Just as attachments are a vital part of everyday email, they are also fundamental to RT. Whether you are a working with a user sending a screenshot showing an error or exchanging a spreadsheet with accounting to track your new hardware order, we work with them all the time. Recognizing this, we've made several improvements to how RT interacts with attachments. Read on for details or just watch this video.
To start, if you type some variation of the word "attachment" into the comment/reply box, RT will gently remind you to actually attach something, just like your email client does. To add those attachments, you can now drag files from your desktop and drop them in the attachment area below the comment box. If you prefer using the file selection dialog, you can click on the attachment box and then select your files. In either mode, you can now select multiple attachments to quickly add them all at once.
We've updated the attachment handling once you've selected them as well. Once attached, you'll see a small thumbnail preview so you can be sure you have selected the correct attachments. We also start uploading the attachment in the background the moment you pick it. Previously we would wait until the entire page was submitted, which could cause a delay with large attachments. Now we get a head start while you are finishing up your changes, which will make for a quicker submit once you're done.
![Attachments on Ticket Create]](http://static.bestpractical.com/blog/whats-new-in-4.4/attachment_preview-shadow.png "Attachments on Ticket Create")
As you continue to work on a ticket, sometimes you'll want to reuse an attachment already on a ticket. For example, someone replies with an attachment and you want someone not on the ticket to also see it, so you want to send it along. Now you can select from the attachments already on the ticket rather than grabbing a copy from your desktop.
Finally, we've added the ability to store attachments in external file storage solutions. By default, attachments are stored in the database, which for most installations isn't a problem. However, some users work with a large number of very large attachments, which can disproportionately grow the size of the database and its backups. You can move attachment storage to standalone files on your server or to Amazon S3 or Dropbox. You can find more information on this new feature in the configuration documentation and with the feature documentation.
If you missed some other posts on the new features in RT 4.4, you can find more in the new feature overview.