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Question

Can't open emails

Oct 9, 2013 1:25AM PDT

My daughter is sending a photo from Italy and I am getting an error message that Windows Photo Viewer does not support the format (.DAT). I don't believe Windows Photo Viewer is my photo viewing program , it is Windows Live Photo Gallery. In the same document I am getting a code type message trying to open a .txt file. However I have received an email from her just fine. I have tried opening these things with other programs but get the same message: The format is not supported. Does this have to do with an overseas issue? (I am in the U.S.).

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: can't open a picture
Oct 9, 2013 1:42AM PDT

I'd ask her to send it as .jpg, not as .dat. .dat is used as meaning "some data", and no program will even try to open it as a picture. All you can do yourself first: save it to your hard disk and rename it from xxx.dat to xxx.jpg (xxx meaning the filename before that dot). But that only works if the content of the file is correct, but it's just the name that's wrong.

Since you don't tell what message you get when opening that text file nor with what program you open it, it's impossible to comment about that. Does it mean you can't open it, or is it just a warning?

Kees

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Answer
.DAT is not a photo file type but .TXT is for text
Oct 9, 2013 1:47AM PDT

Every camera I've ever seen creates photos in .JPG format. There're other types that could be used, but .DAT is a generic type for varying forms of data which differs from product to product. I suspect you'r daughter attached the wrong thing to her email. .TXT is for plain text which you should be able to open with Notepad or Wordpad - standard programs in every Windows version since 95. If you can't open a .TXT file from an email, try saving it to a folder, then double-click it to open it. That should bring it up in Notepad. If you still get an error doing this, please post the exact error back here so we can examine it.
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Good luck.