How to keep attachments at the bottom in Apple Mail

Updated October 2026

When you write, choose Edit › Attachments › Always Insert Attachments at End of Message, and Mail puts the files you attach at the end. When you read, Apple Mail shows images and one-page PDFs inside the message, and the only setting Apple documents works one attachment at a time: Control-click it and choose View as Icon. There's no switch that keeps attachments out of the text for good.

When you write

Every message: choose Edit › Attachments › Always Insert Attachments at End of Message. A checkmark shows it's on.
Just this message: choose Edit › Attachments › Insert Attachments at End.
For people on Windows: Edit › Attachments › Always Send Windows-Friendly Attachments.

These settings decide where files sit in the message you send. How it looks on the other end still depends on the mail app the other person uses.

When you read

One attachment: Control-click the image or PDF in the message and choose View as Icon. To get the preview back, Control-click it and choose View in Place.
Which files show inside the text: images and one-page PDFs. Other files already appear as icons.
A quick look without opening: select the attachment and press Space.

The Terminal command, and why it may not help

Most guides give this command, which is meant to show attachments as icons in every message:

defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool yes

Apple doesn't document it, the advice dates back to 2013, and many people say it no longer does anything. The latest report we found, from December 2025 on macOS 26.1, says it didn't work. If you want to try it, quit Mail first, run it in Terminal, then open Mail again. To undo it:

defaults delete com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing

Even when it worked, it only changed how attachments look on your Mac, not where they sit or what other people see.

Why Apple Mail does this

Every file in an email is marked either to show inside the text or to wait as an attachment, and the mail app reading it decides how to draw it. Apple Mail draws images and one-page PDFs where they are in the text, and when you write, it puts a file wherever you drop it. Other mail apps can show the same message differently, which is why your message may look different to the person who gets it.

Attachments that always stay at the bottom

We make Lambda Mail, a Gmail app for Mac that started from this one rule.

Reading: every attachment waits in a tray under the message. Click to select, press Space for Quick Look, double-click to open, drag it to your desktop, or Save All. Only pictures that are part of an email's own design, like the logo in a newsletter, stay in the text.
Writing: drop or paste a file anywhere in a new message and it lands in the tray, never in your text.
Sending: files go out marked as attachments, not as part of the text, so most mail apps list them as attachments too.

A Lambda Mail reply with a PDF dragged over its text: the window shows Drop to attach, and the message's three files wait in the tray behind it.

Lambda Mail works with Gmail and Google Workspace on macOS 14 and later, and the beta is free. iCloud and Outlook are on the roadmap.

Join the beta ›

More guides

Sources: Apple's Mail User Guide, Add attachments to emails and View attachments; Apple Community, the command on macOS 26.1 (December 2025) and on macOS 13 (May 2023); RFC 2183, the standard that marks files inline or as attachments.