Problem with attachment in Apple mail

[Laurent N.1]

I work on a Mac Studio (chip M2) with mac os x sonoma 14.4. 

All my documents are synchronized in dropbox and I use the desktop version of dropbox

I have a problem for a few days now that prevents me from attaching documents to emails with Apple Mail

When I attach a document, apple mail indicates "download", but the attachment is never in the message.

Although the email starts, the person receiving it is unable to read the document because it appears corrupted and weighs 0 kb.

If I use Outlook, the problem does not exist.

If i use another computer with Apple Mail and Mac OS X Sonoma, the problem does not exist.

If I forward an email with a received attachment, the problem does not exist.

If I save a received attachement and then I send a new message with this attachement saved earlier on my Mac, the problem does not exist.

When I get an e-mail with attachments and I want to save the attachments, I choose the synchronized folder and it seems to save the files. Then when the folder opens, it is empty.

Thanks for any help

[Nancy]

Thanks for posting on our forum, @Laurent N.1!

Do you mean that Apple shows a notification the file has been successfully added to your email, even though it hasn’t? Can you send me a screenshot of that notification? 

Can you send me one more screenshot of an example corrupted file and how it appears on your end?

Finally, what steps are you following to attach your Dropbox files to your email?

Keep me updated.

[Laurent N.1]

Hi nancy, as you can see from the screenshot , next to the pdf icon the blue text "download" appears and even though the pdf weighs very little it doesn't disappear. If I send the email, it starts and it looks ok, but then the 'attachement weighs is 0 kb.

I have tried attaching documents in several ways: dragging the document to the message or clicking on the attachments icon or using the command from the menu.
The result is always the sams

[Nancy]

Thanks for that! Is this happening with other types of files besides PDFs? Like image files, for example?

[Laurent N.1]

It happens with any type of attachment: pdf, doc, jpg, png, etc.

As can be seen in the attached screenshot, only the type of reporting changes. In this case I have tried to attach an image.

[Laurent N.1]

Another interesting detail: if I want to save received attachments (via the "save attachments" command), I can only save them in a folder called "downloads" which is inside the dropbox folder. If I choose to save the documents anywhere else, even on my desktop, it doesn't save my attachments. This happens with other programs as well.
Exception: if I drag the documents to a folder, the download works (app mail and other software).

UPDATE

I installed "Spark" software (Readdle company), I have the same problems.

[Walter]

Hey @Laurent N.1 - sorry to jump in here, but I wanted to ask something.

Are the files you're attaching to your emails online only or available offline on your computer when you take a look at their syncing icons locally? 

[Laurent N.1]

Hi Walter

The documents I want to send are offline.

In the meantime, I discovered something really strange: My downloads folder (which is normally located in mac os x under "user") is actually an alias of a downloads folder saved in dropbox (under folder named "Mac5" .

If I move documents (pdf, jpg, png, ...) into this folder and then attach them to an email from this folder, everything works correctly.

But only if I put them in this folder, even though they are offline documents. 

Than you

[Walter]

Did you enabled the Dropbox Backup feature at some point in the past perhaps @Laurent N.1?

Do you see any folders being backed up in your backups online? 

[Laurent N.1]

1) On the computer where I'm having problems with email attachement, backup is turned off.

2) Yes, I see some folders, because in the past I had activated the backup, but now I haven't used it for months.