You know about attachment theory, right? Early emotional bonds can have a lasting effect on our lives.

But what about email attachment theory. Failing to save a document to a known location after receiving it by email can have a negative impact on our productivity.

Save Attachment First

As an Apple Mail user, when you receive a document via email that you need to edit, it’s a good idea to save the file to a known location on your Mac, such as your Desktop, Documents, or Downloads folder.

While in the email message, the attachment is stored on your Mac in an encoded folder in a hidden location that you’re not supposed to find very easily. So, you have a few approaches to choose from:

  • Open the document and use the Save As or Duplicate command in the File menu to save a copy to somewhere you can find it
  • Right-click the attachment and Save to Downloads or save to anywhere you prefer
  • Mouse over the divider between the email headers and the body. Click the paperclip, choose the attachment, and save it as you please.
  • Drag the attachment directly out of Mail to the location of your choice

When you’re ready to reply or compose a new email with the updated file, you’ll know where to look. You can click the paperclip on the toolbar and navigate to where the file is located; or you can drag the file directly into the email message and place it exactly where you want it to appear.

Delete Attachments

Surely you don’t need your attachments to haunt you for all time. If you don’t need to keep an archive of files you’ve downloaded or worked on in the past, be sure to delete the copies you saved.

Additionally, Mail offers a handy trick to save space on your Mac. If you want to keep the body of a message but don’t need any attachments, you can remove them using the Remove Attachments command at the bottom of the Message menu.

Find Messages with Attachments

Want an simple way to find messages with attachments? This will enable you to easily delete the attachments or the whole messages and clean up your mailbox.

In Mail, the filter at the top of the message list defaults to Unread. You can change it to show Only Mail with Attachments.

First toggle the Filter by clicking the button on the right, just above the message list, or by pressing Command+L. Then click Unread and choose your desired criteria.

Additionally, if you’re trying to save space and want to find the biggest messages easily, choose View > Sort By > Size and put the Largest Message on Top.

If you have a quota on your email account, finding and deleting large attachments is a great way to clean house and keep your email functioning. I also recommend not developing too much of an emotional bond with your email.

Need help? Give me a call.