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I am trying to send an email from gmail to another email account owned by me, but when I try to attach a file that Google identifies as a virus (it is a false positive) it says "Virus Detected!" and won't let me send it.

I could try uploading it to my Google Drive, but is there a way for me to actually email it? I already tried changing the file extension to .txt and zipping it into an archive, and it didn't help. Similarly, using nested archives doesn't work either, saying:

We're sorry. You can't access this item because it is in violation of our Terms of Service.

If you would like to test a solution, a harmless executable with a false positive may be found on this page: Non Stick Mouse in corners of Windows 10. The installer executable (first download) is the file I cannot attach. The file gives a false positive on VirusTotal. There is numerous discussion in the comments on the linked page of why that is. If you are paranoid, there is a link to the source code on that page as well.

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    How about compressing the file encrypted (i.e. with a password) so that Google cannot extract and scan it?
    – Fred Qian
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 2:57
  • You could also use certutil in batch
    – Mark Deven
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 3:31
  • Zipping it twice (or using any other compression method) might work too, google looks inside zip files, but I doubt it will look in nested zip files 2,3,5... 10 layers deep
    – Xen2050
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 3:41
  • @Xen2050 It saw it two deep.
    – mbomb007
    Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 13:30

1 Answer 1

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As others have say you may need to zip and password the file so google won't automatically decrypted and scan it.

You can upload your file to google drive. Then open and email. Click the google drive icon and attach it to the email that way.

google drive icon by arrow

enter image description here Sending sending Receiving Recieving

Downloading: Downloaded

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  • They don't scan files uploaded to google drive for viruses with the same method that gmail scans them? Or gmail doesn't scan files from google drive at all?
    – Xen2050
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 3:43
  • The scanner can behave differently. Files >25mb have to be attached via google drive no matter what. Files over 100mb,I think, are not scanned at all.
    – cybernard
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 3:49
  • Interesting (ps I didn't downvote, was just wondering how google does things. I'll upvote if does works, but don't have a virus to test it with)
    – Xen2050
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 4:07
  • @Xen2050 I added a link to a non-virus file you can test with.
    – mbomb007
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 14:38
  • @mbomb007 Thanks, was thinking of finding a test file. But did that file work for you, uploading it to google drive was ok, then attaching to gmail?
    – Xen2050
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 20:42

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