Gmail Will No Longer Let Users Attach .js Files

People attach all kinds of things to their emails. Depending on your job or the email, this can range from anything like PDFs, image files, movie clips, Word documents, spreadsheets, PowerPoint slides, and so on. In the case for some users, such as developers, attaching JavaScript files every now and then probably isn’t that uncommon.

Unfortunately if that describes you, you might be interested to learn that come 13th of February, Google has announced that Gmail will no longer support .js files, which for those unfamiliar are basically files containing JavaScript code. According to Google, it seems that this is for security reasons although they don’t really explain why, although we suspect that maybe the rise in ransomware could be a reason why.

“Gmail currently restricts certain file attachments (e.g. .exe, .msc, and .bat) for security reasons, and starting on February 13, 2017, we will not allow .js file attachments as well. Similar to other restricted file attachments, you will not be able to attach a .js file and an in-product warning will appear, explaining the reason why.”

As Google stated above, .js files will join a list of other files that users can’t send as an attachment over Gmail. However Google says that if you really do need to share a .js file, they recommend that you use Google Drive or some other form of cloud storage that you can share with the other person.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: GMail, Google, Security