Finally someone figured it out. i stopped using opera Long Ago because of this...incredible no one at opera reads these forums and answers these or has this info in the help file.
so better yet go into privacy and security and under automatic downloads and add Gmail .Com
why on EARTH opera would have this by default is infuriating.....you want peeps to use your browser....why annoy hundreds of millions of gmail users by not letting them download attachments.