Email attachments won’t download – What to do

Your browser is an important tool for everyday tasks, from catching up on the news to watching your favorite movies. Managing your email is one of the most important things you can do with your browser, as moving emails with a mouse and keyboard is much easier than on your phone. Of course, sometimes your browser can get in the way of your work, and nothing is more annoying than when you can’t download attachments. Whether it’s because your computer is trying to protect you from suspicious data or because your browser crashes, it can be really annoying.

Either way, there are a few ways to stop this occurrence. While sending and receiving emails securely is a must for anyone, email protection can make it difficult to send anonymous emails or download attachments from your own messages. Let’s take a look at how to fix this error.

Turn off antivirus software

Sometimes your antivirus won’t allow you to download attachments to protect you from potentially harmful data. If you know that the email is from a reliable source, you can disable your browser protection.

If you are using a laptop or computer, most antivirus programs will have a web browser extension. You can click on the extension at the top right of the browser screen. Then change the settings to disable email blocking or pop-up blocking.

If you can’t find the browser extension, you can find its antivirus icon on the right side of your taskbar. Right-click on the antivirus icon and click “Disable.”

Once you disable your antivirus, try downloading the attached file again. If you can download it, your antivirus was stopping it earlier.

Turn off the Windows firewall

Windows Firewall can also prevent downloading of email attachments. If your Firewall is on, try disabling it. To do so, you must:

1. Click on the ‘Start’ button at the bottom left of the screen.
2. Select ‘Settings’ on the left side of the menu (gear icon).
3. Select ‘Windows Security on the left side of the window.
4. Enter the ‘Firewall and network protection’ menu.
5. Select the network that has the status ‘active’ by its name (usually ‘Public’)
6. Disable it by clicking the blue switch.

Once you disable your antivirus and firewall, you should be able to download the attachments.

Empty the cache

If the problem persists, there is a possibility that your cache is full. Your Internet file cache or temporary folder stores the logs for every site you’ve visited and every file you’ve downloaded.

Thanks to the cache, your browser can easily access these logs and load websites more easily. However, if your browser doesn’t clear the cache automatically, and it doesn’t clear the cache manually either, it can fill up pretty quickly.

This means that the browser cannot make a new download record and therefore does not allow you to download a new file. Each browser follows a somewhat different route to clear the cache. It is usually in the ‘Settings menu.

For example, to clear the cache in Chrome, you must:

1. Click on the ‘More’ icon in the upper right corner of the screen (three vertical dots).
2. Hover over ‘More tools’ with your mouse cursor.
3. Click on ‘Clear browsing data.
4. Select ‘All the time’ in the Time Range bar.
5. Click on ‘Clear data’.

This will flush the cache and free up space for new download logs.

Also see: How to keep screen display on in Windows 10

Lack of hard drive capacity

This is very rare, but sometimes an attachment can be larger than its storage capacity. If that’s the case, the computer won’t download them.

You need to check if the designated download partition has enough space for your attachment. Otherwise, you need to delete some files to free up space.

Alternatively, if you have multiple partitions, you can change the default download location to another. In Chrome, for example, you must follow these steps:

1. Select the ‘More’ icon in the upper right corner of the screen (three vertical dots).
2. Click on ‘Settings’.
3. Find the ‘Downloads’ section.
4. Click ‘Change’ on the ‘Location’ line.
5. Choose another partition and download the folder.
6. Click ‘Select Folder’.

You should now have enough space to download your attachments.

Do you receive email warnings?

If you receive a warning message before your browser prevents you from downloading attachments, you may have corrupted files.

Sometimes the browser will inform you that a file allows unverified scripts or that it has an encrypted attachment. Also, it may warn you that you cannot verify the authenticity of the message.

If you think the email looks suspicious, don’t open it. Instead, report it as spam or phishing and remove it. On the other hand, if it’s from a trusted source, you can ignore the warnings. In that case, follow one of the above methods and download the attachment anyway.

Read More: How to block all websites except one in Chrome and Firefox

Be careful when downloading attachments

Your browser preventing you from downloading attachments can be frustrating. Most of the time it is nothing serious. However, sometimes there is a cause for concern.

Make sure to carefully review the sender and content of the email before bypassing the security and downloading it anyway. Although it can sometimes be a glitch, the tools on your device are just trying to keep you safe.