Finding the "Forward as Attachment" Button

Most emails systems have a Forward as Attachment option but it is not always easy to find. Here are some tips if you are having difficulty finding it.

Check all the menus. Typically the first panel displayed in an email system will list all the email messages allowing you to select any message and then choose an operation from a menu. But you can also choose to open a message and then there is a separate menu of actions shown. So there are actually two menus. Check each menu to see if you can find the Forward as Attachment option. Often a menu will list frequenly used actions and also have a More Options icon (three dots) to bring up an extended menu - so in effect there are four menus to check!

The Forward as Attachment button might just be called Forward.  Particularly for email apps on a phone with limited screen size the Forward as Attachment button might just be labelled "Forward". In the Nine app, for example, you select the email message you wish to forward from the list of email messages, tap the More Options icon at the top of the screen, and select the "Forward" option and the email message will be forwarded as an attachment. (Note that if you open an email message in Nine and tap "Forward" that forwards inline - not as an attachment - so there are two buttons on different menus with the same name which perform different functions!)

Some options might be missing on the phone version of an app. If you access your email system on the web using a phone, some less frequently used options might (to save space on the small screen) be missing from some menus. If you can't find the Forward as Attachment option on any of the menus available when using your phone, try accessing your email system from a computer -  or tick the "use desktop version" option if available to force the display on the phone to be the full screen layout normally used for computers.   

Switch off any "organise by thread" option. Having to skip over quoted emails when reading a chain of correspondence can be a but tiresome so many email systems have an "organise by thread" option which, if selected, causes emails which are considered to be in the same "thread" to be displayed together. The idea is to present each reply in chronological sequence with the full quotations of emails within other emails being suppressed to avoid duplication (the emails are not actually altered but the display suppresses duplicate material when this option is selected). This sounds like a good idea to make life easier because you can just read through in sequence and not be presented with duplicates, but it does not always work well in practice because the detection of which emails are to be considered to be in the same thread is not always accurate. It can also be confusing when you are trying to locate an individual email together with a menu with a Forward as Attachment button. So you may need to switch off any "organise by thread" option.

Disclaimer

The information on this page about specific computer techniques is provided for information purposes only. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate and up to date at the time it was written but no responsibility for its accuracy, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by me. You should satisfy yourself, before using any of the techniques, software or services described, that the techniques are appropriate for your purposes and that the software or service is reliable.

This page was lasted updated in September 2025. Disclaimer