[trekster]

Just got a 950XL. New to Windows Phone. My old Note 3's Android Gmail client was able to automatically download picture attachments. I think I checked off all the right boxes in my Outlook's settings but pics don't download until I click on the icon.

Is there a trick I'm missing?

It's very annoying to get multiple pictures in a message but need to click each picture icon and wait for it to download. In my Android Gmail client, if I wait long enough (not long), the picture would all be there and waiting by the time I open the message.

[Mark Kaplan]

Go into the Sync settings of each email account and put a check on "download full email". It's off by default.

[trekster]

Thanks, Mark. I had done those things.

The behavior, under closer observation, is that small messages will display after some seconds--AFTER I open the message. That is, Outlook seems to wait until I open the message before initiating a picture download. The only advantage is that I didn't have to click the icon.

A small (<200KB) message will appear after a few seconds. A bigger, 5MB picture, didn't appear at all--at least not before my patience expired (past 3 minutes) and I clicked the icon myself, at which point the picture appeared quickly.

This is not consistent with "download full email". I take it to mean "download full email in the background so it's all there when I read it". And that's not what it's doing.

[Mark Kaplan]

I see what you mean. I too was having this behavior. What I did was delete the accounts and recreate them. I am now getting the emails downloaded fully.

[trekster]

Are your accounts Gmail accounts? Mine are. And unfortunately, deleting and recreating the accounts didn't help. Today's (Dec 7) Outlook update didn't fix this either (for me).

I'm using Gmail under IMAP (using the Microsoft provided template/profile).

[Mark Kaplan]

I have both Gmail & exchange. Both are downloading full emails however attachments sometimes do not.

[trekster]

... however attachments sometimes do not.

Emphasis mine.

Former programmer here. Not sure how Windows Phone actually works but back in the day, a properly written computer program doesn't randomly do stuff (or NOT do stuff).

Consider the IF THEN ELSE construct. Expanded (see Wikipedia or any intro to programming textbook):

If (boolean condition) Then

(consequent)

Else

(alternative)

End If

There's no "Maybe" in there.

Explicitly:

If <user has checked the box for "Download attachments"> Then

Go_and_download_the_attachmment_NOW!

Else

Don't_download_the_attachment

End If

What's going on, Microsoft?!