iPad will not open email attachments using webmail ?

Hi

We own a iPad 3, OS5.1.1 ( the iPad belongs to my wife ) therefore she has her own account set up using the iPad's email programme ( I do not have my email account on this iPad as we want to keep our accounts seperate)

When I login to my email account using my webmail I can not open any attachement wheather it be pdf.doc,txt ext etc ? when I select the document ( attachment ) nothing happens - if my wife has any pdf's attached to her emails using the iPad's email programme they open without any problems ?

I have spoken to my email provider as a webmail programme should be able to open attachments connected with an email - but they are not at all helpful they are suggesting that the problem is with the iPad which I am not at all convinced by unless I am advised other wise by anybody with a technical experience of this problem.

We have 3rd party apps such as PDF Reader and also iBooks which can read ePub files - can any body help with this - I am not talking about downloading files here, I am simply talking about the capacity to just open and read an attachment which I can not do with our iPad - we have plenty of memory and drive space, therefore I think it is a bug which might be due to a combination of the webmail programme and the iPad not working with each other - or simply something that is not apparent to me

Any help would be much appreciated

Many Thanks

Corrie

Each webmail site is unique. There is no way to tell what plugins or protocols are used just by looking at it. Since the iPad does not support everything a desktop browser does, what does and does not work can unpredictable. Actually, full desktop webmail clients almost work poorly on iOS, at least in my experience.

If it is going to work, you may need to tap and hold on the attachment to get any options that are available. Chances are it will open in QuickLook in Safari. At that point you should be able to use Open In… to copy it to another app.

If your site offers a mobile version of their webmail it may handle attachments better. Yahoo and Gmail both offer mobile versions of webmail, and automatically redirect the iPad to them.

Otherwise you will probably have to go to your site's support pages and find out how to enter the in the iPad's native Mail app. It should handle attachments without a problem.

Sorry for the late reply

Thank you twerppoet it's a very helpful reply - I actually researched this problem and you are correct in your analysis I have 3rd party apps that read all the extensions I need ( but not via the webmail page ) .. I have already tried the hold option waiting for a list of things such as open or download - but nothing happens at all.

What was very frustrating for me was the response of my mail provider who's agents tried to baffle me with science ( not knowing that I am a little technical myself ) in the end they conceded that the webmail client will / does not currently support iPad x

I wish they would have admitted that early on as it would have saved me posting this kind of message

Thanks once again

No problem. Hopefully you can get Mail to work.