Gmail seems to have deleted the attachment of an email I had sent to myself a while after I sent it. The reason Gmail hints at is that the file is detected as a virus (it's not): is there any way to get access to that file?
The "Learn more" link redirects me to https://support.google.com/mail/answer/25760?hl=en&ctx=mail, which says:
What happens if a virus is found?
If Gmail detects a virus on an attachment, we reject the message and
notify the sender. If a message that’s already in your account has an
infected attachment, you won’t be able to download it.If an attachment you're trying to send is infected with a virus, Gmail
will display an error message to tell you, but it won't clean the
file. To send the message without that attachment, click the link in
the error message that says Remove attachment and send.If Gmail detects that you're trying to send an infected attachment,
try running your anti-virus software in case your hard drive is
infected. If you don't have anti-virus software, you might consider
purchasing or installing one of the popular applications so you can
protect your computer and information from viruses.
If I try to forward the email, I cannot forward the attachment:
Is there anyway I can retrieve access to my file?
Best Answer
You can download it by retrieving a back up of your email account with Google takeout. Note that you can select which labels you want to download, so no need to download your entire Gmail account. Also, it usually takes a few hours for Google to prepare the archive (depending on the size of your Gmail account).
The back up of your email account is a
.mbox, that you can open using Thunderbird + importexporttools addon. Windows MBox Viewer didn't work for me as my 1.4 GB .mbox file seemed to be too large for it (1.4 GB).