VCF cards arriving as winmail.dat

[raysiesicki]

When some users send me a contact from outlook, it arrives on my BB8100 as a winmail.dat attachment rather the .vcf and I am unable to open it. Does anyone know how to fix this??

Just registered and would appreciate the help.

[BESadmin]

When an end user sends mail to the Internet from an Exchange Windows or Outlook client, a file attachment called Winmail.dat may be automatically added to the end of the message if the recipient's client cannot receive messages in Rich Text Format (RTF). The Winmail.dat file contains Exchange Server RTF information for the message, and may appear to the recipient as a binary file.

[BESadmin]

File winmail.dat attached to device message instead of attachment

Doc ID : KB03820
Last Modified : 2006-11-15
Document Type : Support

Environment

• BlackBerry® Device Software 2.6 (C++)
• BlackBerry Device Software 3.6 (Java™)
• BlackBerry Internet Service
• BlackBerry device
• Microsoft® Outlook® 97 and 2000

Problem

When you receive a message on the BlackBerry device, the option to open attachments is not available. A winmail.dat file is attached to the message instead of the original attachment.

Cause

BlackBerry Internet Service is not compatible with rich text format (RTF) messages created with Outlook 97 or Outlook 2000.An RTF message without an attachment sent from Outlook appears on the device as a plain text message with the winmail.dat file attached. An RTF message with an attachment sent from Outlook appears on the device as a plain text message with its attachment replaced by the winmail.dat file.RTF messages sent from other mail clients appear correctly on the device.


Resolution

To prevent Outlook from sending the winmail.dat file as an attachment in RTF messages, search the Microsoft Support Knowledge Base for article 138053.

Workaround

Alternately, to avoid the winmail.dat attachment, configure Outlook to use the Plain Text mail format.

1. In the Tools menu, clickOptions.
2. Click the Mail Format tab.
3. From the Send in the message format drop-down list, select Plain Text.