Member Avatar for paulwilko

Hiya

Not sure if this is the correct forum, but thought i would give it a go

Keep getting e-mails that have the message This is a multi-part message in MIME format

And the rest of the email is just gobble dee gook.

Any ideas how i can get to read these mails ??

Cheers

Paul

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Dani AI

Generated

Short answer: what you see is the raw MIME parts because the mail client (or something between sender and you) failed to decode a multipart message. That preamble line ("This is a multi-part message in MIME format") is normal in a correctly formed multipart message but only appears to you when the client does not reassemble the parts for display. (rfc-editor.org)

Quick checks to narrow the fault (fast, no reinstall required):

  • Open the same message in your provider's webmail or in a different client (Thunderbird, webmail on the sender/ISP) — if it looks normal elsewhere, the problem is local to your client.
  • View the full message source / headers to confirm you are seeing multipart boundaries and attachments (Outlook/Outlook Express provide an Options/Message Source view; OE has a Ctrl+F3 shortcut). Save the message as an .eml and open it in a text editor if needed. (support.mailroute.net)

Likely causes and simple workarounds:

  • A gateway/antivirus or a mail server re-encoder can corrupt MIME (wrong line breaks, parts reordered), leaving the recipient with raw boundaries instead of the rendered message. Ask the sender to resend as plain text or to forward the original message as an attachment (attach the .eml), or have them resend the attachment directly. If you control the client, test briefly with mail-scanning disabled (only as a diagnostic), or try the message on another machine. Server-side content-conversion or mis-ordered MIME parts can also produce this effect. (learn.microsoft.com)

Practical next steps (mini checklist you can use now):

  • Open the message in webmail or another client.
  • Save/view message source (Ctrl+F3 in OE; Options/Internet headers in Outlook 2003). (support.mailroute.net)
  • Ask sender to resend as plain text or forward as an attachment.
  • If the same problem happens for many senders, repair or update your mail client (or have an admin check any mail-gateway/AV appliances).

Notes: was right that asking the sender to change format is the fastest test; correctly pointed out you are seeing the raw MIME; and were also on the right track checking whether it happens for all senders. If these checks show the message is malformed at source, saving the .eml and sharing it (or the headers) with your mail admin will speed a definitive fix.

Recommended Answers

All 6 Replies

Member Avatar for MidiMagic

Tell the sender to use a different format.

Member Avatar for paulwilko

Like what type ?

And how do you change format as i believe it was from one outlook 2003 to another outlook 2003

Member Avatar for sittas87

Hi
Does it happen when any user send's you a massage??

Member Avatar for paulwilko

Hi
Does it happen when any user send's you a massage??

Hiya, it all seems pretty random although one particular email when resent did the same thing !!

Think it had an a attachment to it

It looked like this although it had a lot more to the bottom part but it would be massive on this thread

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------=_NextPart_000_006E_01C90C52.4A02AA30
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_001_006F_01C90C52.4A02AA30"


------=_NextPart_001_006F_01C90C52.4A02AA30
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Here are the draft figures Brian. Do they come through OK?

Best wishes


Terry

------=_NextPart_001_006F_01C90C52.4A02AA30
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; =
charset=3Dus-ascii">
<META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.6000.16705" name=3DGENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2><SPAN class=3D375484515-01092008>Here =
are the draft=20
figures Brian. Do they come through OK?</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2><SPAN=20
class=3D375484515-01092008></SPAN></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2><SPAN class=3D375484515-01092008>Best=20
wishes</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2><SPAN=20
class=3D375484515-01092008></SPAN></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2><SPAN=20
class=3D375484515-01092008></SPAN></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2><SPAN=20
class=3D375484515-01092008>Terry</SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>

------=_NextPart_001_006F_01C90C52.4A02AA30--

------=_NextPart_000_006E_01C90C52.4A02AA30
Content-Type: application/pdf;
name="root_1_Ter_31.pdf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="root_1_Ter_31.pdf"

JVBERi0xLjMNJf////8NMSAwIG9iag08PA0vVGl0bGUgKP7/AGMAXwBfAGgAYwBfAHcAbwByAGsA
ZgBpAGwAZQBfAHIAbwBvAHQAXwByAG8AbwB0AF8AMQBfAFQAZQByAF8AMwAxAC4AcgB0AGYpDS9Q
cm9kdWNlciAoQW15dW5pIERvY3VtZW50IENvbnZlcnRlciB2ZXJzaW9uIDMuMDIpDS9DcmVhdGlv
bkRhdGUgKEQ6MjAwODA5MDExNjQzMTIrMDEnMDAnKQ0+Pg1lbmRvYmoNNyAwIG9iag08PCAvTGVu
Z3RoIDggMCBSIC9GaWx0ZXIgL0ZsYXRlRGVjb2RlID4+DXN0cmVhbQp4Xn1TzXLaMBB+Ar/DHukh
qiRLsnwE4wQ34KS2aKdHBujQH2BiYNLH765kY5N0Or6I4fvZ/Xb3JRLA8RMgJdMGX+t9dIgmLvp4
n4IQjCsA971HmZgZBYk2TCpw+4gzzjlC1jDKnhbP4w/gfkaKM2MBCW4Dd4iIjUfgy6b4eoVR+Q2q
/KGoXRUYiWKJGTDklZHYwHDFUwnlcjHJK1Cp1kZYz/R1apYSoa/TJsyATrB+S1WSJNdB0qtNg21o

Member Avatar for caperjack

me no know!

Member Avatar for gerbil

Paul.. this is probably not going to be of much help, but what you are seeing is the ACTUAL email as received by your computer. If I go to my dbx folders in OE and choose one, drag it into a notepad I will see exactly the sort of thing that you are showing in your post. [This stuff:
"JVBERi0xLjMNJf////8NMSAwIG9iag08PA0vVGl0bGUgKP7/AGMAXwBfAGgAYwBfAHcAbwByAGsA
ZgBpAGwAZQBfAHIAbwBvAHQAXwByAG8AbwB0AF8AMQBfAFQAZQByAF8AMwAxAC4AcgB0AGYpDS9Q
cm9kdWNlciAoQW15dW5pIERvY3...." is actually a picture, or part of, anyway.]
Now the difference between my OE and yours is that mine is interpreting the MIME code, and whilst I am happy with that, you may not be.. :)
Try this...
-Open an Explorer window, search for msoe50.inf -the default location for this file is in the C:\Windows\Inf folder [show hidden files and folders].
-Right click the Msoe50.inf file, and then click Install.
-Insert your Windows XP SP2 CD-ROM when prompted and on it locate the I386 folder, click Open, and then click OK.
The Outlook Express files are installed.

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