Why can't I right click the preview of an attachment to save it any longer?

Question

Why can't I right click the preview of an attachment to save it any longer?

Thad 5

For years and years you could preview the attachment, then right click and save the document with the title and in the folder you choose. I got on to do my work yesterday to find that has changed and right clicking doesn't do anything at all. Why would that change be made? It makes it very cumbersome to save docs and then have to go to the folder to open those docs, instead of it being in the downloads on the tab bar.

Please help me with a fix or work around.

2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Hello Thad. In Outlook.com (Web) - you can't right-click to save attachments directly from the preview pane. This is because of a change to the design of the built-in viewer. Microsoft has now taken a different approach by using a lightweight rendering engine. This lightweight rendering engine focuses on performance and securing your data and it can no longer display a right-click context menu while previewing an attachment. This is intentional and applies to common file types such as PDFs and Word files. You can always still preview attachments in Outlook on the web, however, but if you want to save the file - you must now either click the download icon, or click on the name of the attachment, click to open the dropdown menu and select the "Download" option, and then preview it after downloading.

To save an attachment quickly/efficiently you may follow below

Hover over the attachment in the email.

Now click the down arrow next to the file name.

Now click download - and that will now save the file directly to your device.

This change is in keeping with Microsoft's ongoing interface design standards for Outlook on the web and allows for a streamlined ways of handling attachments whilst maintaining your digital security.

Here's the reference: Right-Click Doesn't Work with PDF Attachments in Outlook

Best regards,

Kathy P 5 Reputation points

2025-08-09T10:59:52.26+00:00

this is absolutely RIDICULOUS. It's making more work downloading to a separate folder and then having to remember to go back into that folder and move your files to where you need them to be saved. Not efficient, not saving me any time, not making anything better. This alone will make me stop using outlook on the web.
Royal 0 Reputation points

2025-08-28T20:00:36.81+00:00

I agree, this is slowing me down on what I do as well. I use the online version because it sped up what I was doing. Now all this co pilot stuff is slowing me down also.

What is strange, I lost the right click function a couple months ago and I made some adjustments to work with it. 2 weeks ago, it came back (I was excited/happy) and I had to relearn the old way. TODAY-I lost the right click function AGAIN, just out of the blue. *** microsoft. Stop messing with us.

Answer 2

Hornblower409-4652 1,460

Is there a reason you are using Outlook Web instead of the New Outlook for Windows App? Which has a "Save As" choice on the attachment drop-down.
https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nrx63209r7b?hl=en-US&gl=US

Kathy P 5 Reputation points

2025-08-10T11:17:26.5133333+00:00

yes, there is a reason. I like to be able to jump between open tabs in my browser to view my mail as I'm working. I don't like having to go out of my web browser into a separate program to view my mail. It's probably a hold over habit from using gmail, but I find it's much easier just to have a tab open in my browser with my inbox than back out to go into a separate program.

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Why can't I right click the preview of an attachment to save it any longer?

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