email attachment disappearing after I reply to an email

Dear Polly Diaj,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community. It will be a pleasure working with you,

You are having trouble viewing the attachments after replying to an email. This seems to be a common issue that many Outlook users have encountered. There are a few possible solutions that you can try to fix this problem. Here are some suggestions:

• One possible reason for this issue is that your Outlook is configured to include original message text only when replying or forwarding an email. This means that the attachments are not included in the reply or forward, and they are removed from the original message as well. To fix this, you can change the Replies and forwards mail settings as follows: Open the Outlook app. Click on the File menu in the top left corner. Click on Options. Select Mail from the left pane. Under Replies and forwards, set the following options: When replying to a message - Attach original message When forwarding a message - Include original message text Click OK to save the changes.
• Another possible reason for this issue is that your Outlook is not showing the attachments in the message list or reading pane. This means that you can only see the attachment icon, but not the actual attachment. To fix this, you can enable the inline previews for attachments as follows: Open the Outlook app. Click on the View tab in the top menu bar. Click on Reading Pane in the Layout group. Select Options from the drop-down menu. Under Attachment and pictures, check the box for Show attachments in message list and Show attachment preview in reading pane Click OK to save the changes.
• If none of the above methods work, you may need to repair your Outlook data files or reinstall your Outlook app. Sometimes, corrupted or outdated files can cause issues with viewing attachments. To repair your Outlook data files, you can use the Inbox Repair tool (scanpst.exe) that is included in your Office installation folder. To reinstall your Outlook app, you can go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > Microsoft Office 365 > Change > Online Repair.

I hope this helps you resolve the issue with viewing attachments after replying to an email. To notify us and have us get back to you, simply reply to this post.

Thank you,

Microsoft Community

Does this mean that prior to changing this setting "... When replying to a message - Attach original message ...", all prior attachments are gone forever? This is extremely frustrating.

I don't see any File Menu on my Outlook App

Why not build the app better from the start? It seems that the trend is to ruin what was working or to make things unnecessarily complicated just for the sake of "simplicity" or minimalism.

I agree, this issue is extremely frustrating!

Unfortunately, your recommendations do not work. There is clearly an issue with the program. If you go on line you will see thousands of people are reporting/talking about this. Microsoft needs to fix.

Thanks