Mac Mail app in Sequoia won't show single page PDF previews inline when composing

Agree, very annoying and perplexing why this has changed.

There are a couple of workarounds that unfortunately require a step or two. Others have mentioned how you can select the file and hit space to pull up a preview. Not as good as appearing inline, but still better than double clicking the file to open it.

You can also save the composed mail then look at it in the Drafts folder. Strangely enough, the single page PDF will be visible inline there. Yes, it's the exact same email that you still have open in a compose window, but now the PDF displays.

Looks like it's a new "feature" not a bug? ugh.

Good news: it looks like the pdf is viewable inline to the recipient. And for the sender, if you click on it and hit the space bar, the preview pops up.a

They have discontinue this feature with this "update" to Mail 15 and it's unacceptable.

We use this feature every day for use in work so that we can view several pdf's information while composing that information into our email message. NOW, we have to select the pdf, click the space bar and pull the information, then select and space bar to close or x out. Then do this again with each pdf attachment when we have several (which is also a nightmare b/c file names are only shown partially so half the time I have to hover to make sure it's the file name I need, before doing the select and space bar to open). Why would apple change this? There was already a choice in the settings to NOT use this feature if you don't like it. JPEG and PNG STILL show up in a composing email, so why ruin it for PDFs? This was a MAJOR reason we switched to Apple Mail, it allowed us to do what a PC cannot, what's the point of using Macs and the Mail if you're just going to take those special features that make it worth it's value, AWAY. I'm tired of software designer changing things just to change them, almost always with a negative for users. We are administrators, we type and click millions of times per year. Not only has Apple taken away the benefit of being able to view the attachments automatically with no effort, before sending but they've increased the clicks to use be able to view them. Over a years time, how many extra thousands of clicks AND labor hours did Apple just cost us? To make things even more insulting, you can still view the pdf one pagers once the email is sent, a very valuable option to those that work in email and documents all day, so why remove the composing aspect at all? It makes no sense, is a burden on your customers, and it needs to be brought back in a new update!!

Submit your feedback here:

Feedback - Mail - Apple

I'm having the same issue. Prior to upgrading my Mac to Sequoia 15 my mail displayed pdf attachments when sending to clients. Now just the icon appears and the "View in Place" is greyed out. I also see that once sent the PDF is displayed in the sent folder as EdwardC245 mentioned. Kinda frustrating as I've been all over the place trying to activate this setting. HELP!!!

A Mac without great software is just a piece of shiny metal.

I'm not sure what Apple is doing. It's as if they don't know how people work in the modern world.

Their address book is archaic in design and in Sequoia they've removed the feature that allows BusyMac to function fully as an app. Companies not working together is creating a mean and dysfunctional world and Apple is part of that group. Apple's approach is arrogant, dysfunctional and not helpful. I just keep bumping into things that don't work anymore. Like the + in Safari for adding a page to a folder. That disappeared in Sequoia (Now returned) I'm going to start looking at Microsoft for business as Apple are becoming expensive toys and not good for business. They get rid of great functional ideas and replace it with stuff that has no real useful function or no function at all.

Frustrating this has not yet been fixed or addressed. +1 for this affecting my workflow. I have been holding off upgrading my work computer for this single reason, then accidentally upgraded last night!

are these .pdf files single or multi page?

Apple Mail previews single-page PDFs inline when composing an email on Apple mobile devices and computers. For PDFs with more than one page, the PDF will appear as an icon in the email.

Our company policy just allowed me to update to Sequoia. I'm glad I found this post as I was convinced I was doing something wrong. It's strange that it seems to only be PDF files and not images and also strange that the PDF showed up in the "sent" mail but not as you are composing.

I'm running 15.1.1 and Mail 16.0.

I'll add my voice to the "me too" chorus. This is YET ANOTHER un-announced, undocumented behavior change in Sequoia that is also UNACKNOWLEDGED by Apple.

This is a BUG. There is no compelling reason to change this behavior; single page PDF have shown in-line while composing eMail in Apple Mail for at least the last 5 versions of Mac OS, and there is no reason to change this now.

It's the same with me. It affects my workflow. I used to send a one-page PDF and be able to display it on the site. This helped organize my work emails.

They seem to be trying hard to downgrade their computers to a simple iPhone OS.

Apple should understand that we do not want an Apple computer to work like an iPhone. One thing is an iPhone, and another is a very different and expensive Apple computer.

I totally agree. There are a lot of things turning me off Apple at the moment enough to have started me looking at other options. And there are options when you have problems with a system like Apples that is not adaptable.

1. The pdf problem is just working backwards. Attaching .pages would always show as an attachment. A pdf would always show as a document. So I never sent a .pages by mistake. Which I have done more recently.
2. The auto start up on my M2 laptop is just a pain in the butt . It's like hey Apple keep your hair on and chill the out. I wanna set my desk up and drink my coffee first. Like what is going wrong with the cool Apple design team. Turned into nerds overthinking everything.
3. Ok the other thing is AirPod Pro 2. They lost a sale with me because they only do white?! My fridge is white. My washing machine is white. Again Wxx? Black is cool. I ain't walking around town looking like I have Q-Tips stuck in my ears left over from my quick shower. So frigging uncool this white plastic stuff.
4. iTunes is still terrible. My imported music of my own CDs - of which I have many - are all given the wrong covers courtesy of iTunes. What the are those guys doing all day at Apple?! iTunes is such a bad system for organising music and it could be do good and I'd subscribe. But I buy my CDs through Amazon now so I use Amazon Unlimited.
5. The Apple contacts is awful so I don't use it. It doesn't sync with emails. So I use a third party app called BusyContacts that did sync with Apple Mail so that I could see from inside my address book the emails someone had sent me. Brilliant! What do Apple do? Disallow BusyContacts from doing that. What does that say to me? Apple is turning into a mean uncool company that makes headphones the same colour as my fridge.
6. The biggest problem though is Apple do not listen to their customers.

I just spent over half an hour on the phone with apple's atrophying customer support on this issue. They are in complete denial, and advised me to do their job and contact adobe. High quality people - not the customer support service provider that apple built its support reputation on, but worth every cent.

Updated to Sequoia 15.3.1 today from Sonoma, thought it was tested and safe. Yesterday I could see my Dragged&Dropped pdf-files in the mail, today I can´t. I can see it in Sent mails and in the Inbox, but not when I compose it. Mac Mail is getting worser by the update....