Can't attach word document with Windows 10 home

Anonymous
2022-02-21T08:14:40+00:00

Today I was unable to attach a Word file to an email I wanted to send. I first tried through my Yahoo mail account. I didn't get an error message, the computer screen just got paler while the circular working icon was going. After waiting, I closed the program. After repeated attempts, I restarted my computer and had the same problem. I tried sending the Word file from my Gmail account and got the same problem.

The problem seems to be with just Word, as I had no problem attaching a PDF file.

I haven't made any recent changes and don't have any 3rd party virus protection. I tried the Microsoft trouble shooter with no result.

I have Windows 10 Home and use Chrome as my browser. I've had this configuration on my computer for over 2 years without a problem.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-02-25T17:12:44+00:00

    Hi,

    I found that 21H2 hadn't been installed (I saw that in update settings). That's odd as I regularly update right after I get the sent requests. Problem still there after a restart.

    I did the Troubleshooter Update. No problem found. Problem still there after restart.

    I did the system file check in Method 1. The report for both scans was that everything was OK.

    For Method 2, a corrupted file was found and corrected. I restarted and the problem was still there.

    I agree that the next step is to try to repair or reinstall Office. Any tips for that? I guess I'll need to back up all my office Docs?

    Thanks for all your help.

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  2. Neil D 34,310 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-02-25T20:39:21+00:00

    If method 2 found a fault then run method 1 again just to be sure.

    Personally I don't think repairing Office will make any difference, the fault is the way Windows 10 attaches the file (or tries to) and not the fact it is a doc. You are not using Office to send or attach the file to email.

    You may have to repair install Windows 10

    Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade | Tutorials (tenforums.com)

    You will need an ISO image file for version 21H2, it can be downloaded from Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com) select Download tool now. Instructions are on the site to download the ISO image.

    Once you have the image then mount it in File Explorer, select the new drive letters and run setup. Be sure it offers to keep everything if not cancel the process.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-02-25T22:17:23+00:00

    Hi,

    I did Method 1 & 2 again. This time Method 2 said everything was OK. After a restart the problem was still there.

    If the fault is with Windows then why can it attach some Word docs and not others? Shouldn't there be a variable in the word doc that causes that?

    I took a look at the info you gave to repair install windows with an in-place upgrade. It seems a bit complicated. For the ISO file I have an old CD drive that's temperamental. I'm concerned about something going wrong in the reinstall and not being able to use my computer.

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  4. Neil D 34,310 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-02-26T09:07:40+00:00

    You save the ISO image file to your internal drive and run it from there. You don't need to use a CD/DVD drive, that is only to create boot media which is normally a USB these days.

    In the instructions on the Microsoft website you can see section 5 states you save the ISO file to your PC. That is all you need to do and then open File Explorer to mount the ISO image.

    Section 4 of the tenforum link covers using the ISO image. When you mount the ISO image a virtual CD is created and you run setup from there.

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  5. Neil D 34,310 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-02-26T09:20:20+00:00

    In addition. If you want to try a repair of Office then that should be simple enough. Open Apps and Features and search for office (depending on the version) select Advanced options and select Modify > Repair, or Advanced options then Repair.

    I would only think it could be something to do with the size of the file (there is a restriction from your email provider about attachment size) but then again the files you shared were only very small so you should have been able to attach and send both of those.

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