Hacker News Reader

Comment by brnt | Hacker News Reader

Thunderbird also has for years. Come to think of it, which clients don't?

Out of interest, I had a look at the relevant Thunderbird source: https://searchfox.org/comm-central/source/mail/components/co...

The code simply checks the subject and body text, excluding the signature and any quoted text, for keywords defined in the configuration item mail.compose.attachment_reminder_keywords. The default keywords are: ".doc,.pdf,.xls,.ppt,.rtf,.pps,attachment,attach,attached,attaching,enclosed,CV,cover letter"

This little feature must have made lots of users happy one time or another...

Interesting! I'm also surprised thunderbird's written in JS and not C++.

It’s literally been a thing for decades. Eudora had this feature in the 90s. I’d be suspect of any mail client that doesn’t.

I believe Apple's Mail.app doesn't without some third-party tooling. Suggestive: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/229472/macmail-for... (five years old)

Gmail. Gmail doesn't have it. And as somebody who used Thunderbird since the early 00's, it was a disappointment when I moved to using gmail.com instead of IMAP/Tbird. But, the move solved other problems for me, so ¯\(º_o)/¯

Still wish Gmail had it, though.

EDIT: See below. It was an issue unique to my account

Actually it does have this feature, and has done for many years. Many clients have it now, but Gmail was where I first encountered it. I don't know if it was the pioneer.

Here's a blog post by someone digging into how it works: https://www.labnol.org/internet/gmail-attachment-reminder/31...

Indeed I've seen other comments in this thread that indicate the same. I tested sending an email with the word "attachment" in it, with no attachment, and Gmail didn't have any problem sending it.

I tested it with my work email on Google Workspace, and it showed the popup. It must be a setting.

Weird.

EDIT: After toggling experimental features on, then off again, it now works. ¯\(º_o)/¯

> After toggling experimental features on, then off again, it now works.

Still the most sure-fire way of fixing anything computerized.

I'm pretty sure Gmail is where I first noticed this years and years ago. I've been with Fastmail for the past many years, but remember the dialog from Gmail. Maybe it was an experiment you had to enable and are opted out of?

A quick search says that automatic footers (company logos) can be interpreted as attachments...meaning you won't see the warning. Could that be your issue?

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-get-a-forgotten-attachment-r...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com