1. champeney59's Avatar
    I just bought a Blackberry Playbook, and can't seem to download email attachments. It's the reason I bought the thing--so I could read attachments while in Bridge Browser mode on my Tablet.

    When I "tap to download," I can see the down arrow indicating that something is happening. But then it stops and nothing happens. Where does the Tablet download files? I looked in the Bridge files folder and saw nothing.

    This is very exasperating!! If it weren't for this Crackberry site, I wouldn't even have my smart phone bridged with the Tablet, and I probably would have returned the Tablet because while I can see there is some (potentially) powerful functionality, the unit is NOT intuitive.

    Please help! If I can't read downloaded documents from my email while in Bridge mode, I will have to return this item. It's not functioning the way I had envisioned.

    All help will be greatly appreciated.
    05-15-11 07:52 AM
  2. champeney59's Avatar
    I don't understand what BES means; and I don't even get as far as seeing anything download. Can someone please help me figure out where Playbook downloads files? If I need to upgrade some software, please tell me how and where to get it! So much of the speak on these threads is so technical that the whole situation becomes more frustrating.
    05-15-11 10:21 AM
  3. FF22's Avatar
    BES is generally limited to CORPORATE uses and there can be restrictions since many corporations have security in place and that can restrict how both the BB phones and the Playbook work.

    BIS is the other type and it generally the general user not tied to any corporate limitations.

    I'm an individual owner and have a BB phone so I'm a BIS user.

    I just sent myself and email with 3 attachments. A jgp, an xml spreadsheet and a pdf file.

    When I open the email, there were at the top area, showing the 3 files as attachments. Tap/press and hold on the attachment and it will then download it.

    Now the issue: jgp: once it was showing, I pressed on the image and was offered a few options, including SAVE. I tried saving. They had long alphanumeric names. I renamed, add a PERIOD and jpg. so I named it abc.jpg. Oddly, it did save it in the download folder but the file still had a longish name and NO extension. So it was generally 1dkffgg but not showing as a jpg. I tried again. No go. I then did what I read, I added the extension abc.JPEG. Now it showed up.

    The spreadsheet, opened directly and I could save that and it saved into the Documents subfolder.

    BUT the pdf, it also opened but I could find no option to save it. So I could view it but not save. I will admit this was a new experiment and I may not know all the in's and out's.

    Okay, tried again with just one jpg. This time I was able to save as listing.jpg and it worked. It saves in the download folder. It also will show in the Pictures app but it shows in the ALL grouping and since I have 1,100 europe pictures, it is hard to find it.

    And further study shows that the pdf file that I attached and saved, SAVED TO MY BB PHONE. NOT on the PB.

    And again, I'm not an expert.
    05-15-11 11:38 AM
  4. champeney59's Avatar
    @F2: Thank you for this reply. I will try these things. I did try holding down on the PDF before hoping that would open the document, but I'll try again. Thanks also for explaining the difference between BES and BIS. I am a personal user so the BES issue does not seem to apply. I will keep working at it.
    05-15-11 02:33 PM
  5. Snick Snack's Avatar
    I've opened Adobe files sent to me and it automatically saved it in two spots I think one was the download file, but if you open Adobe and "browse" you may be able to find your file. I found mine and it didn't even ask me to save it with a name. I think as long as you can open the file via bridge it will save it either to Doc, Excel, Sheet or Adobe (whatever format you received it in).

    Or you can tap "Bridge Files" and it then tap on "Playbook" to sell all the files in whatever format they came to the PB in.

    I've received a few files I couldn't open on my phone so couldn't open on my PB but I think it's because these files are too large for my phone to handle thus couldn't properly download. Wish that could be fixed, but it may be more of a phone issue then PB issue because I can transfer big files onto my PB from my computer.

    Hope this helps.
    05-15-11 02:41 PM
  6. FF22's Avatar
    I just sent myself another email with two pdf files attached. I opened the first and it shows in the Adobe Viewer. But I canNOT save it anywhere as an option. BUT it is saved BUT on my BB phone. It is not to be found anywhere on my pb as I've got wifi sharing and just checked each and every folder and it is not in any of them.

    I guess I find it odd that the jpg and xls (spreadsheet) files do get saved locally to the pb but not the pdf file - probably because the Abobe app does not have many dropdown options. Although jpg save is also dicey since you need to append the jpg extension to the file.

    But if I've missed how to save to the pb, let me know.
    05-15-11 03:01 PM
  7. champeney59's Avatar
    I need help just getting the PDF to open. I'm not getting ANYTHING. No download; no files are showing up anywhere. And no option to just view the thing. I really need someone who can help me who has had the situation where they couldn't open (or view) their attachment, could not see it downloaded anywhere, and managed to fix the problem. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but it's not helpful to me to hear that you were able to open or view your PDFs with no problem. That just makes me feel horribly incompetent. I think the problem is that the technology is not intuitive. At this point, I'll be happy if I can just VIEW the document, even if I can't download it. It's why I bought the thing!
    05-15-11 03:14 PM
  8. kbz1960's Avatar
    Reboot it?
    05-15-11 03:25 PM
  9. champeney59's Avatar
    I have restarted several times; I've looked everywhere in vain, looking for a downloads folder. The only thing that shows up in my Bridge Files folder are the 2 Word-to-Go documents that I created. And I was able to send them as attachments. So why can't I get the reverse? Why can't I open an attachment? If I can't use this thing for the purposes that I bought it for, I'm returning it. They shouldn't have released this thing if it wasn't fully functional.
    05-15-11 03:45 PM
  10. anon(106603)'s Avatar
    I have no problems with PDFs or Office docs. Have you set permisions on the Adobe Reader application on the PB? If not, no wonder you can't see any PDF files.

    The BB works great. Don't be so fast to judge the unit when you really need to get smarter on how it works.
    05-15-11 03:57 PM
  11. champeney59's Avatar
    My permissions ARE set to accept PDFs, so don't judge me. I've had my Blackberry for several years and really enjoy it. I was very excited to get the Playbook, and have found that it is not ready for prime time. I wanted to give it time. Please don't tell me you can see your PDFs. That's not helpful. What would be helpful is respectful suggestions about making the Playbook do what it's supposed to do.
    05-15-11 04:00 PM
  12. kbz1960's Avatar
    Go here BlackBerry - PlayBook Is Here - New BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet - BlackBerry Tablet down the page on the right side click on "an interactive guide..." and see if anything there helps you.

    I don't own one, just trying to help.
    Last edited by kbz1960; 05-15-11 at 04:05 PM. Reason: add don't own one
    05-15-11 04:04 PM
  13. FF22's Avatar
    As mentioned in pcar's post, check permissions.

    PB, Options, Security, Application Permissions (top option). Tap Adobe Reader and make sure ALLOWED is selected.

    Oh, let me ask a bit: When you send the pdf file, does that email show on your BB Phone (9100?)? And there is an attachment? And you get the notification on the PB? And you read that email and is the xxx.pdf file showing? How BIG is the file? Oh, does it have password protection (that apparently does not work on the pb)?

    Does it say "Tap to open" under the files on the pb?

    On the subject of use - I was just talking to a computer-phobic friend. We discussed how come some of this stuff is so complex and how come "I" seem to get it. Can't fully answer his question but in a former life eons ago (more than 30 years), I was a computer programmer. I can generally get stuff working. But last night I could not help a friend with her brand new, ahem, uncomplicated ipad. She could retrieve email but it would not send. 4 messages in her outbox, stalled for 2 days. There are just some days. Stick with it - but definitely ask here because what you may think is only your problem might be more universal and more heads on the issue can help - SOMETIMES.
    05-15-11 04:08 PM
  14. champeney59's Avatar
    @kbz1960: Thanks for the respect. I'll see what I can find at the links you provided.
    05-15-11 04:08 PM
  15. anon(106603)'s Avatar
    to be specific, you went to Settings/Security/Application Permissions/Adobe Reader and set permission to "Allowed"
    05-15-11 04:08 PM
  16. FF22's Avatar
    And to add: Since from what I've seen, the file does not get stored on the pb but on the BB phone (at least, that's what I think), is there room on the phone? Oh, if you try using Bridge Files and point to the BB phone, and then navigate to the Blackberry folder and then the Document folder and then the Bridge folder, is the pdf showing there?
    05-15-11 04:11 PM
  17. kbz1960's Avatar
    Champeny.......... what network are you on?
    05-15-11 04:14 PM
  18. champeney59's Avatar
    @F2: Thanks for your encouragement. As I mentioned to "pcar" my permissions were already set to ALLOWED. It was one of the first things I did hours ago [meaning last night]. I've been dealing with this situation for hours.

    As to your other questions: I get "tap to download." When I tap, it reads "starting to download", and then I can see a green down arrow within the email, doing what looks like downloading. However, after a couple of seconds, it stops, and I get the message "tap to download" again. I've been through that exercise a kajillion times. I have searched everywhere possible, and don't see any downloaded documents. There is no download folder in Media. And as I said earlier, the only files in my Bridge Files folder are the 2 Word-to-Go documents that I created with no problem.

    What am I missing? Where else should I be looking?
    05-15-11 04:14 PM
  19. champeney59's Avatar
    Yes. First thing that I did.
    05-15-11 04:15 PM
  20. champeney59's Avatar
    @F2: I got very excited at the prospect of seeing the PDFs by pointing to the Blackberry instead of the Playbook. Alas, when I went to the Blackberry documents folder, the only documents there are (again), the 2 Word-to-Go documents. No PDFs at all.
    @kbz1960: When you say network, are you referring to my carrier? If not, I am a personal user, so am not aware of any network. If yes, then I have AT&T.
    05-15-11 04:20 PM
  21. anon(106603)'s Avatar
    so two other thoughts...when I have the 'tap to download' situation as you described it, the file was larger than 3 mb and is not available to download as its a RIM server restriction as you know as a BB user. Second, and unrelated, when you open Adobe on the PB, try refreshing the file listing page by going to any of the other three categories and then back to "Documents" - do that for both the PlayBook and you BB phone model at the top of that page.
    05-15-11 04:25 PM
  22. champeney59's Avatar
    @pcar: Thanks for these suggestions.
    1. Both of the PDFs that I am trying to download are smaller than 3 MB, so they should be a problem to download or open.
    2. I opened Adobe Reader and tried refreshing as you described above (for both PB and BB), and still I get "There are no files that can be opened in this application."
    05-15-11 04:32 PM
  23. kbz1960's Avatar
    Are the files you're trying to open named whatever.pdf ? Or can you name before downloading? I think if it had a save or save as option and a file manager that will hopefully come you wouldn't be so lost.

    Is there a search function on it to look for the file name? I'm just guessing.
    Last edited by kbz1960; 05-15-11 at 04:49 PM. Reason: typo
    05-15-11 04:49 PM
  24. vecharo's Avatar
    I'd say you've done due diligence in trying to figure this out yourself. Call RIM. 1-877-BLK-BERR

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    05-15-11 04:52 PM
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