# About Base64

**URL:** <https://forum.mautic.org/t/about-base64/24955>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [August 4, 2022, 3:51am UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/about-base64/24955 "2022-08-04T03:51:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![techbill](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/techbill/32/8325_2.png) [@techbill](https://forum.mautic.org/u/techbill)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2022, 3:51am UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/about-base64/24955/1 "2022-08-04T03:51:45Z")

</div>

We send out newsletter weekly and last week we decided to switch over to Base64. Reason for switching over because majority of our subscribers are our organization members which all use Outlook and Outlook intends to disable images due to tracking pixel which is to be expected.

With Base64, it loads all images which it great but it still prompt users to download image due to tracking pixel which is fine as long regular images are loaded upon arrival to their inbox.

Today after our recent newsletter sent out, we are getting information from few of our subscribers that they are seeing about 120 attachments. We inquired which email client etc and it turn out they are using online gmail then when we ask which browser, they haven’t gotten back to us with the answer yet.

We know Base64 is sort of an attachment however we have like total of 7 images in email which is only one header and rest are a small logo and small social icons.

We are going to look to see what can cause it to display 120 attachments and we wanted to ask in here what should we ask them and what to look for while investigating this strange 120 attachments occurrence so any feedback will be greatly appreciated!

We will be sure to post results if we discovered any on here.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![techbill](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/techbill/32/8325_2.png) [@techbill](https://forum.mautic.org/u/techbill)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2022, 11:32pm UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/about-base64/24955/2 "2022-08-04T23:32:30Z")

</div>

We believe we discovered it and we posted about it on github

> <https://github.com/mautic/mautic/issues/11381>
>
> \### Mautic Version
> 
> 4.4.x series
> 
> \### PHP version
> 
> 7.4.+
> 
> \### What browsers are …you seeing the problem on?
> 
> Not relevant
> 
> \### What happened?
> 
> After switching to Base64, we were informed by several of our subscribers that they are receiving our newsletter with hundreds of attachments when we only have 7 or 8 images in the message body. 
> 
> One header image, small logo, and several social icons is all that in the message body. 
> 
> By looking in the email source we can see that there are over 140 attachment images that are not in the message body but it all seem to be a small image. 
> 
> I have attached a copy/paste from the email source just the bottom part of the email source with all those image attachment for your reviews and none of those images were added in by us or exist on message body but it showing up as an attachment for numbers of our subscribers (seeing 140 paperclip icons across the screen etc.)
> 
> 
> 
> \[email-source.txt\](https://github.com/mautic/mautic/files/9263371/email-source.txt)
> 
> 
> 
> \### How can we reproduce this issue?
> 
> Step 1: Enable \`Convert image to Base64\` under Configuration - Email Setting
> Step 2: Send out email with a couple of image or social gif icons etc to yourself
> Step 3: Review email source to see if there exist a numerous of invisible image attachments. 
> 
> 
> \### Relevant log output
> 
> \`\`\`shell
> Nothing shown in log seems to be related to this issue.
> \`\`\`
> 
> 
> \### Code of Conduct
> 
> \- \[X\] I confirm that I have read and agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct