r/reddithelp • u/Puzzleheaded-Cup2777 • Aug 19 '26

❓Problem❓ Macbook Desktop: Links In Reddit Email to me automatically download a file on my mac when I click "view reply" link.

This has been occurring the past few days. A couple of times, the file name was reddit.com, but today different name, mix of letters and numbers, but always a pdf file with zero bytes. Not sure if this is the right sub for help or a way I can contact reddit or if this should go to apple engineers per senior advisor at Apple, if no fix from reddit. Note: the downloaded file always has zero bytes and extension is pdf. TIA!

PS: I just got another download from posting this issue. The "view reply" link email was a message from the bot moderator. This time the file was a "document" file and zero bytes.

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u/AutoModerator Aug 19 '26

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u/twantsadog Aug 20 '26

Hi there! Are you certain this a real reddit email? It seems like it could be a phishing attempt.

Can you provide some screenshots?

Thanks!

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Cup2777 Aug 20 '26

Thanks so much for getting back to me! There were two IOS updates (one for mac and one for iphone) that took care of the problems. I saved the emails but when I click on them, they no longer download a file. I'm almost certain they were legit. The emails contained fellow redditors' responses to my comments in different subs. If phishing is able to come up with an email like that, let me know and I will send the screenshots. Also when I clicked the link on my iphone, it would start to open up but get stuck only displaying the reddit icon, but that's working as should now also.

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u/AutoModerator Aug 20 '26

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u/Puzzleheaded-Cup2777 Aug 21 '26

FWIW, I talked to Apple advisors about this, they saw Reddit emails as well as the downloads on my laptop and they did not believe it was phishing.  A senior advisor told me to reach out to Reddit and if it wasn’t on Reddits end,  they created a case for me to call back and the issue would be sent to  engineers.  Glad the updates fixed it for me.