Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@baali
Created May 8, 2012 08:32
Show Gist options
  • Save baali/2633554 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save baali/2633554 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Python script to download all gmail attachments.
# Something in lines of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/348630/how-can-i-download-all-emails-with-attachments-from-gmail
# Make sure you have IMAP enabled in your gmail settings.
# Right now it won't download same file name twice even if their contents are different.
import email
import getpass, imaplib
import os
import sys
detach_dir = '.'
if 'attachments' not in os.listdir(detach_dir):
os.mkdir('attachments')
userName = raw_input('Enter your GMail username:')
passwd = getpass.getpass('Enter your password: ')
try:
imapSession = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL('imap.gmail.com')
typ, accountDetails = imapSession.login(userName, passwd)
if typ != 'OK':
print 'Not able to sign in!'
raise
imapSession.select('[Gmail]/All Mail')
typ, data = imapSession.search(None, 'ALL')
if typ != 'OK':
print 'Error searching Inbox.'
raise
# Iterating over all emails
for msgId in data[0].split():
typ, messageParts = imapSession.fetch(msgId, '(RFC822)')
if typ != 'OK':
print 'Error fetching mail.'
raise
emailBody = messageParts[0][1]
mail = email.message_from_string(emailBody)
for part in mail.walk():
if part.get_content_maintype() == 'multipart':
# print part.as_string()
continue
if part.get('Content-Disposition') is None:
# print part.as_string()
continue
fileName = part.get_filename()
if bool(fileName):
filePath = os.path.join(detach_dir, 'attachments', fileName)
if not os.path.isfile(filePath) :
print fileName
fp = open(filePath, 'wb')
fp.write(part.get_payload(decode=True))
fp.close()
imapSession.close()
imapSession.logout()
except :
print 'Not able to download all attachments.'
@Saifriyami
Copy link

Dears
usful code to check old pictures, thanks, however
When I ran the code it printed the email username and did not do anything more.

@nickgreen43
Copy link

This is awesome! Thank you

@chaohuichen
Copy link

Hi,
Does anyone find this repo working? I think I am stuck with the login that throws me exception

typ, accountDetails = imapSession.login(userName, passed)

can anyone help?

thank you

@kngeno
Copy link

kngeno commented Apr 3, 2021

Hi @chaohuichen,

Have you tried this? https://gist.github.com/kngeno/5337e543eb72174a6ac95e028b3b6456

Also from @x011on flagging particular emails
https://gist.github.com/x011/d6c346debe22f5fec9e4499643ae1050

Hi,
Does anyone find this repo working? I think I am stuck with the login that throws me exception

typ, accountDetails = imapSession.login(userName, passed)

can anyone help?

thank you

@chaohuichen
Copy link

Hi @chaohuichen,

Have you tried this? https://gist.github.com/kngeno/5337e543eb72174a6ac95e028b3b6456

Also from @x011on flagging particular emails
https://gist.github.com/x011/d6c346debe22f5fec9e4499643ae1050

Hi,
Does anyone find this repo working? I think I am stuck with the login that throws me exception
typ, accountDetails = imapSession.login(userName, passed)
can anyone help?
thank you

Thank you @kngeno. the second gist link works!

@os835
Copy link

os835 commented Dec 27, 2022

Trying this in 2022 and always getting the 'Not able to download all attachments.' error. I read that in May 2022 google does not give the options to allow access to less secure apps, which fixed the problem for other users here. Does anyone know how to make this work in 2022?

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

@giorgiberia
Copy link

Trying this in 2022 and always getting the 'Not able to download all attachments.' error. I read that in May 2022 google does not give the options to allow access to less secure apps, which fixed the problem for other users here. Does anyone know how to make this work in 2022?

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

If mail is something like test@test.com
Less secured app option is still available

For mails like anything@gmail.com you should use "app password"

@os835
Copy link

os835 commented Dec 27, 2022

Thanks for the reply! For App password, would I just use it in place of the regular password in the script above?

I tried that but am still getting the same issue.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment