2) sometimes saved Outlook attachment have their original file date,
sometimes (mostly) they get today's date
I can confirm Outlook definately is inconsistent with saving
attachments' original date. I have had a very similiar problem and
found a workaround (imperfect at that):
Similiar problem: My colleague and I both work for the same company,
on the same network, have the same model laptop, the same WinXP SOE
(standard operating environment), the same versions of MS Office 2003
SP3 and even the same email. And yet, when he saves an attachment from
an email to the file system, it seems to always have the original
file's date. But when I do the same, the file's date is always set to
the current time. Furthermore, if I try to overwrite the saved file by
repeating the Save Attachment procedure with the same file, the
Windows 'Confirm File Replace' dialog shows the second file's date as
"(unknown date and size)".
Workaround: By fluke, I discovered that if I save the attachment by
selecting File / Save Attachment from the menubar, and rename the file
(a one letter change or addition is enough) within the 'Save
Attachment' dialog window, the saved file magically receives its
original file date (rather than the current date).
Conclusion: Seems to be a bug in Outlook. What is going on
Microsoft!!!???
I hope the workaround helps anyone frustrated by the issue!
Are there any means to force Outlook to save attachment files with date /
time when message was received for easier sorting?
PS As for your other original question about saving with the date
received, if you can't find a solution with an Add-in or the like you
could always program a solution with a VBA macro (if you're keen -
sorry I'm not).