahooMailWebService/0.8.203.696
Message-ID: <1412291924.39893.YahooMailNeo@web161002.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2014 16:18:44 -0700
From: name and email of friend
Reply-To: ditto
Subject: Please Read...
To: me
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="442175996-1280321610-1412291925=:39893"

--442175996-1280321610-1412291925=:39893
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="442175996-1165413010-1412291925=:39893"

--442175996-1165413010-1412291925=:39893
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Please read the attached message

--442175996-1165413010-1412291925=:39893
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii

<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14px"><div>Please read the attached message<br></div></div></body></html>
--442175996-1165413010-1412291925=:39893--
--442175996-1280321610-1412291925=:39893
Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document; name="File Name.docx"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="File Name.docx"

UEsDBBQABgAIAAAAIQAykW9XZgEAAKUFAAATAAgCW0NvbnRlbnRfVHlwZXNd
LnhtbCCiBAIooAACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

.... continued jibberish like this.

I guess this isn't making sense to me. She wrote the doc, she attached the file, and I originally downloaded it back in Oct, and put it on a flash drive to move to another computer where I could read the file. She also would have done that at work, and have shut down the computer and left by time I ever got her email. I'd more believe it just got corrupted.

To know what was in the .docx file, we need to decode the base64 part of the message. It starts

Code:

PK!2‘oWf¥[Content_Types].xml ¢(*

erimess · 26 Jul 2015, 08:08 PM

I don't see anything that looks like that. I did a search on "PK" and all I find is just those letters randomly in the middle of jibberish - none of which looks anything like what you typed. (Stuff like "pKWn+nor4x9cupfb6K4Vf7gLD9VNg5kGcAP8bM6mzqOQ2RuM=")

I did get your PM - just trying to do 10 things at once and really should be sleeping. May need to continue this later...

I do appreciate everyone's time.

BritTim · 26 Jul 2015, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erimess

I don't see anything that looks like that. I did a search on "PK" and all I find is just those letters randomly in the middle of jibberish - none of which looks anything like what you typed. (Stuff like "pKWn+nor4x9cupfb6K4Vf7gLD9VNg5kGcAP8bM6mzqOQ2RuM=")

I did get your PM - just trying to do 10 things at once and really should be sleeping. May need to continue this later...

I do appreciate everyone's time.

The PK!2‘oWf¥[Content_Types].xml ¢(* stuff is the first part of the decoded base64 stuff. I cannot decode the whole thing because you only included the first part of it in your post.

n5bb · 27 Jul 2015, 12:15 AM

After performing a web search for the error message you are seeing, I think you have corrupted Fastmail cookies. See this EMD thread:
Cannot open attachments

So let's try again:

Which browser are you using? Close all Fastmail browser sessions, then remove all cookies associated with Fastmail.
- If you are using Firefox, use Options>Privacy>remove individual cookies and search for fastmail. Remove all cookies which contain fastmail and continue below.
Please log into the normal Fastmail web interface (not classic) and read that message from your friend.
At the bottom of the message you should see the attachment Click the Download link for the Word .docx attachment and then Save File. Most recent browsers will save the attachment in a download area you can get to by clicking the down-arrow icon in the browser toolbar.
Move the saved attachment to some folder you can easily find later. Then close the browser and navigate using your file explorer to that folder.
When you open the saved file using a document reader which understands Word .docx format files, what happens? Do you still get that "Session expired, please close and re-open the page" message (which I'm sure comes from the Fastmail webmail system)?

In the normal (not classic) Fastmail web interface I can right-click a Word .docx attachment and save the document correctly (so that Word can read it later). Or I can use the Download link as I described. Or I can use the Download link and then Open with Microsoft Word (which I have installed on my PC). In all cases the .docx document opens correctly in Word.

Bill

erimess · 27 Jul 2015, 08:29 AM

Oh, Bill, that did it!! I had to try it twice. The first time I think I clicked on download and still had the same problem. So I deleted the cookie again (and used regular mode cause I always use classic), and this time right-clicked and saved the file. And that time it worked!!

Immediately followed by saving the file as an rtf so I have it now.

(That was dumb of me not to do a search on that message.)

There's a project I need to do and the exact verbatim message from her was important. I'm really glad to have that back finally!

Sorry, BritTim, I don't understand what the base64 stuff meant, so didn't get what you were referring to. (Is that like hex and binary and that sort of thing, i.e. like base8 or whatever? I've never heard of base64 but I guess it should be able to exist, but there aren't enough letters in the alphabet to cover that. LOL.) I do appreciate your offer to look at the file!!

Appreciate everyone's time. Thank you!

erimess · 27 Jul 2015, 08:35 AM

P.S. Forgot about this part, but just in case someone else runs into this problem, I thought I should post it.

I thought I saw someone mention "different settings" for cookies....

Well, I always have cookies turned off and put things in my exception list. (Firefox) When I tried it the second time, after deleting the cookie again, I just turned cookies on so it wouldn't have used the exception list. I don't know if this had any effect or not.

(I best turn them back off before I have a mess of cookies... )

25 Jul 2015, 01:09 PM	#1
erimess Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: U.S. Posts: 163	Reading an Attachment This is more of a "geeky computer" question than an email question but here goes... I needed to read an email that someone sent a few months back, and discovered she sent it as an attachment. All I was getting was "Session expired, please close and re-open the page." I tried downloading it. I then tried saving it to Files with the same problem. Finally I just right-clicked and saved it to my desktop. It's a Word document (probably 2013) and I don't have Word, but I have docx attached to Open Office Writer. So once downloaded it did open Writer, after giving me some dialog box about ASCII filters. When it opened it said the same thing "Session expired, please close and re-open the page." What? It looked like the document was open. (In my original reply to the email I made reference to having to put it on a flash drive and open it on another computer, so I tried that too. I have an older version of Writer on the other computer. Same thing. I'm not sure how I managed to read this the first time, but I'm pretty sure it was at home with the same computers.) Any ideas? (And no, I can't just get another copy from her.)

27 Jul 2015, 12:15 AM	#13
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,926	Possible corrupted Fastmail cookies After performing a web search for the error message you are seeing, I think you have corrupted Fastmail cookies. See this EMD thread: Cannot open attachments So let's try again: Which browser are you using? Close all Fastmail browser sessions, then remove all cookies associated with Fastmail. If you are using Firefox, use Options>Privacy>remove individual cookies and search for fastmail. Remove all cookies which contain fastmail and continue below. Please log into the normal Fastmail web interface (not classic) and read that message from your friend. At the bottom of the message you should see the attachment Click the Download link for the Word .docx attachment and then Save File. Most recent browsers will save the attachment in a download area you can get to by clicking the down-arrow icon in the browser toolbar. Move the saved attachment to some folder you can easily find later. Then close the browser and navigate using your file explorer to that folder. When you open the saved file using a document reader which understands Word .docx format files, what happens? Do you still get that "Session expired, please close and re-open the page" message (which I'm sure comes from the Fastmail webmail system)? In the normal (not classic) Fastmail web interface I can right-click a Word .docx attachment and save the document correctly (so that Word can read it later). Or I can use the Download link as I described. Or I can use the Download link and then Open with Microsoft Word (which I have installed on my PC). In all cases the .docx document opens correctly in Word. Bill

25 Jul 2015, 01:29 PM	#2
BritTim The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2003 Location: mostly in Thailand Posts: 3,090	It feels like the document contains an embedded link, probably to a web page, possibly malware. Have you carefully checked the file with a good up to date antivirus? I would try opening the file with Notepad and looking for http:// type links. Even better, can you find a serious techie to look at the file for you? If you want, send me a private message, and I will give you an email address you can forward it to me as.

25 Jul 2015, 02:39 PM	#3
erimess Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: U.S. Posts: 163	Thanks for your response, but this isn't a problem attachment. This is from a former friend of mine, and yes I know it's from her, and I've read the attachment before and know what it is. It's basically just an email from her, and for some unknown reason she chose to write it in Word and then attach it. (I even told her not to do that again. ) Of course... there's nothing saying something on my computer doesn't think it's a bad file. I can certainly run the scanner on it. But I managed to read it the first time.

25 Jul 2015, 03:06 PM	#4
William9 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 2,281	Sounds like the Word file is corrupted or more likely an issue with attempting to open a .docx file without having Word on your computer, It's not password protected is it? Suggestion: try using another application to open it. I take it that you do not want to buy Word, so another option would be to use the Word online version associated with a Microsoft account, or use the Chrome extension Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides that opens and saves Word files, that is if you have a Google account. You could ask a friend with real Word on his/er machine to attempt open it. I've had better luck launching the application first, then using the open file command -- rather than double clicking in the file. You might also try online file conversions such as ZamZar to convert to text.

25 Jul 2015, 03:26 PM	#5
erimess Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: U.S. Posts: 163	Thanks, William. While everything you say makes sense, I've had this file open before, probably using Open Office. (Which is what I always use cause my Word is a gazillion years old and I don't use it.) Don't have an MS account and don't use (or want to use) Chrome. We have Word at work but I can't get to that til next week. I tried double-clicking, I tried right-clicking and using "open with," I tried opening Writer first, and I've tried Notepad and Wordpad, both giving me the same message, which is odd since they'd usually give me gibberish. I'll see what that ZamZar thing is about.

26 Jul 2015, 12:10 AM	#6
William9 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 2,281	File corruption can happen even though you have successfully opened the file previously. Malware or something that BritTim described is also possible.

26 Jul 2015, 01:25 AM	#7
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,926	We still need to determine if that email attachment contains the characters "Session expired...". Please try viewing the raw message (headers and message body in ASCII characters) and look for that character string. If you instead see some URL link in the raw message, try refreshing your browser screen (reloading the page) when you see the "Session expired" message. It's possible that the sender sent you a link to her browser page URL shown when she was viewing a Word document using her webmail account. I think that you may be trying to view a session page of her webmail provider, and that session has now expired. Bill

26 Jul 2015, 10:38 AM	#8
William9 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 2,281	That would certainly explain the difficulty.

26 Jul 2015, 08:08 PM	#11
erimess Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: U.S. Posts: 163	I don't see anything that looks like that. I did a search on "PK" and all I find is just those letters randomly in the middle of jibberish - none of which looks anything like what you typed. (Stuff like "pKWn+nor4x9cupfb6K4Vf7gLD9VNg5kGcAP8bM6mzqOQ2RuM=") I did get your PM - just trying to do 10 things at once and really should be sleeping. May need to continue this later... I do appreciate everyone's time.

27 Jul 2015, 08:29 AM	#14
erimess Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: U.S. Posts: 163	Oh, Bill, that did it!! I had to try it twice. The first time I think I clicked on download and still had the same problem. So I deleted the cookie again (and used regular mode cause I always use classic), and this time right-clicked and saved the file. And that time it worked!! Immediately followed by saving the file as an rtf so I have it now. (That was dumb of me not to do a search on that message.) There's a project I need to do and the exact verbatim message from her was important. I'm really glad to have that back finally! Sorry, BritTim, I don't understand what the base64 stuff meant, so didn't get what you were referring to. (Is that like hex and binary and that sort of thing, i.e. like base8 or whatever? I've never heard of base64 but I guess it should be able to exist, but there aren't enough letters in the alphabet to cover that. LOL.) I do appreciate your offer to look at the file!! Appreciate everyone's time. Thank you!

27 Jul 2015, 08:35 AM	#15
erimess Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: U.S. Posts: 163	P.S. Forgot about this part, but just in case someone else runs into this problem, I thought I should post it. I thought I saw someone mention "different settings" for cookies.... Well, I always have cookies turned off and put things in my exception list. (Firefox) When I tried it the second time, after deleting the cookie again, I just turned cookies on so it wouldn't have used the exception list. I don't know if this had any effect or not. (I best turn them back off before I have a mess of cookies... )