Some images not accepted as attachment

[BridgeSkalis]

Greetings,
I encountered an issue where some files where not accepted as attachment. Server response is "Could not access file". It started with one JPG of a hotel bill. I tried converting it to PNG - no luck. I tried saving it in Photoshop with lesser quality (same pixel size) - voilá, it got attached!
I tried editing it, removing certain parts of the image i Photoshop. Sometimes it was aceepted, sometimes it was not.

I suspected it has to do with some regulation about not being allowed to copy currency images (printers refuse to print currency images), so I tried using PHPMailer to send an image of a $100 bill - and it refused.

So, can you confirm this is the case? Does the project actively refuse to handla attachment images of what it believes to be currency bills? Note though, the first image was in fact a simple hotel invoice. Or is this maybe a windows settings? All the images can flawlessly be e-mailed through an e-mail client like Thunderbird.

Thanks,
Thomas

[Synchro]

No, PHPMailer does not make any distinction between images. The error you're seeing looks like a permissions problem more than anything else. Try a script that does something simple like file_get_contents('filename.jpg'); if there is a permissions problem, that will fail the same way. You can see for yourself that all that it checks is whether it can access the file.

[BridgeSkalis]

In that case it is Windows itself that limits the accessibility based on the content of the image. It is undisputable that it is the content of the image that causes the issue. I followed these steps:

Open image of $100 bill in photoshop
Save as copy to <localFile.jpg>
Tried to use PHPMailer and have the file as attachment. It failed
I now edited the exact same original image in photoshop
Save as copy to same <localFile.jpg> as above
Tried to use PHPMailer. It was sent without problems.

So...same file, same path, same permissions, same everything except different content of the image. One case it's declined, one case it's sent without issues. The content DOES matter, although the issue may not be with PHPMailer.

If you feel like trying yourself, I used the below image, trying to attach it from local file.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Usdollar100front.jpg

[Synchro]

I don't have a windows machine to test on, but that file works fine for me on macOS. The difference in the process for creating those images might be enough to make them have different permissions – don't assume they are the same, check it.

To check, I ran this code:

$mail = new PHPMailer(true);
$f = $mail->addAttachment('~/Downloads/Usdollar100front.jpg');
var_dump($f);

and it displays true.

[BridgeSkalis]

OK thanks for taking your time to try it out, I really appreciate it. After getting the same issue from an Android device I tried, I think I'm on to something. It doesn't seem to be dependent on the content after all, thus this thread can be closed as resolved.

I'm now leaning towards it's a file size issue. Files < 2MB seems to be fine, but files > 2MB seems to not be accessible for some reason. I thought it was content dependant but what happened was, that when I photoshopped it, the filesize shrunk and I drew incorrect conclusions.

So...now I need to re-read my scripts to see what's wrong. PHPMailer filesize limit is 8MB IIRC.

Again, thanks for your time and help. Highly appreciated.

[Synchro]

PHPMailer doesn't impose any size restriction, but PHP itself might, either through memory_limit, or over HTTP through post_max_size and upload_max_filesize. PHPMailer does not use streaming to send large files, and it's a bit inefficient in its use of memory when handling attachments. Generally speaking, sending very large files through email is frowned upon as it's inefficient and unreliable; better to upload it somewhere and email a link to it.

[BridgeSkalis]

RESOLVED :D

Thanks for info. I'm not experienced in PHP and it's limitations, I thought it was PHPMailer that was set to 8388608 bytes (8M) but it's the default PHP setting, from what I read on stackOverflow.

So, I ran

echo ini_get("upload_max_filesize");
echo ini_get("post_max_size");

It clearly says 2M and 8M, meaning it's the web host that has set the file size limit, and refuses to accept files larger than 2M.

Thanks again, I wouldn't have found this without your input although it turns out it had nothing to do with PHPMailer at all.
/Thomas