Several people in our company have reported getting an error when trying to open a PDF attachment in an email. The error is: "There was an error opening this document. The file is damaged and could not be repaired". This only happens when the email is sent from people outside the company. It does not happen every time. Usually, if we ask the sender to re-send the same email it will be delivered with the PDF intact. I have been able to reproduce it by sending myself an email from my GMail account to my Exchange account. I've repeated the same test several times with the same file attachments. About 1 out of 5 times the PDF will arrive corrupt. We are running Windows Server Standard 2003 with SP2. Exchange Server 2003 version 6.5.7638.1 with SP 2, clients are Outlook 2003 with SP3. We have installed the following Hotfix, but it did not solve the problem: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;937625 I've tried to reproduce this error with other file types, but have not received a corrupted file. The Exchange server has Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security, version 7.0.1638, and it is configured to NOT scan the Exchange folders. The only other variable I can think of is that we have a Barracuda Spam and Virus Firewall, Model 300. I have not been able to reproduce the problem when sending from my Exchange account to my Exchange account.

Hi alan.lau, Could please do some tests as below: 1. Check the PDF attachment through OWA, and then save it in your location, and then open it using Adobe. 2. If the issue occured when users open the PDF attachment directly in the email, how about to save it on the location to open it? 3. Send email from outside to several internal receivers, confirm whether all the attachment corrupted or just for some users. If all the issue still exists, It seems the Adobe tool not regeister properly on the client end, I have run into some issue cased by that. Regards! Gavin

Thanks for taking the time to respond, Gavin. 1. Attachments are corrupt when opening them in OWA, AND when saving them and then opening them with Adobe Reader. 2) Attachments are corrupt when opening them in Outlook, AND when saving them and then opening them with Adobe Reader. 3) As a test, I sent an email to 2 people in the company. The file arrived corrupted at both inboxes. Interestingly, the corruption occurred at one place when recipient A got the file, and a different places when recipient B got the file. Recipient B was a new account that I created, so unless our entire Exchange installation is borked, it's doubtfull that this is caused by a corrupt email account.

Most likely the AV/AS, if you turn them off and test what happens? Probably something you may have to do to find root cause.Sukh

Most likely the AV/AS, if you turn them off and test what happens? Probably something you may have to do to find root cause.Sukh

Hi Any update for your issue? As Sukh referred, do you have AV/AS involve the mail flow in your email system. Does the issue always happen to special mailbox, if so, plese move it to other database and make some tests. Regarsd! Gavin

I have had PDF attachment issues and resolved it by turning off the Windows Firewall on the Exchange server. This is not a permanent solution but a fix until I can figure out why the firewall is breaking attachments. Hope this helps,