What is a simple way to delete an attachment from an email in XFINITY?

Dear Latoque (Expert),

    Thank you very much for your quick reply!  It works like a charm!

    I should add that the reason why this is a problem is that I am responding to a COMCAST POSTMASTER alert about reaching the 95% quota of email in my account. This problem can be solved by removing attachments (large files, photos, etc.) from previous emails. Your solution solves this problem but one also has to delete the original email with attachments after using the "FORWARD" trick and one also needs to delete files that accumulate in the TRASH bin upon implementing this solution.

   Thanks again!

The only other way I can think of to do what you are describing would be if you had the account enabled in a desktop email client like Outlook, Mac Mail or Thunderbird.  Clients usually have a way to strip out attachments.

If you would like to delete an attachment or make edits just move the email to drafts and edit accordingly.  I like to drag and drop. 

I'm not sure this will work for me, exactly.  My problem is that I received an email from someone with a file attached, then later I received another email from the sender telling me he shouldn't have sent that file in email and would I please remove it.  I don't know of a way to delete it so that it is no longer stored on Xfinity's email servers.  Can someone help with that?

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@eric-nh wrote:

I'm not sure this will work for me, exactly.  My problem is that I received an email from someone with a file attached, then later I received another email from the sender telling me he shouldn't have sent that file in email and would I please remove it.  I don't know of a way to delete it so that it is no longer stored on Xfinity's email servers.  Can someone help with that?

 

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Did you try the method I posted upthread using the Forwarding window?

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@Latoque wrote:

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Did you try the method I posted upthread using the Forwarding window?

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Yes, but that leaves the original received message in place with the attachment.  IOW, the forwarded message has the attachment removed but the original message still has the attachment in place.

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@eric-nh wrote:

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@Latoque wrote:

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Did you try the method I posted upthread using the Forwarding window?

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Yes, but that leaves the original received message in place with the attachment.  IOW, the forwarded message has the attachment removed but the original message still has the attachment in place.

 

 

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Unless you need the information contained within the email body, just delete the email; the attachment will then be deleted, unless you already downloaded it, in which case you would have to delete it from your system.

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@Again wrote:

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Unless you need the information contained within the email body, just delete the email; the attachment will then be deleted, unless you already downloaded it, in which case you would have to delete it from your system.

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OK, thanks.  That's all I needed to be sure of... that deleting the message also deletes any attachments from Xfinity's servers.

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@eric-nh wrote:

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@Again wrote:

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Unless you need the information contained within the email body, just delete the email; the attachment will then be deleted, unless you already downloaded it, in which case you would have to delete it from your system.

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OK, thanks.  That's all I needed to be sure of... that deleting the message also deletes any attachments from Xfinity's servers.

 

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Well, not quite yet.  If you delete the message, it goes to the Trash folder.  The attachment is still there.  But I did a little experiment-----------I had a test message with an attachment in my Inbox folder.  I deleted it and sure enough the file still shows in the Trash folder.  If you do nothing else, the message will stay there for two weeks, and then drop off into "the dumpster".  It will stay there for 30 days and then ultimately dissappear.  But you can't see the file while the message is in the folder.  So I recovered the message back to my Inbox----------the attachment has been stripped out.  It's just gone.  So to recap:

Delete the message with the attachment from the Inbox,

Delete it again from the Trash folder,

Right-click on the Trash folder and then on "Recover deleted items",

In the "dumpster" check the box to select the message and then move it back to the Inbox.

Bit of a job, but it works.

Also, I have my Comcast account enabled in Mac Mail, and in my Gmail account as an external account.  I was unable to find any easy way to remove only the attachment in either one.

I've followed both of the suggestions made in this forum: 1) forwarding the emails to myself and 2) deleting them, emptying Trash, recovering deleted item, and moving it back to the Inbox. The attachment stuck in both cases. Any other suggestions on how to save a message but not its attachment? Or some variation of the above two processes that might be more likely to lose the attachment?